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Man Tries To Make A Woman Give Up Her Husband’s Seat For Him Until Another Passenger Humbles Him
Interview With Author
Air travel can sometimes feel like the new wild west, as some passengers just can’t seem to conform to any social norms. What seats someone booked becomes irrelevant, folks will be loud and obnoxious and the worst part is that normal people are essentially “trapped” with them for the duration of the flight. So it can be encouraging to see regular folks actually stand up for each other.
A woman shared her frustration with a couple who hadn’t booked plane seats together but wanted her husband to give up his. We got in touch with the flier who shared the story and she was kind enough to answer some of our questions.
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Flying often has its fair share of frustrations
Image credits: wirestock (not the actual photo)
One woman had to deal with an entitled couple that didn’t book seats together but wanted her husband to move instead
Image credits: Farknot (not the actual photo)
Image source: roxywalker
Many fliers these days struggle with getting the seats they want
Image credits: Jason Toevs (not the actual photo)
Bored Panda got in touch with the woman in the story and she was kind enough to answer some of our questions. Firstly, we wanted to know if there was any follow-up. “I don’t have any particular update to share on my own behalf, but I might make an update to the post itself which will probably consist of thanking everyone for their feedback.”
We also wanted to hear her opinion on why some folks just don’t get assigned seats anymore. “As an avid traveler, its strange that we are at a place where asking people to switch seats happens commonly. I’m not certain how much of this leans towards confusion about the booking process, or, purposefully choosing to book seats that are not together or that are at a lower cost with the mindset that you will switch once on board. (I’m not certain if this happened in my situation, but it’s probably close). Barring situations where the airlines mess up or connections are missed, it does seem like many people purposely wait until they get on board and choose to inconvenience others thinking it’s no big deal. I think my post garnered lots of feedback because on board seat-change-requests has become a huge point of contention with many travelers. Fellow passengers observe situations like mine unfolding all the time but rarely choose to engage. While I had the situation under control, I do believe that the person who spoke up validated my position which most likely helped to diffuse things from escalating.”
“My biggest takeaway from this is twofold: Number one being that the airlines (not just Delta) have created a system in which seat arrangements are not guaranteed and travelers are being charged extra fees just to have more leg room, sit by a window, or, sit with their own family members, companions or even friends. And, number two, because the airlines have contributed to creating this problem, we now have situations where people might deliberately choose to wait until they are on board to deal with it and anticipate doing so with ease. From many of the responses on my post, it seems that might be changing. We shall see. Safe travels!” she shared with Bored Panda.
Flying is not nearly as simple as taking a metro
Image credits: Athena Sandrini (not the actual photo)
Despite it being a massively complex and advanced international system, some folks still treat air travel like its public transportation. While some airlines do work on a first-come, first-serve basis, the vast majority do not. Assigned seating is important, let’s face it, people just want to sit together. Sometimes it’s a matter of comfort, but, for example, parents do want to sit with their kids and, like the woman in this story, some folks get nervous while flying, so it’s better for them to sit with a loved one.
Since an airline doesn’t actually know your preferences, the passengers have to pick the options that suit their needs the most. If this sounds like the most common of common sense, that’s because it is. However, as this story demonstrates, there are folks who will take literal transatlantic flights and not understand this pretty simple principle. How they will survive in France is anyone’s guess.
It’s more than likely that this couple was not quite that clueless and simply assumed that since they had a baby, the entire world needed to bend to their will. In other words, they were entitled, which often comes with a “healthy” side of delusion. They did get slightly unlucky, on a less-full flight they could have gotten away with it. Similarly, if their two “neighbors” were folks flying separately, perhaps someone would be ok going to the back of the plane. After all, who wants to sit next to a baby on a flight?
Entitled people tend to harbor a lot of delusions about what other people “should” do
Image credits: Sergey Zhumaev (not the actual photo)
However, the ray of sunshine in this story is the other passenger backing up the woman. Indeed, this seems to be what inspired her to post her experience in the first place. Once it became clear that the woman wasn’t just going to surrender her seat because the young mother wanted it, she immediately backed down. While it’s perhaps for the best that a flight attendant wasn’t involved, this would have probably been a cathartic experience. After all, the woman and her husband paid for seats together, it’s not likely that staff would magically separate them. Silver lining, this couple was at least relatively relaxed and didn’t decide to get themselves thrown off the flight by fighting.
Hopefully, this is a sort of indicator for the future. After all, the vast majority of fliers are just regular, nice people who want to get to their destination without a fuss. It only takes one or two jerks to really ruin things for everyone. Having flights diverted just to offload a terrible passenger or two is no longer some freak occurrence.
Entitlement, when it’s not actually backed up by anything, tends to fall apart pretty quickly, like making threats one can’t actually follow through on. These sorts of folks do create a decent amount of annoyance, but ultimately can’t actually stand up to any real pressure. Hopefully, everyone here learned a lesson and this situation will not repeat itself in the future.
The woman shared some more thoughts in the comments
Other readers called out the entitled couple
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What do you think ?
Tabitha 3 months ago (edited)
If circumstances dictate that your seats aren't together, you have some alternatives. 1) Try a later flight, or another carrier, that has seats that are together that you can reserve. 2) Take the seats that aren't together, but when boarding, enlist the help of the FA to see if people are willing to switch (asked nicely and given offers of compensation for doing you such a big favor, of course---don't be stingy, ffs!) to get you seats together. 3) If 1 and 2 don't yield results, then be a grownup, suck it up, and sit apart for the couple hours---at least you're on the same plane, and not trying to coordinate separate flights. That's the way adults handle such problems. Throwing fits and being nasty is how spoiled brats handle problems.
Marianne 3 months ago
If I book a flight for me and my family, I pay for being placed together. If that's impossible for whatever reason, I will ask for alternative seats at check-in or at the gate. If that's not possible, I will (politely!) ask a person next to me if they would be ok to switch. I will always offer the better seat. If they say no, I will have to accept that.
Daniela Lavanza 3 months ago (edited)
I for one would have tried to be understanding: "oh, I'm sorry, you probably didn't know you had a baby when you booked your seats." :-)
Tabitha 3 months ago (edited)
If circumstances dictate that your seats aren't together, you have some alternatives. 1) Try a later flight, or another carrier, that has seats that are together that you can reserve. 2) Take the seats that aren't together, but when boarding, enlist the help of the FA to see if people are willing to switch (asked nicely and given offers of compensation for doing you such a big favor, of course---don't be stingy, ffs!) to get you seats together. 3) If 1 and 2 don't yield results, then be a grownup, suck it up, and sit apart for the couple hours---at least you're on the same plane, and not trying to coordinate separate flights. That's the way adults handle such problems. Throwing fits and being nasty is how spoiled brats handle problems.
Marianne 3 months ago
If I book a flight for me and my family, I pay for being placed together. If that's impossible for whatever reason, I will ask for alternative seats at check-in or at the gate. If that's not possible, I will (politely!) ask a person next to me if they would be ok to switch. I will always offer the better seat. If they say no, I will have to accept that.
Daniela Lavanza 3 months ago (edited)
I for one would have tried to be understanding: "oh, I'm sorry, you probably didn't know you had a baby when you booked your seats." :-)
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