Guy Sparks Drama On Plane After Refusing To Switch Seats To Accommodate Woman’s ‘Religious Beliefs’
If you travel by plane, you probably have a story or two to tell. Unfortunately, most of them probably involve a loud passenger or severe turbulence.
Recently, Reddit user u/Grom92708O also had the displeasure of an unpleasant flight, however, theirs was ruined by another passenger.
She refused to sit surrounded by men and asked u/Grom92708O to change seats. However, they refused and the woman took the issue to the crew.
After the conflict was resolved, u/Grom92708O was left with a feeling that they might’ve done something wrong, so they described the situation on Reddit, asking other users to share their thoughts on it.
Image credits: olivier89 (not the actual photo)
Image credits: Grom92708
With so many people flying these days, problems are bound to occur. To identify which were the most common in 2018, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed the travel complaints most frequently filed with the Department of Transportation (DOT).
Safety complaints, which are handled by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and security complaints, which are handled by the Transportation Security Administration, were not included.
Claims for lost, damaged, or delayed baggage, charges for excess baggage, carry-on problems, and difficulties with airline claims procedures (unsurprisingly) turned out to be the biggest category. Baggage complaints represented nearly 13% of all complaints in 2018.
Representing about 10% of all problems, reservations, ticketing, and boarding complaints came in second, and customer service took the “honorable” third place.
People think OP did nothing wrong
But disruptive travelers and harassment are now more common than they were before. In a survey of 5,000 flight attendants from 30 airlines by the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA union, 85% said they had dealt with unruly passengers this year, with over half saying they had experienced five or more such incidents and 17% saying they were involved in an incident that got physical.
Whether or not they escalate to physical confrontation, these incidents can be traumatizing. Sixty-one percent of those who experienced unruly passenger behavior reported passengers using sexist, racist, and homophobic language.
“This survey confirms what we all know, the vitriol, verbal and physical abuse from a small group of passengers is completely out of control, and is putting other passengers and flight crew at risk. This is not just about masks as some have attempted to claim. There is a lot more going on here and the solutions require a series of actions in coordination across aviation,” Sara Nelson, the President of AFA-CWA, said. “It is time to make the FAA ‘zero tolerance’ policy permanent, the Department of Justice to utilize existing statute to conduct criminal prosecution, and implement a series of actions proposed by our union to keep problems on the ground and respond effectively in the event of incidents.”
AFA is calling on the Federal Aviation Administration and Department of Justice (DOJ) to protect passengers and crew from disruptive and verbally and physically abusive travelers. Survey data confirmed that existing measures were failing to address the problem. 71 percent of Flight Attendants who filed incident reports with airline management received no follow-up and a majority did not observe efforts to address the rise in unruly passengers by their employers.
“This is not a ‘new normal’ we are willing to accept,” Nelson added. “We know the government, airlines, airports, and all stakeholders can take actions together to keep us safe and flying friendly. We will be sharing survey findings with FAA, DOT, TSA, and FBI to help more fully identify the problems and our union’s proposed actions to affect positive change.”
At least this particular altercation ended peacefully.
That final (long) comment came from the closest we can get to the other side of the argument - someone who truly empathises with the woman from a gender, religion and anxiety perspective. And she still came down on the side of the OP! If ever there was a message that the woman in this scenario was being an a$$hat, and OP was NTA, that was it.
I think the one person making a nice comparison to Judaism does very well in making the point too. You cater to the world, don't expect it the other way around and be grateful if it does happen.
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Obviously a bogus excuse to be moved out of a middle seat. If her religious restrictions (if they’re legitimate) are so important to her, wouldn’t she have specified that she cannot sit between two men at the time she made her reservations, and not waited until the flight was already in the middle of boarding? Airlines/travel agencies do try to accommodate such restrictions as much as reasonably possible, so would’ve tried their best to seat her accordingly if they could—-even if they had to put her on a flight either at a different time or a different airline.
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I must try claiming that my religion forbids me to sit in middle seats some time.
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your religion tells YOU how to live. It doesn't tell me how I have to live
If her religious convictions were that important to her, she would have spoken to a ticket agent at the time of booking to ensure she was not sitting between two men.
NTA - at all. Your religious beliefs are exactly that, yours. If it is going to cause you any potential issues you should prepare for them where possible. Pre book your seat on a plane for example. However, I can't help but feel that this lady just didn't want the middle seat!
