A man has been left outraged after a woman refused to get up to let him out of his seat to use the toilet during an eight hour flight before complaining about him making her feel ‘uncomfortable’
A plane passenger has shared his turmoil after an ‘entitled’ woman refused to budge to let him out of his window seat during a gruelling eight-hour flight. The 40-year-old man explained on Reddit how he always pre-books the window spot for added comfort due to his size, clarifying that although he’s overweight, he doesn’t require two seats.
His latest trip left him in a quandary when a woman refused to move to let him pass for toilet breaks. Explaining the awkward predicament, he wrote: “I just got off a long flight, the kind where even the comfiest seats feel like torture racks. The flight attendant assigns a woman to the middle seat. Nice person, we exchanged greetings, no problem. Here’s where things get tricky. Nature called a couple of times during the flight, and let’s just say squeezing by in that cramped space is an exercise in contortionism at the best of times.”
He continued detailing his ordeal: “The woman in the middle seat politely refused to get up whenever I needed to use the restroom. The lady in the aisle seat was very accommodating and would get up any time either I or the lady in the middle needed to get up.”
While sympathetic to the inconvenience caused by repeatedly standing to allow others through, he believes it comes with the territory while using public transport. “Now, I get it. Nobody wants some sweaty dude brushing past them. I tried my best to minimize contact, literally sucked in my gut and held my breath like I was underwater . But even with all the contorting, there was some unavoidable brushing past.
“At the end of the flight, the woman makes a passive-aggressive comment about ‘personal space’ and how uncomfortable I made her feel throughout the flight. Honestly, I felt terrible. Didn’t mean to make her feel that way, but what else was I supposed to do? Hold it for eight hours? Ask her to physically get up? Since she repeatedly didn’t get up and indicated I should squeeze by, I had no reason to think she was too bothered by it.”
In search of validation or advice, he’s voiced his concerns on social platforms, triggering a wave of responses. One user bluntly commented: “You’re nicer than me, my response would have been: ‘Ma’am you refused to get up, so my only options were to either encroach on your personal space or pee on you. I’m sorry you feel I chose the wrong option’.”
Another chipped in saying: “Big guy here myself. Just wondering why you chose the window seat? I usually book an isle seat, because it gives me space towards the isle. The only problem is that sometimes you get bumped by the trolley, but that’s not too bad.” Whereas a third chimed in with a dig at the nature of air travel: “If she was so concerned with personal space she shouldn’t have gotten on an airplane.”
