This Redditor was on a nine-hour flight from Rome to New Jersey. She paid for a window seat to catch up on sleep, but a middle-aged couple thought they could grab what was hers!
A Tiring Long-Haul Flight
OP (Original Poster) is a 26-year-old woman who had just returned from a trip to Europe. The day before this story was posted, she was on a nine-hour flight from Rome, Italy, to New Jersey.
Back to the Grind
The next day, she had to get back to work. So, she picked and paid for a window seat so she could easily sleep the whole time to prepare for work when she returned.
Interrupted Sleep
She sat on her seat, buckled in, and immediately got ready to shut her eyes for some much-needed rest. However, she couldn’t, as a middle-aged man who was around 45 years old tapped her on the shoulder and asked her to switch seats.
He asked OP, “You wouldn’t want to switch seats with my girlfriend, would you?”
No, Thank You!
OP looked and saw that the seat was in the “middle of the middle aisle.” She knew it would be impossible to get some sleep there.
So, she politely said no and explained that she’d like to keep the seat she’d initially chosen and paid for.
Poor Planning
If it had been a child, OP would 100% give up her seat for them. However, it wasn’t the case this time.
She shared, “These were two middle-aged people. They definitely could have bought seats next to each other if they really wanted to, but instead got random ones and hoped people would switch.”
If Looks Could Kill
OP stayed in her seat, and the man’s girlfriend, who also looked around 45, kept standing up every hour to glare at OP several rows away from where she sat.
Insensitive Wake-up Call
When the woman realized OP wasn’t paying attention to her, she switched up her tactics. She came over to her boyfriend’s seat, sat on his lap, and talked “very, very loudly.”
This woke OP up five separate times!
Blocked off Ears
OP noted that the lights were already out in the cabin at this point, and everyone else was trying to sleep. Flight attendants kept trying to make her go back to her seat, but she refused to listen and just continued to sit in her boyfriend’s lap.
You Ruined Everything!
When they landed and were deboarding, the woman winds up behind OP. She then loudly started talking “s***” about her for not switching seats.
She also accused OP of ruining her nine-hour flight!
She’s a Cheapskate
However, OP stressed that the woman was already 45. Her seat was in a “much cheaper area” than hers, and she and her boyfriend could have easily bought seats next to each other.
It was their fault they ended up in random seats, especially since they didn’t want to spend money.
Their SOP
OP shared that while they were flying, the man told her that he and his girlfriend didn’t sit next to each other on their first flight either.
She wrote, “So this lack of planning seems to be their usual move.”
Throwing a Fit
OP wants to know if she was a jerk for not switching seats. However, she believed it was her right to sit in the one she paid for.
Overall, she doesn’t understand why the middle-aged woman was “throwing a hissy fit” over her own choice of seats.
If Things Were Different
OP again emphasized the fact that she’d gladly give up her seat if it were a child and a parent separated. She wrote, “I probably would have done it due to the flight being nine hours.”
Even so, OP doesn’t think the couple’s “lack of planning” and choice of cheaper seats should be her problem. She added, “I don’t get why I was in the wrong for wanting to sit in my seat.”
The Community’s Pieces of Advice
A woman in the community explained that this should be a lesson everyone learns when it comes to public transport, common courtesy, and more.
She said, “Not the a**hole. People shouldn’t be shocked when someone doesn’t want to switch their good seat for a crappy cheaper-fare middle seat. And that couple knew that because they also could have offered the guy’s nice aisle seat to one of the passengers next to the woman if they wanted to sit together so badly.”
The woman also zoomed in on how inappropriate the woman’s actions were, saying, “The woman’s behavior was completely inappropriate. She was purposely trying to annoy or punish you by sitting on her boyfriend’s lap—I mean, what the f***—and talking loudly.”
The Fault of Today’s Airline Companies
People also pointed out that airlines are all after profit, and they’re the ones in the wrong if we look at the bigger picture.
One said, “To a certain extent, the a**hole is the commercial flight industry since a lot of airlines now charge an extra fee for aisle and window seats, making it impossible for two people to sit next to each other without paying more for at least one of their seats.”
The same person added, “That said, OP was in no way the a**hole for keeping the seat they did pay for within the s***** constraints that the airline industry put them in. The lady was 100% the a**hole for taking it out on OP when they just wanted to sleep during an international flight.”
Would you give up your seat? Do you think the woman went too far?
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This post first appeared as She Refused to Give Up Her Paid Window Seat to an Entitled Middle-Aged Couple Who Wanted to Sit Beside Each Other. Furious, They Made Her Nine-Hour Flight Hell! on Quote Ambition.
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