The internet is impressed with a Reddit user who refused to swap seats with a family on a plane so they could sit together during a 10-hours flight from Greece.
The Reddit user shared a story on the forum asking people if it was insensitive of the user to not give up her seat. The post received 1,200 comments and 9,600 upvotes.
The Redditor explained how flying around this time of the year is “extremely hectic”, due to which they made advance arrangements for this flight. In fact, the man had paid a premium for his seat on the 10-hour flight and felt that he wanted to remain in his seat next to his wife who had also paid a premium for the extra legroom seat.
“My wife and I were traveling on a 10-hour flight from Europe to Asia last week,” the man wrote in his now-viral post. “We booked our tickets well in advance and also managed to book the specific seats we wanted – two seats in the first row. We paid for these seats as it was going to be a long journey and wanted the extra leg space.”
The man’s Reddit post continued, “When we boarded, there was a woman holding a baby sitting in the middle seat. This woman, before I even had a chance to put my bag in the overhead compartment, asked me ‘Can I be really cheeky and ask you to switch seats with my husband?’ She then pointed toward her husband sitting in the second row (only the first row has extra leg space and requires additional payment to book the seat). She then told me that her husband needs to be next to her to help with the baby.”
He added that “My wife stayed quiet while I politely but firmly told her that unfortunately as his seat is in a second row, I wouldn’t be moving there as I had specifically paid for the seat with extra legroom.”
Since he paid a premium for the seat, the man doesn’t think there could’ve been a scenario that would have convinced him to make a different decision. “We chose specific seats to make the journey comfortable for us,” the man said. “I’m not sure why anyone would think that a stranger would voluntarily give up a paid seat for them.”
However, the mother became furious and called a crew member over to chastise the man for failing to give up his expensive seat.
“A steward came and requested me to switch with the husband, and I had to tell him the same thing, making things quite awkward. The woman then threw daggers at me for some time. Thankfully the steward came back and told me that there were two vacant seats in one of the other first rows and offered to move us.”
The man added, “We ended up moving there but could hear this lady animatedly make comments about us to her husband from behind for some time after that. When I recounted this incident to my in-laws they said that I should have just moved as she had a baby with her and that turned into a different conversation about baby expectations. My wife agrees with me that her poor planning is not our problem and that we should have stayed out if there were no other first-row seats.”
On the forum, many applauded the user for their stand.
“If it was really about sitting together, why didn’t they ask the people 20 rows back if they’d like the better seats upfront? They’d still all be together,” said one commenter.
Another user commented, “People need to learn to take the first no graciously. They asked. You refused. That should be the end of it.”
Watch the video below for more details:
Source: AWM
