A man has shared how he was asked to swap his paid-for plane seat with a mother so she could sit with her son – but he refused because she wouldn’t reimburse him
Being asked to shift seats on a flight can be quite an annoyance, particularly if you’ve splashed out for prime seating.
Some air carriers allow you to pick your preferred seat when you book – be that basking in a window view or savouring the bit extra leg-stretching room an aisle berth provides.
This nifty feature allows you to secure just the right seat, and if you’re jet-setting with other people, it ensures you can all cluster together, avoiding the awkwardness of sitting down next to random fellow passengers.
This doesn’t always work out, however. Occasionally, airlines don’t offer pre-booking, leaving you at the mercy of fate and whatever spots are up for grabs. Other times, they might slap a hefty fee on said reservations, tempting you to gamble on whatever the airline doles out post-check-in to save a few quid.
In these situations, you might toy with the idea of proposing a switch with another passenger, hoping to keep your group in close quarters. While popping the question is fine, steel yourself for a potential knock-back. This situation is exactly what one man grappled with upon making himself comfy in his “economy plus” seat – a luxury he shelled out extra dosh for to ensure a comfortable journey.
However, no sooner had he arranged his travel pillow than he received a plea from his mother. She implored him to swap places so that her nine-year-old son could nestle beside her.
While he would usually be open to a seat swap, the man argued that the proposed switch would land him in a far less comfortable seat, lacking the extra legroom he had paid for. It was at this point that the woman revealed her true motive for requesting his seat over others – she too wanted to enjoy the additional legroom and didn’t want to sacrifice her own comfort to sit with her son.
He shared: “I board the plane and settle into my economy plus seat. A woman approaches and asks me to change seats to 32B so her nine-year-old can sit with her. I ask how much cash she has to repay me for the money I spent on the seat, she says I’m cruel for leaving her son with anxiety sitting alone.
“I asked if she offered the person sitting next to her son her seat in economy plus, but she said she ‘needed the leg room’. I said clearly she cares more about her own comfort than her son’s well-being; if she cared, she would give up her seat and move to the back. She breaks out in a screaming wail filled with ‘HOW COULD YOU’S.'”
The man stood his ground and refused to budge, and eventually, another passenger who was delighted with his upgrade joined him, as the mum had agreed to take his seat to sit with her son.
Commenters on the post were firmly in the man’s corner regarding his seat decision. Many agreed that while the mum wasn’t wrong for asking to swap, she should have accepted his refusal without kicking up a fuss.
One individual vented frustration online, stating: “Whenever anyone is asking to swap seats, it’s always for a better one, and they always throw a fit like this to try and get what they want when told no. People like this should be removed from the plane.”
Another weary traveller commented: “Seat swappers make flying horrible for everybody else. The sheer level of entitlement they display is shocking to me.”
Additionally, the man at the centre of the incident explained that the seat next to his was “already taken” when he made his booking, suggesting the mother may have had her sights set on snagging a free upgrade through “guilting” someone into swapping seats.
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