"strange women lying on aircraft is no basis for a system of seating" a fellow mont python enjoyer, I see
The lady of the lake....(I love MP too- my first good excuse for staying up late as a kid in the '70s, to watch MPFC with my older sister)
Load More Replies... Religion is like a d!ck: A lot of people have one, and that's fine, but you keep it to yourself in public.
i also like the other part of this quote: ...and you should not try to put it into children. applies for both religion and d.
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My religious beliefs demand that I be seated in first class whenever I'm on a plane.
My religious beliefs demand that you give me your first class seat & you sit in my economy seat. They also demand you upvote all my comments & give me $200.
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There was this story a few years ago when a group of Orthodox Jewish people delayed a flight by more than an hour because they wanted to rearrange the way everyone was sitting so that their religious beliefs about sitting down would be accommodated. Many passengers refused to comply and it was chaos. Imo, if your religion dictates your way of travelling, then you have to deal with it prior to boarding any transportation. Buy two seats, tell check-in staff, inform the airline, but don't expect anyone to move because you want them to.
Ask her why she is traveling alone and unaccompanied by her male relatives if that is truly a concern, she would be protected by them.
She just wanted your aisle seat. Men don't run into nonsense like this as much as women do. I can think of half a dozen times some jerk (and that is gender neutral) demanded that I give up my aisle seat because....I don't know...."I wanna sit with my buddies"...... "I'm too tall" (which was bullshit because she was shorter than me)....and so on and so on. I NEVER give up my seat, and after I say no to them, I start reading my book and ignore them. ...//... If they're going to yell about it, I won't participate because when the flight attendants see that, THEY are the ones that look like idiots. ...///.... Usually I book flights far in advance and PAY for an aisle. They could have done the same thing.
Absolutely NOT the asshole. Why on *Earth* should you or anyone else change absolutely everything about a situation you're in to accommodate *her* religious beliefs? I'm assuming she's Muslim. I'm not and neither is my dad but my mum is and I asked her what she thought about this. She was shocked and said "Being muslim is *my* choice, nobody else's and especially not people I've never met before and just so happen to be sat in between, which is something I have absolutely no control of." My mum's ace :-)
The only time I ever asked to switch seats was when I got assigned the seat next to one of the doors, which carries many responsibilities in the case of an accident. Normally I would step up to the plate (and have on other flights) and embraced that role, but this one time I was on my way to the funeral of one of my brothers (all five of us kids were always close) who died suddenly and unexpectedly, and whose death I had only learned about less than five hours before boarding (lucky to get the last seat at the last minute). So the timing of that seat assignment was just really bad. I was very obviously a devastated crying mess, so knew I was not in a good state of mind to be able to live up to what would have been required of me in that seat. The flight attendant understood, and one of the wonderful heroes in my row quickly switched with me. Sometimes you just have to admit that you aren’t in a fit state to potentially have to be a hero.
The even ask (or used to) that you inform a flight attendant if you can't perform those duties. You did the right thing!
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A friend of mine is reading this over my shoulder. She’s of the Islamic Faith and laughed when she saw this saying “ Well maybe if she was so worried she should have brought a Mahram (male relative) or two to sit between. Talk about entitled”.
One a flight I had the windows seat and my wife got the middle seat. The aisle seat was given to a younger male. He told us, that according to his religion he had a problem sitting next to an unknown woman, so we agreed, that my wife and I switched seats. We presented us to each other, but because of his bad English, further conversation was hard and after a short while, we were quiet. During the flight, we were offered some snacks and drinks. I ordered a red wine. When the wine was served the guy went completely bananas – waving his hand as if trying to fan fumes from the wine away from his face. He then started yelling at me in a language in which I was unfamiliar. Eventually the flight attendant came to my rescue and ask the gentlemen to follow her, and he was moved to a seat in back of the plane. I never saw him again.
Makes a change for it to be a man being subjected to the religious reasons thing (it's really common with the extreme Jewish group in Israel to the point where the airline has been taken to court because it was insisting on catering to their whims and moving female passengers). If your religion prevents you from doing something that's a you problem not a me problem. I'm not moving to a worse seat to accommodate that. If she didn't want to sit between two men she should have paid extra to book an aisle seat.
