middle seat flight

I approached the podium cautiously. I knew my chances weren’t good. But I had to try.

It was nearing midnight in the Las Vegas airport and I was waiting with the huddled masses to board a red-eye flight to Washington, D.C. The flight was overcrowded, and I’d been stuck with—you guessed it—a middle seat. Normally, I just grin and bear it in these situations but not tonight. No. Tonight I really, really didn’t want a middle seat. And I was going to do something about it.

So I approached the podium. The gate agent looked up at me. “Can I help you,” she asked.

I took a deep breath. Took my ticket and put it on the counter in front of her. Putting on my most pathetic expression, I asked simply, “is there any hope”?

“You’ve got a middle seat, right,” she asked me. I nodded.

“You know this flight is completely booked,” she said sternly. I nodded again. “Okay,” she said. “Let me see what I can do.”

“Thank you,” I blurted as she started typing things onto her computer.

After a few minutes of pressing buttons, she looked up at me. “I’m sorry,” she said, “but there’s nothing available right now that isn’t a middle seat.”

“I figured,” I said, grabbing back my ticket, “but thanks for trying,” I said, and started walking away.

“Wait,” she said. “I’ll remember your name, and if something comes up during the boarding process, I’ll let you know. There may be a few people who don’t show up.”

“Thanks,” I said again, but walked away thinking that if anything did actually come up, there’d be no way she’d remember that I wanted out of my middle seat, not with all the other million things she had to do to get the flight boarding underway.

Well, I shouldn’t have doubted. About 15 minutes later, as they’re calling the rows to board, I felt a hand grab onto my shoulder. Startled, I looked up out of my book.

It was the gate agent. “Ms. Berg,” she said with a smile, “I found something for you, a window.”

I wanted to hug her. Thanking her profusely, I took my new ticket and got onto the plane to take my window seat. I had to share this story to all you middle seaters out there who think there’s no hope—that it’s always worth asking about getting another seat. The worst they can say is no, but the best they can say is yes. You can bet I spent that plane ride looking out that window, savoring the view of the stars.