People tend to swap plane seats to sit with family or because they simply favor a particular seat. While no one bats an eye in certain situations, other passengers could be bothered by their demands. Last year, an angry traveler took to Reddit to vent their frustrations over a woman who apparently had the audacity to ask for a seat swap so that she could sit with her kid. In the post, which is now deleted, the flummoxed flyer claimed that it was “not my problem they didn’t book together” when they were asked to switch seats with a mother. The anonymous traveler was on a flight to Japan- a trans-Pacific flight, to be exact- where they were sitting in a window seat while the toddler was sitting in the middle seat.
The mother of the child was in the row just behind them, also in the middle. Seemingly after some time, the mother got up and, “She asked me- and just me- to switch with her so she could have my window seat (next to her daughter) and I’d take her middle seat a row back. Hell to the f–k no.” The passenger continued to rant about this woman who wanted to swap seats by stating, “Worse is we were surrounded by others from her tour group that she could’ve asked for a three-way trade instead. Or the tour operator. The audacity to ask just me and expect an inferior trade on my side.”
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Reddit Poster Is Exasperated At The Audacity Of A Woman To Ask Them For Swapping Seats In The Plane
People who checked out this Reddit post had varying responses to OP’s post. One person, who introduced them as a “parent of a toddler”, was quite surprised that someone would want to sit next to an unaccompanied toddler. They commented, “Sure, someone else could move, but either way someone has to move or someone has to sit next to a flying toddler. I honestly don’t know which is more annoying for other passengers.” Another passenger asked, “Why were you so eager to sit next to a stranger’s toddler daughter?”
But then another commenter had a differing point of view. They claimed, “My rule of thumb is: 1. Will only change an aisle for an aisle. 2. Will never change an aisle or a window for a middle. 3. Will never change if I had to spend extra money to get my seat.” Another individual agreed to this, claiming, “I just started refusing altogether. Unless it’s for an upgrade. I’m sick of entitlement from people, and it seems elevated on planes and even more so of late. I don’t know you. I don’t generally care about you beyond reasonable human compassion. And I am certainly not responsible for your poor planning. Don’t talk to me again and go away.”
This online debate about swapping seats on the plane has simply stoked travel controversies. Redditors and TikTokers have constantly lamented about their problems in airplanes, which has sparked heated conversations about the etiquette and ethics of swapping seats. Just the previous year, an individual went pretty viral when they asked if they were in the wrong for not giving up a seat that he had paid extra for when he was approached by a mother who wanted to sit with her family. “
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Attention: These stories are based on posts found on Reddit. Reddit is a user-generated social news aggregation, web content rating, and discussion website where registered members submit content to the site and can up- or down-vote the content. The accuracy and authenticity of each story cannot be confirmed by our staff.