A woman has been praised for refusing to give up her pre-booked window seat on a plane so a seven-year-old boy could ‘enjoy the view’, but wanted to know whether she was the wrong
A woman has been applauded for standing her ground and not surrendering her window seat on a plane to a seven-year-old boy who wanted to ‘enjoy the view’. The 27-year-old womandetailed how she was embarking on a six-hour flight to attend a business conference, having made sure to reserve her seat two months prior.
She admitted to feeling “a bit anxious” on flights, hence booking a window seat to alleviate her worries. On Reddit, the woman shared: “The view helps calm me down. I’m also pretty tall, and I like leaning against the window to sleep. When I boarded the flight, I found a woman (probably mid-30s) already sitting in my seat with her seven-year-old kid next to her.
“I politely told her I had 21A (the window), and she asked if I would switch to the middle seat so her son could have the window.
“I said I was sorry, but I’d specifically paid for that seat, and I really preferred to keep it.”
At this point, the woman retorted, stating her son enjoys looking out of the window and once again requested her to consider swapping.
“She again asked if I could just be kind for once and ‘make a kid’s day’,” she said. “I again said no, and added that I had anxiety issues and had paid extra to choose my seat. She rolled her eyes, but eventually moved back to her original seat (two rows behind me).
“The flight was awkward – she kept giving me dirty looks whenever I got up, and I overheard her telling another passenger how ‘some people just don’t know how to be decent humans’.”
Upon touching down, she recounted the ordeal to a mate and was taken aback when her friend sided with the other passenger, suggesting she ought to have “sucked it up for a few hours”.
Seeking validation, she turned to social media platforms to glean whether she might be at fault.
One sympathetic person told her: “You’re not in the wrong but that other woman sure is. If she wanted a window seat for her son then she should’ve paid for one. Also, even if they’d offer to reimburse you I’d still have said no. I’m glad you stood your ground.”
Someone else weighed in with support, adding: “No, you’re not. Six hours in the middle seat with a non-related seven-year-old? Nope.”
Another commenter put it squarely, as they said: “A ‘decent human’ would book seats appropriate for her child instead of expecting someone else to just give it up. You paid extra. She could have done the same thing. Instead she tried to play the ‘pity me’ game.”
While yet another chipped in, writing: “The mother could have been nice and not stressed you out. Her child didn’t get a window seat because she didn’t pay for one. She and her child should suck it up.”
