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I'm booked on a flight that departs in 36 hours and the plane is currently less than half full. Do airlines have a general rule that prohibits you from sitting in a seat other than the one you were assigned? If there is an empty aisle seat when the door gets closed, can I take it?

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It depends.

On take off and landing, weights and balances on the aircraft may be such that you are required to be seated in the seat that you are assigned - if you move around the cabin too much, it may cause issues for the aircraft.

After take off, you may be allowed to move seats - but at the end of the day, the cabin crew have final word, they do not have to allow you to move seats, they can require you to remain seated in your own seat. In many jurisdictions (including the US, under the wording of Federal Aviation Regulation 14 CFR 121.580), it is a criminal offence to disobey a lawful order given by a member of the cabin crew, so if they say "stay", you stay.

I've flown on many aircraft which were basically empty, and have had no issues with the cabin crew regarding moving seats once airborne. If in doubt, just ask a crew member and unless there is some issue you are unawares of, you will almost certainly just get a "go for it".

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    @Jan if the system needs to, it will forcibly move you on check-in. And also the crew will move you on board if necessary too.
    – user29788
    Aug 17, 2017 at 5:58
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    @Jan - with larger aircraft, the balancing is done by shifting the cargo containers below deck. It is usually only in small aircraft where seats assignments may effect balance, I have been on flights where the crew moved people to empty seats to help balance the plane out.
    – user13044
    Aug 17, 2017 at 7:31
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    @Tom I've been on 777's where rows were blocked out and people moved due to weights and balance issues.
    – user29788
    Aug 17, 2017 at 7:34
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    @Tom it can easily happen on certain routes and times of year, for example flowers get shipped around en mass which results in bulky but light cargo where the aircraft is volume restricted before weight restricted. Also, quite a few LCCs don't carry cargo, which produces a similar effect on 737 sized aircraft.
    – user29788
    Aug 17, 2017 at 7:49
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    @Moo - that is why I said usually not always in my comment about smaller aircraft. But I am getting used to this community and its ability to find exceptions to anything & everything.
    – user13044
    Aug 17, 2017 at 8:09
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I've moved many times. The only time it was even the slightest issue is when the original occupant of the seat moved away and I moved into it and some official came looking for the original occupant. I told them what happened, that was the end of it.

1) Do not move between classes. Note that the nicer seats at the front of the economy section on some airlines count as a different class for this.

2) Stay in the same row during takeoff and landing unless the flight crew says you are free to move about. (I've seen this happen on lightly loaded flights--they know there are empty rows and suggest people move to them.) I am aware of one flight (small plane) that crashed when everyone moved forward. They were more afraid of the loose alligator than the pilot screaming to move back. They should have been more afraid of the pilot screaming.

3) On a small plane stay on the same side unless you're told it's ok. Everyone moving to one side to look at something can be a problem.

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    Um...Do you have a citation for the alligator thing?? I wanna read about that!
    – Quasi_Stomach
    Aug 17, 2017 at 18:20
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    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Bandundu_Filair_Let_L-410_crash
    – mkennedy
    Aug 17, 2017 at 18:54
  • @mkennedy Oops, crocodile, not alligator.
    – Loren Pechtel
    Aug 18, 2017 at 4:24
  • @mkennedy There's no mention of the pilot screaming to move back, at which point I fully understand the passengers.
    – Dmitry Grigoryev
    Aug 18, 2017 at 7:39
  • I seem to remember a similar balancing incident with a cargo bay full of cows which weren't restrained. When the airplane accelerated and the nose lifted, the cows (naturally) started walking downhill, which didn't end so well.
    – Damon
    Aug 18, 2017 at 15:03
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Just ask.

Unless there's a reason not to, FA's will usually be fine with it. Of course they are aware of those reasons, so I would be gentle asking "why" - don't presume cruelty on their part.

It could have to do with upcoming boardings: Moving you will mean moving you back when the next passenger arrives, as well as cleaning up behind you - the FA doesn't know you're fastidiously neat.

It also may have to do with seat class: Those empty seats may be extra-legroom bulkhead or exit row seats, for which they charge extra. Moving you into them would be a "comp" they're not allowed to give you.

The scariest reason is aircraft balance. The airplane interior is a "see-saw" pivoting on the wings. When you move forward or back, the seesaw rocks. The pilots (realistically autopilot) counterbalances that with the elevator (horizontal tail) and its trim feature. Those have limits: if they are exceeded, the plane will crash. A gradual change (large airplane, bathroom queue) should be detected by the pilots; a sudden change will be too fast to fix, especially at takeoff. There's a lesser issue with left/right balance, too.

On a big airplane they can influence balance by how they load cargo, but that only works at loading time - they can't move a pallet forward inflight because your soccer team wants to spread out in the back.

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Legally, you shouldn't move. In practice, air crew don't seem to mind, and even sometimes encourage it, although it's not a bad idea to ask a flight attendant if it's alright first. (S)he will appreciate you asking.

I think it's bad manners to take an empty seat beside someone, if you haven't booked that seat. Find an empty row, or a seat that has an aisle/window and an empty seat beside it.

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    Beyond Federal Aviation Regulation 14 CFR 121.580) which does not say seat assignments by a computerised system or some ground staff counts as a FA direction, what law says you have to keep to your seat assignment?
    – user2617804
    Aug 18, 2017 at 2:17
  • We don't know for certain that the FAA regulations apply here (the original poster did not say he/she was in the US or that it was a US flight), but I understand that there are some potential issues with identifying passengers after accidents. This may be a moot point with a lot of airlines (e.g. Southwest, RyanAir, etc.) not having reserved seats for most passengers.
    – Jim MacKenzie
    Sep 29, 2017 at 22:32

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