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“My Life Is Not Expendable For Your Own Convenience”: Woman’s Unwilling To Swap Seats With Moms

Remember the movie Home Alone? Of course, you remember probably the greatest Christmas comedy of all time. Remember how at the very beginning, when the McAllisters and their relatives flew to Paris, the adults found themselves in business class, while the children got their seats in economy class, in another part of the aircraft?

Yes, sometimes parents simply expect that they will be able to agree with other passengers on swapping seats in order to sit next to their children. Of course, this annoys many lone flyers. And it turns out a heated discussion, like this one which recently happened on Twitter.

A Twitter user recently wrote about how she is not willing to give up her booked seat to parents with kids

Image credits: Pixabay (not the actual photo)

The author wrote that she definitely considers this a hill to die on

So, it all started with a tweet from the user @BeccaLizz, in which she stated that she would never give up her seat to passengers who would ask her about it. Even if they need to sit next to their own kids. According to the Original Poster (OP), the fact that she doesn’t have children and other people do is not a reason for making her life ‘expendable’ for someone’s convenience.

"My Life Is Not Expendable For Your Own Convenience": Woman's Unwilling To Swap Seats With Moms

Image credits: BeccaLizz

"My Life Is Not Expendable For Your Own Convenience": Woman's Unwilling To Swap Seats With Moms

Image credits: BeccaLizz

We don’t know what was the reason for OP’s tweet, her own experience on an aircraft, or an article she read on the subject. Perhaps both – after all, in the comments, Becky refers to this recent article on People, where a travel expert shares her opinion on whether solo flyers should give up their seats in order to help families reunite on the flight. In any case, the discussion, sparked by Becky’s tweet, turned out to be extremely heated and lively. And the internet, as usual, was very divided over it.

Image credits: TakingHisTime

Image credits: StevenPWalsh

Folks on Twitter had mixed feelings over the initial tweet, and some really thought it wasn’t even worth a debate

On the one hand, some commenters are quite sure that many passengers with kids, when booking their tickets, sometimes deliberately choose seats scattered throughout the aircraft with the expectation that later they will be able to persuade the owners of neighboring seats to swap. And adherents of this side sincerely believe such people are entitled, therefore they fully support the original poster.

Image credits: InstantRegrette

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Image credits: carloshumda

But there is also the other side of the coin. There is a situation when parents with children are unable to choose their flight and seat, so it is quite reasonable for them to want to sit next to each other. And these commenters, they say, would be honored to help a parent sit next to their kid. “It’s called kindness. Karma never loses an address,” one of the followers of this side wrote in their tweet.

Image credits: Kelly (not the actual photo)

Image credits: ChrissyV75

Some people in the comments generally believe that Becky is paying too much attention to this issue. After all, yes, a window seat is definitely better than a middle seat, but is that a reason to consider your day ruined – especially if you helped a good person by doing so? Definitely not. “My holiday was ruined because I had to sit in seat 16D rather than 17E. – Nobody ever,” one of the folks in the comments quipped.

Image credits: mrmheely

Image credits: laurenlself

There’s actually a special online dashboard where people can check free family seating while booking tickets

Currently, airlines do not have hard and fast rules about whether lone flyers should give up their seats to parents or not. There are, of course, recommendations, but nothing more. On the other hand, this issue has been raised more and more often lately, so various tools like this Department of Transportation online dashboard have appeared, which show, in particular, which airlines guarantee free family seating. So, yes, the case seems to be really moving towards the fact that family seating will become mandatory sooner or later.

Image credits: NathanBirdCHA

Image credits: Ad__Taylor

Image credits: beckylitv

“Parents traveling with young kids should be able to sit together without an airline forcing them to pay junk fees,” The Points Guy quotes U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg. “We have been pressing airlines to guarantee family seating without tacking on extra charges, and now we’re seeing some airlines start to make this common-sense change.” Perhaps, over time, we’ll perceive such discussions on Twitter as a kind of anachronism. Who knows?