NTA, if people won't move their shopping for my wheelchair while they have an empty seat next to them (seriously, I've had that happen on a bus) then he shouldn't move for her religion. I probably ATA because I parked on and crushed that person's shopping because I freely admit to being an arsehole. But she was in the wrong, and the OP was absolutely right in this case. And before anyone says it like they have on another post here, no. Nobody clapped. ;)
How about stopping going for the cheapest airfare and stepping up a level so you can actually choose your seat? Last-minute emergency travel or standby and you had to take what you can get? Then you just have to deal with it. This nonsense is why I always pay extra to choose my seat and because of that will not switch seats. One thing I have never heard of is someone with a window or aisle seat wanting to switch for the middle seat. Nope they always want to trade up, never down. Imagine that...
One a flight I had the windows seat and my wife got the middle seat. The aisle seat was given to a younger male. He told us, that according to his religion he had a problem sitting next to an unknown woman, so we agreed, that my wife and I switched seats. We presented us to each other, but because of his bad English, further conversation was hard and after a short while, we were quiet. During the flight, we were offered some snacks and drinks. I ordered a red wine. When the wine was served the guy went completely bananas – waving his hand as if trying to fan fumes from the wine away from his face. He then started yelling at me in a language in which I was unfamiliar. Eventually the flight attendant came to my rescue and ask the gentlemen to follow her, and he was moved to a seat in back of the plane. I never saw him again.
Came ba k b/c I just realized: Some airlines don't let you switch seats anyway, b/c that way if there's an incident, they can identify things. Ahem. So. Yeah.
If you have religious restrictions, it's up to you to organise everything. If there is no kosher/halal food, you have to bring it with you. If you don't want to be seated next to 2 men, you have to request this when you are booking your flight. It's simple, it's up to yourself to organise everything. Everyone has his/her responsabilities. People often complain about things that's their own responsability; I have kids with me, my religion, my diet ect...
religious exemption rights are the "first rights"... The Romans persecuted the Christians to death with brutal executions for 200 years until they finally allowed that they have the right to practice their own religion. The Romans finally admitted they should make allowance for this based on their history of openness and tolerance. So many people died before they did. This was the first right ever granted by a government like this. It only was granted after God obviously judged the last emperor to persecute Christians. Dying a slow death of bowel cancer must have been a hard wake-up call. This right like any other right is sometimes abused. So play fair people, okay?
Never the AH for refusing to give up your seat on a flight as you paid for it and very likely chose it at the time of booking. Storytime! Once while flying internationally in business class, a woman from the coach section asked me and my wife to switch seats with her and her elderly handicapped father. She turned into a #flightkaren when I flat out refused. She continued getting louder and the flight attendant came over to ask what was going on, #flightkaren told her we refused to switch seats with her and her elderly father. When the flight attendant realized their seats were in coach she asked why they just didn't upgrade to business class before boarding. Her answer? They could not afford it and felt that because her father was handicapped that she should be able to REQUIRE someone from business or first class to swap seats. the flight attendant informed her that is never the case. I don't care who you are or your reason, I will never swap a superior seat for an inferior one.
I think that it was ungracious of the man for not agreeing to change seats. It doesn't hurt to accommodate others. Personally I dislike sitting beside a male on a plane, because men tend to hog the arm rests| Kudos certainly he the Gentleman who offered to exchange seats.
Definetly NTA. If she wasn't lying through her teeth, she would've talk to the airline representative about having a specific seat, for religious reasons, of course...
I am so sick of people trying to force their religious beliefs on everyone else. The so-called christians are the most horrible at this. Makes me want to see all religion banned in public settings. Religion is truly the the worst problem in this country where they believe their beliefs are holier than thou. Screw them!
For my next flight I shall claim that my religion requires me to be seated betwixt two comely lasses who must feed me grapes and cradle my head in their ample busoms whilst whispering how magnificent and endearing I am . . . . . .
Well... not always you can get the sit you want, but you might need to fly anyway. Asking the people next to you to change sits sometimes is the only solution. I once had a flight with my very young son. He did not have a sit, and set in my lap, and I was 5 month pregnant at the time, and could only get the middle sit. The nice man next to me agreed to change sits. I did not demanded it, I just asked. He did not have to agree. Sometimes it's better to be considerate then right.
