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“My Stance Was About Etiquette And Principle”: Man Stands His Ground During A Conflict Over Plane Seat With A Passenger Couple

In September 1783, a unique event in the history of mankind happened – for the first time, an air flight took place without a single quarrel between passengers. Perhaps this happened because the basket of the Montgolfier brothers’ first balloon contained only a sheep, a chicken and a duck. The next flight took place with people, and since then, passenger dramas have become an almost sacred aerial tradition.

Passengers confront flight attendants and fight with each other, trying to trick others into getting a more comfortable seat on the plane. And then, after landing, when the ardor and enthusiasm subsides, people just wonder how wrong they were in general. Like in this story from the user u/dankyou420.

The author of the post once had a flight home with a budget airline and was issued a $40 upgrade for the front row

"My Stance Was About Etiquette And Principle": Man Stands His Ground During A Conflict Over Plane Seat With A Passenger Couple

Image credits: Aero Icarus (not the actual photo)

When the guy stepped onto the plane, he saw a middle-aged couple there with the wife sitting in his booked middle seat

"My Stance Was About Etiquette And Principle": Man Stands His Ground During A Conflict Over Plane Seat With A Passenger Couple

Image credits: dankyou420

"My Stance Was About Etiquette And Principle": Man Stands His Ground During A Conflict Over Plane Seat With A Passenger Couple

Image credits: airbusky (not the actual photo)

"My Stance Was About Etiquette And Principle": Man Stands His Ground During A Conflict Over Plane Seat With A Passenger Couple

Image credits: dankyou420

The spouses offered the author to exchange seats but he was adamant and even put on a show to express his indignation

"My Stance Was About Etiquette And Principle": Man Stands His Ground During A Conflict Over Plane Seat With A Passenger Couple

Image credits: Michael Coghlan (not the actual photo)

"My Stance Was About Etiquette And Principle": Man Stands His Ground During A Conflict Over Plane Seat With A Passenger Couple

Image credits: dankyou420

The spouses were a bit confused – so the author started pondering whether he did something wrong, after landing

"My Stance Was About Etiquette And Principle": Man Stands His Ground During A Conflict Over Plane Seat With A Passenger Couple

Image credits: Natã Romualdo (not the actual photo)

"My Stance Was About Etiquette And Principle": Man Stands His Ground During A Conflict Over Plane Seat With A Passenger Couple

Image credits: dankyou420

However, the man just thought his behavior was justified by the couple’s alleged ‘trickery’ against him

So, the Original Poster (OP) tells how he was flying home in economy class one day, and during check-in, he saw that there was a $40 upgrade to a front row seat. No, it wasn’t first class – the airline was budget, so there was some extra leg room. There was still an opportunity to get an average place, so our hero agreed and issued the upgrade.

When the man stepped onto the plane, he noticed that a middle aged couple was already sitting in his row, with the husband sitting on the aisle, and the wife comfortably sitting nearby, in the very seat that the author of the post had just booked. And then the OP, in his own words, suspected the spouses of trickery – they, as he decided, specially issued an upgrade in the expectation that the middle seat would remain free. But it was not there – the author decided to act on principle.

The couple offered him a place at the window, but the man was indignant and said that he would either sit on the aisle or call the flight attendant and demand his rightful seat. The neighbors were upset by such principledness on the OP’s part, but there was nothing left for them to do. What’s more, when the author put his bags in the overhead bin a couple aisles down, he decided to put on another little show…

The author of the post returned and said that he agreed to sit by the window. The couple looked confused and said it was fine. Then the OP put his headphones on, and the rest of the flight was spent working on his laptop. True, after landing, when the original poster calmed down a little, he still wondered how nice and ethically he acted in this particular situation.

"My Stance Was About Etiquette And Principle": Man Stands His Ground During A Conflict Over Plane Seat With A Passenger Couple

Image credits: Pixabay (not the actual photo)

Recently, many sources have appeared talking about the rules of plane etiquette, but the truth is that there are no absolutely well-established and strict rules of what is ethical to do on an airplane and what is not. At least as far as seat exchanges are concerned. “I know the crew prefers when passengers take their assigned seats upon boarding an aircraft,” Anaïs Monique, a former flight attendant, writes in her column on Insider.

