Quote:
Originally Posted by Jellby
... or ... if you buy a 2nd class train/plane ticket and then find out that there are many/some/a few 1st class seats free, do you change seat and go to 1st class? Do you think it should be allowed? Would it be fair? (I'm talking only of changing seat, not of benefitting from 1st class meals or whatever).
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It would be fair for the
transportation line to decide that "coach" passengers could sit in an empty 1st class seat, if available... it is their choice to make. (It would also be their choice to offer the seat, if you were willing to pay extra for it.) The point is, it is not up to the passenger to determine that. Even if the seat is empty, if it is something you did not pay for, you have no right to expect access to it. Unless there is a 1st class seat for every "coach" traveler, allowing just anyone who feels appropriately deserving to take a better seat will be unfair to somebody else who couldn't get a better seat.
Think of the concept of the "baker's dozen': A baker can give an extra pastry to a customer, for free, in order to make that customer happy and encourage future purchases. The baker has the right to offer it, and they would do so only out of charity or magnanimosity, not out of any sense of duty to give someone something they didn't pay for. But the customer has no right to expect extra, nor to deny payment, or throw a rock through the baker's window, in punishment for not receiving extra. The customer does have the right to shop elsewhere, or to not buy pastries at all, and it is up to the baker to care one way or the other.