So, First, OP NTA! But, y'all aren't thinking the lady's position all the way through. There are some of these religions today that have certain belief systems within the larger accepted religion. For example: Hasidic Orthodox Jews within the larger Jewish community, the Taliban that interpret the Koran as Sharia law, some varied sects within the greater Christian Church etc... The thing that no one is thinking about is that the women that live in these communities are very often subservient to the men in their families. If they have been educated in their religious teachings that sitting with men is not acceptable, the women know that this is not just a "if possible" it must be done or she will be re-educated. It will be her fault that she didn't move her seat or change the situation somehow and the men in her family will be very sure that she remembers that lesson! Family control and abuse are still a big deal, not everyone is a selfish liar
I wouldn't move, I would state that and that would be the end of my involvement, I would proceed to put headphones on and zone out to music.
It's awful for the woman, yes, but I have to say.... if you fly alone, and as a woman, and you have a religious issue with eing flanked by males (or a PTSD issue or any issue for any reason)..... then you request and pay for the aisle seat. Your issue, and I'm sorry, b/c I would've volunteered to switch seats for her sake, but I wasn't on that plane. ...
Definitely lying imo, but I also have a question: Can’t you specifically book an aisle or window seat? (I‘ve never been on a plane so I wouldn’t know.)
Most times you can, given that you book your flight with enough anticipation, and there are seats available. Sometimes you have to pay extra money. There are some airlines that do not allow it.
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Me thinks the woman doesn't understand the background of that edict of her religion. Most religious rules that apply only to women were created by men. Why do you think some faiths required women to be covered head to toe, not allowed to be in public alone etc etc. Those are all designed to prevent another man from viewing, touching, interacting with what they consider to be a posession or property. Too bad these women sometimes do not understand just how bad they have it.
And I am sorry people -- especially those of you who DO follow a religion , to be so rude about another person. And I am sorry, but I do expect people to respect social mores. She was was perfectly entitled to ask, Maybe she got the last seat available? And the booking clerk suggested she ask for a change of seat once she had boarded? This Male Person was off to Lacrosse camp -- presumably young and fit? And in the arrogance of youth? So chuffed with now being an 'adult' he decides that is license for behaving like a brat?
this woman is a f*****g idiot. your imaginary friend has no bearing on seat i f*****g paid for. cow.
Boomers have raised such entitled people, god. What a joke. 90% of these people just say these things to have a more comfortable flight
I am so f*cking tired of this misogynist nonsense. As if all women are potential sinful sluts that need to be regulated and all men are sex-obsessed monkeys who can't control themselves. It si a truly terrible way to look at women and men.
You should look up ultra-orthodox Jewish traditions.
Load More Replies... That final (long) comment came from the closest we can get to the other side of the argument - someone who truly empathises with the woman from a gender, religion and anxiety perspective. And she still came down on the side of the OP! If ever there was a message that the woman in this scenario was being an a$$hat, and OP was NTA, that was it.
I think the one person making a nice comparison to Judaism does very well in making the point too. You cater to the world, don't expect it the other way around and be grateful if it does happen.
Load More Replies... Obviously a bogus excuse to be moved out of a middle seat. If her religious restrictions (if they’re legitimate) are so important to her, wouldn’t she have specified that she cannot sit between two men at the time she made her reservations, and not waited until the flight was already in the middle of boarding? Airlines/travel agencies do try to accommodate such restrictions as much as reasonably possible, so would’ve tried their best to seat her accordingly if they could—-even if they had to put her on a flight either at a different time or a different airline.
Load More Replies... I must try claiming that my religion forbids me to sit in middle seats some time.
Load More Replies... your religion tells YOU how to live. It doesn't tell me how I have to live
If her religious convictions were that important to her, she would have spoken to a ticket agent at the time of booking to ensure she was not sitting between two men.
NTA - at all. Your religious beliefs are exactly that, yours. If it is going to cause you any potential issues you should prepare for them where possible. Pre book your seat on a plane for example. However, I can't help but feel that this lady just didn't want the middle seat!
"strange women lying on aircraft is no basis for a system of seating" a fellow mont python enjoyer, I see
The lady of the lake....(I love MP too- my first good excuse for staying up late as a kid in the '70s, to watch MPFC with my older sister)
Load More Replies... Religion is like a d!ck: A lot of people have one, and that's fine, but you keep it to yourself in public.
i also like the other part of this quote: ...and you should not try to put it into children. applies for both religion and d.
Load More Replies... My religious beliefs demand that I be seated in first class whenever I'm on a plane.
My religious beliefs demand that you give me your first class seat & you sit in my economy seat. They also demand you upvote all my comments & give me $200.
