Plot twist, it was just a fake cast to get an upgrade..! 🙃

NTA. The airline crew shouldn’t have given away the seat until boarding was finished. On a ten hour flight I would want a comfortable seat (if I could afford the upgrade). OP could have had health issues too which required a comfy seat - a bad back for instance. She paid $600 extra for that seat, Poor innocent lady with a broken leg. She was probably happily sitting in economy (because she couldn’t afford the more expensive seats). A stewardess told her she could have a free upgrade and she moved seats, settled down again then had to move back. All because the stewardess couldn’t wait ten minutes until the gates closed. That was annoying.

Best flight I ever took was in November 2022 - I boarded late and was the very last person on the plane minutes before the gate closed, barely made it. My seat was the window seat at the very very back, and I could see a woman sitting in my spot, but no one in the two seats next to her. Turns out that wasn’t even her row, so she had to move (and wasn’t happy about it) - all three seats were just for me! This was a midnight flight from Bangkok to Vancouver (10+ hours) so I stretched out and slept the whole time. It was a full flight besides those couple seats. The lady gave me the dirtiest looks the couple times I woke up to go to the bathroom but I just shrugged at her lol. Best flight I’ve ever taken.

That was my thought. If the airline had at least offered to refund the extra price, but just like this? No freaking was. Sit the lady with the broken leg in an aisle seat so she can stretch out.

Yeah that's my thought too. And the woman with the broken leg could have paid extra to get a better seat as well.

They'd probably have needed approval from their bosses to offer the money and given this was a totally foreseeable situation (from the perspective of the injured lady), it costs them money and potentially upset a passenger who is able to afford more expensive seats, it's a lose-lose and I'm pretty sure they'd say know. I think they knew that and hence the guilt trip but I wonder how much they actually wanted to help the lady and how much of it is wanting to feel good about themselves.

Yup airlines have every single power on earth and get you arrested if you dare complain. No way they would have bend that way for her.

Yup. And a transatlantic at that. Some close boarding one full hour before takeoff.

Might be real... Delta closes international 30 minutes before departure, not 20, so she could have missed but been close enough that the gate agents decided to do her a solid and reopen anyway, although it would have nothing to do with her confidently incorrect statement that gates are to close 20 minutes prior. Then she got on the plane, made a fuss and the flight crew decided to ask the lady with the broken leg if she'd be okay moving back, rather than delay the whole flight while they argued with the entitled lady. Pay extra for upgraded seating then read the freaking rules associated with your ticket and get to the damned gate at least 15 minutes before the gates close. She said herself that she miscalculated, which puts it totally on her, not a tight connection or anything. People like this irritate the dickens out of me - real frequent fliers know to build enough time into the schedule that they're not hitting the gate just as it closes..

Agreed. I assumed Delta or a Delta partner, where flying into Atlanta. They close 15 minutes before departure for domestic and 30 before international. My take, if it happened at all... she dawdle, got there just after they closed, created such a stink that they did a solid and reopened for her, she got on and raised another stink, so the flight crew decided to accommodate, rather than delay everybody the hour it would take to get the cops and remove her from the aircraft.

This