Newark-LA and back recently

Much fewer families than usual for that leg at end of summer. Seemed like few seniors, as I recall, but I didn’t really think about it and am not sure if it was fewer than usual.

Both flights were “full” - in the no strangers occupying middle seats sense. One surprise - on the return they changed our seats at the gate to squeeze our family into 4 seats (taking a middle with 3 of us across one side of the plane), to open up another seat for someone else (5 in the row of 6, 1 empty seat separating the stranger). We expected to have a full row with 6 seats, so the surprise was a bit annoying, but there was clearly no point in arguing so we rolled with it.