Image credits: SethDavisHoops

Image credits: 04nbod

Image credits: cmanuelhill

Image credits: BruceB010

Image credits: Rahul Singh (not the actual photo)

However, plane passengers often encounter entitled persons trying to get them out of their booked seats – and often these folks get instant karma instead. As it was, for example, with the characters of this story about a cunning couple who tried to exchange places with another passenger, but in the end only achieved extra leg room for him. And if you too have had a chance to face or witness some plane situation with overly entitled folks, please feel free to share your own story in the comments below.

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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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LH25 1 year ago

Sometimes it's more than just an "inconvenience". If I have paid more for a given seat that I picked out specifically, nope. The idea that guardians should fly with their kids makes sense, but to me, that means that it's on them to get and select their seats ahead of time.

115points

Beachbum 1 year ago (edited)

If you are flying with children you should be forced to choose seats together and pay where appropriate before the flight can be finalized period.

66points

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Brenda Wallace 1 year ago

Every child should have an adult (21 or over) legal guardian next to them. So 2 parents could only fly with 2 children. Or sign over their children to paid ($500. per hour) legal guardians. One per child.

0points

Lucille 2 1 year ago (edited)

Exactly. Why should solo travellers have to bear the “inconvenience” when the family can just as easily go through the “inconvenience” of making sure they have seats together? It’s part of the cost of being a parent and having kids, some things are just going to be more inconvenient and expensive. That’s why I chose not to have kids lol, I don’t want to rearrange my life (including my comfortable plane seat that I chose and paid for) for children, so I’ve decided not to be responsible for any children. The entitlement of some of these people is astounding, just demanding everyone else make sure they’re comfortable while refusing to lift a finger.

19points

lenka 1 year ago

I travel with my kids alot. I always book and pay for seats together with my children. On multiple occasions the airline has changed the seats and placed my children somewhere else. Once they put my 2 year old by himself on a 14 hour long haul flight. Even when we book and pay for seats together... the airline doesn't guarantee that we will be seated together. On this occasion I demanded that we be put into the original seats that we booked and paid for together. The woman huffed and puffed and carried on about how "entitled" I was. Damn right - I'm entitled to the seats I booked to ensure I was seated with my child. Your anger is directed in the wrong place. The airlines need to take responsibility to ensure that every guardian booked with a child is 'locked' into seats together. They dont do this because there is always someone willing to pay MORE for those seats and its worth it to the airline to bump the original booker and take the money.

13points

Jeremy Crocker 1 year ago

In my case when I fly I choose the spaces designated with the most leg room because I'm tall and I simply don't fit in the normal seats. Emergency exit on the aisle is my spot of choice. Don't even try to get me to swap, those seats come with responsibility that a lot of people wouldn't want or lie and say they are just for more space.

6points

Jim Zakany 1 year ago

You don't realize that they do that and the stores change their seat sections?

4points

PetetheGeek 1 year ago

When I flew back from Virginia with my mom, we had to book our flights desperately, because hers was through work, and they bumped her to Buisness class, and wouldn't move either of us to be together, it had nothing to do with her planning, and fortunately I was old enough to deal with it, but you can't blame that on a parent

0points

zak 1 year ago

I don't mind moving, provided the seat to which I am moving is equivalent to the one I booked. I only book window seats, so I'm not moving if the new seat isn't a window seat (an exception to this rule can be made if the new seat is an aisle seat in first class 😁)

64points

Jim Zakany 1 year ago

That rule is cast in concrete. The offered seat must be an upgrade, with space for my carry-on nearby.

44points

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Reese Mercado 1 year ago

I find it ridiculous how someone not wanting to move from a seat they picked and paid for is deemed selfish. The anger should be towards the airline. For people saying karma this and selfish that, utterly ridiculous. Talk to the airline, raise your anger to the airline. I am not the airline...period.

48points

Kathryn Baylis 1 year ago

How about the airlines giving some kind of incentive for people to move? They do it if you volunteer to fly at a later time to make room on an overbooked flight (which is their own fault for constantly overbooking to guarantee 100% full flights). Same difference, tbh.

12points

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