Load More Replies... There was this story a few years ago when a group of Orthodox Jewish people delayed a flight by more than an hour because they wanted to rearrange the way everyone was sitting so that their religious beliefs about sitting down would be accommodated. Many passengers refused to comply and it was chaos. Imo, if your religion dictates your way of travelling, then you have to deal with it prior to boarding any transportation. Buy two seats, tell check-in staff, inform the airline, but don't expect anyone to move because you want them to.
Ask her why she is traveling alone and unaccompanied by her male relatives if that is truly a concern, she would be protected by them.
She just wanted your aisle seat. Men don't run into nonsense like this as much as women do. I can think of half a dozen times some jerk (and that is gender neutral) demanded that I give up my aisle seat because....I don't know...."I wanna sit with my buddies"...... "I'm too tall" (which was bullshit because she was shorter than me)....and so on and so on. I NEVER give up my seat, and after I say no to them, I start reading my book and ignore them. ...//... If they're going to yell about it, I won't participate because when the flight attendants see that, THEY are the ones that look like idiots. ...///.... Usually I book flights far in advance and PAY for an aisle. They could have done the same thing.
Absolutely NOT the asshole. Why on *Earth* should you or anyone else change absolutely everything about a situation you're in to accommodate *her* religious beliefs? I'm assuming she's Muslim. I'm not and neither is my dad but my mum is and I asked her what she thought about this. She was shocked and said "Being muslim is *my* choice, nobody else's and especially not people I've never met before and just so happen to be sat in between, which is something I have absolutely no control of." My mum's ace :-)
The only time I ever asked to switch seats was when I got assigned the seat next to one of the doors, which carries many responsibilities in the case of an accident. Normally I would step up to the plate (and have on other flights) and embraced that role, but this one time I was on my way to the funeral of one of my brothers (all five of us kids were always close) who died suddenly and unexpectedly, and whose death I had only learned about less than five hours before boarding (lucky to get the last seat at the last minute). So the timing of that seat assignment was just really bad. I was very obviously a devastated crying mess, so knew I was not in a good state of mind to be able to live up to what would have been required of me in that seat. The flight attendant understood, and one of the wonderful heroes in my row quickly switched with me. Sometimes you just have to admit that you aren’t in a fit state to potentially have to be a hero.
The even ask (or used to) that you inform a flight attendant if you can't perform those duties. You did the right thing!
Load More Replies... A friend of mine is reading this over my shoulder. She’s of the Islamic Faith and laughed when she saw this saying “ Well maybe if she was so worried she should have brought a Mahram (male relative) or two to sit between. Talk about entitled”.
One a flight I had the windows seat and my wife got the middle seat. The aisle seat was given to a younger male. He told us, that according to his religion he had a problem sitting next to an unknown woman, so we agreed, that my wife and I switched seats. We presented us to each other, but because of his bad English, further conversation was hard and after a short while, we were quiet. During the flight, we were offered some snacks and drinks. I ordered a red wine. When the wine was served the guy went completely bananas – waving his hand as if trying to fan fumes from the wine away from his face. He then started yelling at me in a language in which I was unfamiliar. Eventually the flight attendant came to my rescue and ask the gentlemen to follow her, and he was moved to a seat in back of the plane. I never saw him again.
Makes a change for it to be a man being subjected to the religious reasons thing (it's really common with the extreme Jewish group in Israel to the point where the airline has been taken to court because it was insisting on catering to their whims and moving female passengers). If your religion prevents you from doing something that's a you problem not a me problem. I'm not moving to a worse seat to accommodate that. If she didn't want to sit between two men she should have paid extra to book an aisle seat.
NTA, if people won't move their shopping for my wheelchair while they have an empty seat next to them (seriously, I've had that happen on a bus) then he shouldn't move for her religion. I probably ATA because I parked on and crushed that person's shopping because I freely admit to being an arsehole. But she was in the wrong, and the OP was absolutely right in this case. And before anyone says it like they have on another post here, no. Nobody clapped. ;)
How about stopping going for the cheapest airfare and stepping up a level so you can actually choose your seat? Last-minute emergency travel or standby and you had to take what you can get? Then you just have to deal with it. This nonsense is why I always pay extra to choose my seat and because of that will not switch seats. One thing I have never heard of is someone with a window or aisle seat wanting to switch for the middle seat. Nope they always want to trade up, never down. Imagine that...