“After all, if passengers swap seats without the crew’s knowledge, it can complicate what we understand about our cabin – for example, a flight crew’s manifest includes essential information associated with each seat number like severe allergies, meal allocations, and flight connections,” Anaïs Monique states.

Opinions were also divided about how the OP’s intentional and ostentatious adherence to principles was actually justified. On the one hand, commenters aptly wrote that the author of the post paid for a specific place, and had the right to demand that particular seat. On the other hand, it is obvious that the neighbors did not aggravate the conflict and tried their best to smooth the situation. Therefore, like someone in the comments wrote, “I don’t think they had bad intentions in asking you to take the window seat.” And what do you think, our dear readers?

People in the comments were in fact very divided, while some of the folks just thought the spouses didn’t have any bad intentions

"My Stance Was About Etiquette And Principle": Man Stands His Ground During A Conflict Over Plane Seat With A Passenger Couple

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After many years of working as sports journalist and trivia game author and host in Ukraine I joined Bored Panda as a content creator. I do love writing stories and I sincerely believe - there's no dull plots at all. Like a great Italian composer Joaquino Rossini once told: "Give me a police protocol - and I'll make an opera out of it!"

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Saulė is a photo editor at Bored Panda with bachelor's degree in Multimedia and Computer Design. The thing that relaxes her the best is going into YouTube rabbit hole. In her free time she loves painting, embroidering and taking walks in nature.

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What do you think ?

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Fat Harry 1 year ago

I would have been delighted to get the window seat instead of the middle one.

15points

DeVille 1 year ago (edited)

Sorry, I'll take the downvotes for this but it needs saying - this was all based on his assumption they'd done this to push someone out of a seat and 'spread out'. Nothing in his recap shows they admitted why they'd booked the seats that way, only him complaining that they didn't book seats together, which is totally in their rights to do, for whatever reason they wanted to. It's likely the isle seat was needed by the husband for other reasons and that's why they offered the window seat. All I see is a dude who made an assumption, decided to be an a*****e because of it, caused a fuss when none was originally made, then got exactly what was offered in the first place. He's 100% TA.

14points

Libstak 1 year ago (edited)

I totally agree. Even if they did try to have a spare middle seat, so what, if the plane is not full why wouldn't you try create space in those cramped seats. They knew there was a chance the seat would be taken and were prepared to be accommodating about it if it was, where's the beef? Just a bunch of manufactured outrage.

9points

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Sonja 1 year ago

For me, as soon as anyone in any circumstances does something annoying for the sole reason to TeAcH tHeM a LeSsOn without any other reason and even on their own inconvenience, just FoR tHe PrInCiPlE, they're instantly TA. I'm all for people enjoying what's rightfully theirs and I also believe that you don't put yourself on fire to keep others warm. But if you have absolutely zero inconvenience, no disadvantages whatsoever, and maybe would even be upgraded if they get along, a person who'd still not help others just because they don't have to is a huge AH. As long as there's anything personal in it for you besides being an AH and annoying people, I'm all for people keeping what's rightfully theirs to use as they want to. But just teaching lessons and being a prick is just that, being a prick.

5points

marcelo D. 1 year ago

except it's the only possible solution. It's called an educated guess. They booked two separate seats, while all the seats were available, that's why OP had the option to get only the middle seat when he checked. They admited to having done it on purpose. An then after that, they decided for OP what his seat had to be, even though he had one already. Please do tell what is your "assumption" on why the couple bought 2 tickets split in a 3 seat row when they were free to choose two seats together?

3points

Jeremy Hooks 1 year ago

We don't know why the didn't book adjacent seats, however we do know that they didn't even though they wanted to sit next to each other. What the OP should have done is checked in earlier and booked the middle seat, then they probably wouldn't have bothered paying for the upgrade, and he'd have the whole row to himself

0points

CanidaeVulpes 1 year ago

That’s the first thought that came to me when he assumed why they did what they did

-2points

S 1 year ago

I think he's an a*s for doing all of that and then still offering to take the window after it all but the couple shouldn't get off scot-free either. They should have asked him politely if they could switch seats and I personally believe he would have said yes. Instead they told him where he could sit, which would have rubbed me the wrong way too. Everyone kind of sucks here.

8points

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