'AITA for refusing to switch seats with a kid on an 8hr flight?'
"AITA for refusing to switch seats with a kid on an 8hr flight?"
This was my second 8 hour flight on my way home from Africa via Dubai. I had booked an aisle seat so I could get up without bothering others and a special meal due to health requirements. I boarded the plane, found my seat and settled in.
A family gets on with 3 kids (they don't speak much English) and asks if I could switch seats with one of their kids so they can be together. The father of the family wasn't sat anywhere near the mother and kids, so it looked to me like they had left their seats to random assignment.
I initially said yes, thinking it was just a move across the aisle, but then realised they wanted me to switch to sit in a middle seat and I said no.
Another passenger then gets up and says he has a seat in the back that I can move to (no idea how) and I said no. I said that I had booked my seat and ordered a dietary meal, and there was no way I was moving to a middle seat.
He then starts loudly criticising me and saying he hopes I understand that I'm splitting a family up. This eventually attracts attention from the crew because it's holding up boarding.
They got a passenger on the other end of the row to switch and sit somewhere else so their kids could sit together. The other passenger from before then starts loudly saying to his kids and the family
'Do you understand what happened? She thought her seat was too special so she wouldn't let you sit together.' I told the guy to mind his own business and he responded that he wasn't talking to me. I was exhausted and sleep deprived by this point and told him to stop talking about me and just can it.
I didn't think I was in the wrong here. I organised myself beforehand and booked my seat, and felt it was quite unfair to have a random guy criticising me to half the cabin for not wanting to swap to a middle seat for an 8 hour flight. AITA?
Let's see what readers had to say.
eanyxdriver writes:
NTA. On every trip I take over the last several years, I see where families will get random middle seats, likely assigned at the airport, and try to guilt people into switching out of a more expensive aisle/window so their family can be together.
groundbreakingemu writes:
NTA I really wish airlines wouldn't allow people travelling with minors to leave it up to random seating.
So many parents think they can save a few bucks by choosing this option and just making it everyone else's problem once they get on the plane. You are always nta for staying in the seat you paid for. Those parents knew exactly what they were doing when they booked.
Damn right. Dude is being a pain in the a%$ and blaming OP for his own mistake. He should have booked his family’s seats together in the first place. OP: NTA, and good job standing your ground.
TBF, the real AH here is the airline. Airlines should do their best to keep groups together, especially if there are young children included in the booking. Unfortunately, many airlines will intentionally split up groups who choose not to pay the additional fee to pre-book their seats.