Mom asks if she was wrong to buy toddler 1st class plane seat; gets horribly insulted.
'AITA for booking my toddler a first class seat?'
My husband, toddler (almost 3) and I were flying across the country for Thanksgiving. Since we could afford it due to a nice pay raise my husband recently got, we decided to splurge on 1st class tickets for the trip.
Disclaimer: My toddler has always been a good flyer and has flown a lot throughout her short life. We follow our pediatrician recommendation to give her a dose of baby Tylenol and gripe water 30 minutes before travel and she's never been disruptive or cried on an airplane, this flight included.
She's good at staying in her seat and tells us when she a needs to go potty, food, a toy, etc. She stayed seated and quietly playing throughout the flight, only getting up when she had to go potty.
The issue was with another 1st class passenger. We boarded early since my husband is disabled and when another 1st class passenger saw us he started glaring. Shortly after he sat down a flight attendant came up and asked to see our boarding passes to make sure we were seated correctly.
We showed her our boarding passes and she was like 'cool, yall are good'. A few minutes later a second flight attendant came up and asked again to see our boarding passes. We showed them and again she was like 'cool yall are good'. We take off and all is good.
My kid fell asleep in the middle of coloring, husband is snoozing, I'm listening to music when I get a tap on my shoulder. It was the guy that glared at us as he boarded and before I could even get a word out he told me that children weren't allowed in 1st class and that we needed to move to our 'real' seats.
I realized he was probably the person that complained before takeoff that we were in the wrong seats and decided before I got upset I wanted the flight attendants to deal with this. I told him that I did not feel comfortable talking with him and that I was calling a flight attendant to come handle this.
He got flustered but ultimately stood awkwardly next to me in the aisle until a flight attendant came to clear things up. The flight attendant came and explained to him that we were in the correct seats that we paid for and asked that he sit back down and not bother us again.
He did go back to his seat but as we were getting off the plane he whispered to me that I was a 'fat cunt' and that he pays too much money for first class to be surrounded by children.
My kid was the only kid in 1st class and she didn't misbehave or even cry so at first I felt like I was in the right, but after talking to family at Thanksgiving many of them told me that we should book economy next time because people pay extra to relax in 1st class. Are we really assholes for flying 1st class with our toddler?
Here's what people had to say in the comments:
pennywhistlesmoonpie writes:
NTA. That man needed to mind his business. I do see your family’s point about people wanting to relax, but I don’t think that should bar you from treating your family now and then.
One-Criticism5777 OP responded:
I see their point as well. We also paid extra so we had the extra space and accommodations to be comfortable traveling with a toddler. I don't think anyone wants to fly with screaming babies/poorly behaved toddlers, myself included. I'm very grateful my kid is almost a better flyer than I am, at least she doesn't get anxiety lol
I also understand the immediate reaction to seeing a small kid on a plane and being like... 'oh fuck, this flight might suck'. What bothered me the most in this situation is that this guy chose to swear at me and be disrespectful. I don't really see how me being a 'fat c**t' has anything to do with his flight experience, especially since my kid was well behaved.
General_kb writes:
NTA. Even if your child did cry, it wouldn't have mattered because you paid and are entitled to the seats you paid for. there is no age limit or policy that children cant be in 1st class (that i am aware of) if they don't want to be around children/other people that bad - they should fly private.
You paid good money for your seats to be pestered by a grown up child.
Covert_Pudding writes:
NTA. I can understand why he would initially be wary and upset, but he frankly should have calmed the f down once it became apparent that your toddler was just sleeping peacefully like anyone else.
And since you know that your kid is a good flyer, there's no reason not to sit first class if you can. Though there's something about your friends' assumption that screaming babies should only be inflicted on the poors in economy that is sitting wrong with me somehow.
Aside from that, the fact that he went for the absolute lowest effort offensive remark at end tells me everything I need to know about what a sterling gentleman he is. Between your toddler and him, it's easy to tell who the most disruptive passenger was. I'm sure the attendants were thrilled to keep hearing from him.