Man sparks debate after refusing to give up plane seat for mum and children

13 July 2022, 11:53

The man has sparked debate on Reddit (stock images). Picture: Getty

The man refused to let the woman and children sit in the seats he'd booked on a plane.

A man has sparked debate after revealing he refused to give up his seat for a mum and her two kids on a plane.

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Taking to Reddit, he revealed that he'd purposely booked a window seat on a red eye flight from New York to London so he could get some sleep.

When he arrived on board, however, a woman had sat one of her children on the seat instead.

He wrote: "I was flying on a redeye flight from New York City to London. I had intentionally booked a window seat so that I could sleep on the flight, as I can only sleep on a plane with a window seat.

"When I arrive at my seat, there is a woman and her two young children (between four and five years old) sitting in the three seats in the row.

Many Reddit users sided with the man (stock image). Picture: Getty

"When I inform her that one of her kids is sitting in my seat, she says that she had booked the other two seats in the row, as well as the aisle seat in the row on the opposite side of the plane, and asked me if I would mind switching with her so that she could sit in the same row with her two children.

"I told her that I booked the window seat specifically so that I could sleep on the plane, and that I wanted to keep my seat."

The man added that the mum had 'caused a scene' and got a flight attendant involved, who requested the woman move out of his seat.

He continued: "She started to cause a bit of a scene yelling about how I wouldn't switch with her, even calling the flight attendant over to protest who informed her that they had to honour the ticket and asked her child to move. She then glared at me pretty heavily as she told her child that he had to sit on the other side of the plane for the flight."

Many users took the man's side, while also voicing sympathy for the mum.

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One person wrote: "She wasn’t the a**hole for asking but her reaction makes her the a**hole. It’s fine to ask to switch but you get what you get and you don’t throw a fit. She should have planned ahead for seating."

Another added: "If she wanted to ensure that she and her kids had three seats next to one another, then she could have paid for seat selections instead of gambling on another passenger being willing to trade."

And a third wrote: "If the child was on a completely different area of the plane then maybe it’d be different, but that’s not the case and even then you did book the seat you wanted. She sucks for making a big deal out of it and automatically assuming you’d be okay with it."