Sharp words were exchanged after a mother forced a seat swap aboard a flight so she could be situated closer to her kids. But the impacted passenger was not having it
A woman was shamed and insulted after refusing to give up her seat on a flight.
“Last month I took a flight back home after visiting my parents. Boarding time, I walked to my seat, 23A. There was already someone sitting there,” the woman explained on the subreddit Entitled People.
“I had to double-check to make sure it’s the 23rd row. Yep, I was right.”
Rather than accepting that she’d been dealt a bad hand and would be occupying another perch for the flight, the wrong passenger decided to speak up – for principle’s sake, and so she could sit in the seat she had reserved.
“So I told the lady sitting there, it’s my seat. Suddenly, a man on 23D offered me a 23E seat. It turns out they are a family, and the mother didn’t want to be separated from her children (who were in 23B and 23C), so she took my 23A,” the spurned aviator went on.
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“I was confused. It’s not like she will be long separated from her children. The children were in 23B-23C, and she and her husband were in 23D-23E—only separated by an aisle! Obviously, I refused. I specifically booked a window seat. It could help me feel at ease looking at the clouds and fall asleep.
“The seat they offered me to trade was a middle seat, 23E. Trapped between the dad (23D) and a random man (23F) in a narrow airplane seat? Nope. I feel suffocated already.”
When the woman explained that she would not accept the wrong seat, tense words erupted.
“I flatly replied, ‘No, I booked the window seat’. The mother immediately felt offended. She replied harshly ‘So you don’t mind we, a family, sitting separately?’ Well, why didn’t YOU book the right seats in the first place? Didn’t say this out loud though, I was only replaying my words ‘That’s my seat’. I was adamant with my answer.
“Finally she’s up, walking away from my seat with angry words she whispered silently towards me. I chose to not pay any attention to them. However, things changed afterwards. Her children were still sitting on the 23B and 23C seat, obviously I could not walk into my seat.
“I asked them politely to get out of their seat so I could get in. What did the mother do? She body shamed me. ‘Kids, get up. Her body is HUGE, she could not get in’.
“My height is above the women’s height average in my country, plus I gained like 10 kgs in the pandemic.”
The woman said the comments hurt her “feelings badly”. According to the passenger, the daughter apologies to her for her mother’s comments.
“The angry tirade stopped around five minutes later, when the mother told her kids to move seats a few rows away. Once more, the daughter pleaded for an apology to me. It’s crazy to think that a 12-year-old was way more emotionally mature than her entitled 40s mother. The whole time her mother spouted insults at me, the daughter looked pale and rigid. Her gaze was fixated on one spot. I assume she was very embarassed. Poor kid,” the woman concluded.