'AITA for not letting someone switch seats mid-flight?' 'I had been sitting there for almost 5 hours.'
"AITA for not letting someone switch seats mid-flight?"
My wife (36f) and I (34m) were flying back from Dublin to Washington DC. We were assigned the middle and window seats in a row. The aisle passenger no-showed so we ended up having the entire row to ourselves (huge win). Before leaving the gate, I moved to the aisle seat and my wife stayed at the window.
Nothing eventful happened for the first 4.5 hours of the flight. FAs were amazing and even gave us extra drinks for the “guy in the middle." Randomly, the passenger from the aisle seat across from me comes over with her friend who was sitting a few rows back...
...and ANNOUNCES that her friend would now be taking the middle seat to get away from an crying baby further back. She did not ask - she told us this was happening. There were about 3 hours of flight time remaining.
I ask the woman whether the Flight Attendants are on board with this. She said yes, but since these deals are usually brokered by the FA, I called over a FA. The FA said the agreement was that they could take an available aisle seat but could not disrupt anyone’s seating arrangements.
The woman then starts b-ing about how I was assigned the middle but then moved to the aisle before takeoff, so I shouldn’t even have that aisle seat. I had been sitting there for almost 5 hours and we had already distributed our items all over the row.
The woman and her friend disappear to talk to another FA for about 5 minutes. The woman across the aisle then comes back to her seat and proceeds to yell at me saying that “her friend would not be sitting there - not because she was not allowed to, but because I was so incredibly rude” and that I was a “f-king a-hole." I kept my eyes on the show I was watching.
The only thing I did this entire time was ask to talk to the flight attendant. I did not say anything else to this woman, though I would have liked to. AITA for not volunteering the middle seat mid-flight?
Here's what top commenters had to say about this one:
redditstopshadowban said:
You're definitely NTA here. You were assigned the middle seat initially, but it became available when the aisle passenger didn't show up. You and your wife rearranged yourselves accordingly, and it's totally reasonable for you to want to maintain the seating arrangement, especially after you'd already been settled for most of the flight.
You handled the situation calmly and respectfully by checking with the flight attendant, and you were within your rights to maintain your seat. The other passenger's behavior was inappropriate, and you shouldn't feel guilty for standing your ground.
apaw1129 said:
I'm going with the unpopular opinion here. You paid for 2 seats, not 3. You didn't ask the FA bc you wanted to "verify the rules." You asked bc you didn't want to lose your space and were hoping the FA would not permit her to move.
You were assigned a middle seat. So per the FA, the woman could have sat in the aisle seat, once you moved into your actual assigned middle seat. She's somewhat an AH as well for her attitude and rude behavior. ESH.
slinkimalinki said:
ESH. They should have asked politely, but you paid for two seats and had the benefit of three for most of the flight, and you were not actually entitled to hog all three seats while somebody else suffered.
It would have been fair to decide which of the three seats you would let her have, but refusing her a seat because her friend was rude was an asshole move, and the flight attendant shouldn't have let you do that.
PlasticLab3306 said:
YTA. I understand it wasn’t convenient and you had already spread yourselves all over the empty seat. However, technically you had only paid for one seat, so if a seat is empty and a passenger wants to move at any point during a flight (especially for a valid reason like a crying baby), they should be able to.
In this instance it sounds like you could have even chosen which seat you’d prefer (middle or isle) so that’s even better for you. So while it made sense that you called the FA (they need to know when people change seats for number of reasons), you weren’t reasonable in not immediately gathering your things so this passenger could be accommodated.
GingerPrince72 said:
NTA. You did the right thing. God, travellers can be the worst.
ImNotAtAllCreative81 said:
ESH. Her rudeness and entitlement means that she sucks, of course. But you suck here, too. You're entitled to your seat, not your row. This would have been the time to move back to where your assigned seat is.