I’ve always been one who likes to know how people “tick.”

I remember being in college and we learned about how people with different personalities tended to sit in specific places in a classroom. People who liked to learn, if given a choice, usually sat towards the front of the room. People with less interest in learning, OR who considered themselves the “cool kids,” usually chose to sit in the back of a classroom. People who tended to daydream would sit near the window, while practical and action-oriented students would choose sitting in an aisle.

But then there were always the “other” reasons for sitting in certain places. As a short person, I always chose to sit in the front row so I wouldn’t have to worry about seeing over another student’s head. A kid with a broken leg might temporarily choose an aisle seat to make room for their cast. And if seats were very close together, someone who’s left-handed might choose their seat specifically so they don’t bump elbows with the person next to them.

It was those latter examples that I loved to learn about. Those individualized and personal stories that helped people make their decisions.

A mystery personal decision came up recently, on, of all places, the /United subreddit on Reddit.

A user posted a chart of available United First Class seats from an upcoming flight, on what was most likely an older 777-200:

And their question was,

Why would somebody book 2E?

And that, travel friends, became the big debate. Because it’s true – it’s NOT the type of seat a solo traveler would typically take. I mean sure, you DO have those people who prefer a middle seat (here’s why they like it) but of everything left, without the option of getting a window seat available, you’d think that most people would grab 2D or G, or perhaps 4B – all aisle seats (although 4B is a backwards seat).

The responses as to why this person might have taken seat 2E were fascinating.

They didn’t personally choose it

The very first response, right off the bat, was this is what happens when you p*ss off the person at work who’s handling your travel arrangements. More than one person agreed with that assessment, saying they used to be in “that” position and when they were booking travel to someone who was a PITA, that’s the type of seat they’d give them (booking a layover vs. not was another passive-aggressive move up their sleeve, as was booking them on a crappier airline).

A few also suggested that it was the work of Concur Auditor 1 (I had to look that one up. They’re a travel agency that businesses use. Apparently not one that’s well-liked by its “victims” IYKWIM).

They had good history with that seat

“The last time I sat in 2E, I won the lottery!” That (and one of the responses: “Last time in 2E, I joined the mile high club with 2 FAs”) made me giggle.

But it’s true…if something good/exciting/whatever happened a certain way, people will sometimes try to have lightning strike twice. It’s the same reason people play the same slot machine each time – cuz they won $500 on it, back in 2006.

It was randomly assigned

If someone got an upgrade and were randomly assigned 2E, they can still change it. Maybe they just didn’t get around to it yet.

Same thing if someone bought the seat but just didn’t pick where to sit yet; it would be autoassigned.

To make it easier to sleep

This was a great response – someone said they do this if they know they’re going to sleep for the entire flight. If they sit there, no one is going to try to step over them if they need to get up from their seat.

GENIUS!

It’s for a deadheading crew member

One person suggested that pilots’ contracts requires them to have a first class seat, and they tend to get center non-aisle seats like this so, like written above, it’s easier for them to sleep and no worry about getting out of someone’s way if that person wanted to get up.

They want both armrests

Based on the unwritten rules that “middle people get both arm rests, that would work.

Well, unless someone takes 2F. And then you’re gonna have to play Rock, Paper, Scissors for your arm rest on the right. 😉

They want an empty row

I suppose it’s possible…but good luck with that!

No one’s actually sitting there; it’s a contracted seat

One Redditor said it’s a contracted seat. It’s held for emergency flights for jobs like the military or other government worker. They added that DTS and SATO (travel agencies for the military) always put them in “those” sorts of seats.

No one’s actually sitting there; a travel agent bought it as a discount

Similar to it being a contracted seat, except instead of being held for the military, perhaps it’s part of an OTA’s inventory.

No one’s actually sitting there; the seat is broken

A very “out of the box” thought but yep, if the seat is broken, they would mark it as “occupied” so no one would sit in it.

Someone did suggest that broken seats are usually fixed quickly. But another said sometimes (i.e. if the video screen stops working) it takes longer than others.

What do you think?

OK, your turn – why do you think someone would’ve booked 2E?

Feature Photo (cropped): Delta News Hub / flickr / CC BY 2.0

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