A woman has taken to Reddit to ask if she was in the wrong for refusing to give up the seat she paid extra for when a taller passenger demanded she swap to give him more leg room
When booking a plane ticket it’s usually good sense to customise your seat to meet your travel requirements, which is what one traveller opted to do.
The woman, who was taking a 12-hour flight, took to Reddit to share how she had booked her plane seats ‘months in advance’, and said: “At the time of booking I paid extra to choose my seats. The seat I chose was $55 extra and right at the front of the plane (trying to arrive somewhere on time upon landing). The seat also happened to be an extra legroom seat and I am a 4’11 female.”
She explained how everything was fine at first and said she checked in, boarded and found her seat as normal, but revealed that when “the seatbelt sign was switched off” a man came over and asked her to “change seats”.
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The woman added that she was “open to it” until she realised that his seat “was way in the back of the plane”. So she “told him no sorry” and explained that she’d paid extra to “sit up front”.
She then went on to explain that the man started to become annoyed and said: “He kind of got increasingly mad and wouldn’t leave saying that there’s no reason someone of my height needs extra legroom (I told him I paid to be upfront).
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“I suggested that he ask the other people in those seats if they could swap but he refused saying that he wouldn’t want to bother other men or split up couples.” The female traveller added that the man became “rude and angry” so she felt forced to call “over a flight attendant who told him to go sit down”.
Unfortunately, she said: “For the rest of the flight he would walk past for no reason slamming into me (I was sitting aisle).” She ended the post by asking other Reddit users if she was in the wrong and whether she should have chosen to swap with him.
Reddit users were quick to comment on her post, with many people reassuring her that she was not in the wrong and had every right to remain in the seat she paid for. One said: “So my brother is 6’6″. You know what he does when he has to fly? He makes sure to get an emergency exit row or whatever row has the extra leg room.
“He usually has to pay for it. Any tall person with a lick of common sense KNOWS they have to do this for flights. This tall person knows they will need more leg room but chose to try to get out of paying for it by getting a person to switch. OP was totally in their right to say no ESPECIALLY AS THEY PAID EXTRA and tall person does not have the right to be a jerk about it.”
A second agreed and added: “Tall person here. If I want more leg room, I can pay for it like everyone else. I don’t pay for the cheapest seat possible and then try to get someone shorter to give me the more expensive seat that they purchased for free.”
While a third commented: “He is tall, he’s been tall all of his life. He knew flying was a hardship on him and he didn’t wanna spend the extra money and he became an abusive bully to a single female when he didn’t get his way. You should’ve reported him and he should’ve been removed from the flight or you should’ve been compensated for your seat. A grown man felt he was entitled for you to give him what he wanted. You were an easy target because you were alone and he didn’t get his way and he harassed you the entire flight.”