One a flight I had the windows seat and my wife got the middle seat. The aisle seat was given to a younger male. He told us, that according to his religion he had a problem sitting next to an unknown woman, so we agreed, that my wife and I switched seats. We presented us to each other, but because of his bad English, further conversation was hard and after a short while, we were quiet. During the flight, we were offered some snacks and drinks. I ordered a red wine. When the wine was served the guy went completely bananas – waving his hand as if trying to fan fumes from the wine away from his face. He then started yelling at me in a language in which I was unfamiliar. Eventually the flight attendant came to my rescue and ask the gentlemen to follow her, and he was moved to a seat in back of the plane. I never saw him again.
Came ba k b/c I just realized: Some airlines don't let you switch seats anyway, b/c that way if there's an incident, they can identify things. Ahem. So. Yeah.
If you have religious restrictions, it's up to you to organise everything. If there is no kosher/halal food, you have to bring it with you. If you don't want to be seated next to 2 men, you have to request this when you are booking your flight. It's simple, it's up to yourself to organise everything. Everyone has his/her responsabilities. People often complain about things that's their own responsability; I have kids with me, my religion, my diet ect...
religious exemption rights are the "first rights"... The Romans persecuted the Christians to death with brutal executions for 200 years until they finally allowed that they have the right to practice their own religion. The Romans finally admitted they should make allowance for this based on their history of openness and tolerance. So many people died before they did. This was the first right ever granted by a government like this. It only was granted after God obviously judged the last emperor to persecute Christians. Dying a slow death of bowel cancer must have been a hard wake-up call. This right like any other right is sometimes abused. So play fair people, okay?
Never the AH for refusing to give up your seat on a flight as you paid for it and very likely chose it at the time of booking. Storytime! Once while flying internationally in business class, a woman from the coach section asked me and my wife to switch seats with her and her elderly handicapped father. She turned into a #flightkaren when I flat out refused. She continued getting louder and the flight attendant came over to ask what was going on, #flightkaren told her we refused to switch seats with her and her elderly father. When the flight attendant realized their seats were in coach she asked why they just didn't upgrade to business class before boarding. Her answer? They could not afford it and felt that because her father was handicapped that she should be able to REQUIRE someone from business or first class to swap seats. the flight attendant informed her that is never the case. I don't care who you are or your reason, I will never swap a superior seat for an inferior one.
I think that it was ungracious of the man for not agreeing to change seats. It doesn't hurt to accommodate others. Personally I dislike sitting beside a male on a plane, because men tend to hog the arm rests| Kudos certainly he the Gentleman who offered to exchange seats.
Definetly NTA. If she wasn't lying through her teeth, she would've talk to the airline representative about having a specific seat, for religious reasons, of course...
I am so sick of people trying to force their religious beliefs on everyone else. The so-called christians are the most horrible at this. Makes me want to see all religion banned in public settings. Religion is truly the the worst problem in this country where they believe their beliefs are holier than thou. Screw them!
For my next flight I shall claim that my religion requires me to be seated betwixt two comely lasses who must feed me grapes and cradle my head in their ample busoms whilst whispering how magnificent and endearing I am . . . . . .
Well... not always you can get the sit you want, but you might need to fly anyway. Asking the people next to you to change sits sometimes is the only solution. I once had a flight with my very young son. He did not have a sit, and set in my lap, and I was 5 month pregnant at the time, and could only get the middle sit. The nice man next to me agreed to change sits. I did not demanded it, I just asked. He did not have to agree. Sometimes it's better to be considerate then right.
So, First, OP NTA! But, y'all aren't thinking the lady's position all the way through. There are some of these religions today that have certain belief systems within the larger accepted religion. For example: Hasidic Orthodox Jews within the larger Jewish community, the Taliban that interpret the Koran as Sharia law, some varied sects within the greater Christian Church etc... The thing that no one is thinking about is that the women that live in these communities are very often subservient to the men in their families. If they have been educated in their religious teachings that sitting with men is not acceptable, the women know that this is not just a "if possible" it must be done or she will be re-educated. It will be her fault that she didn't move her seat or change the situation somehow and the men in her family will be very sure that she remembers that lesson! Family control and abuse are still a big deal, not everyone is a selfish liar
I wouldn't move, I would state that and that would be the end of my involvement, I would proceed to put headphones on and zone out to music.
It's awful for the woman, yes, but I have to say.... if you fly alone, and as a woman, and you have a religious issue with eing flanked by males (or a PTSD issue or any issue for any reason)..... then you request and pay for the aisle seat. Your issue, and I'm sorry, b/c I would've volunteered to switch seats for her sake, but I wasn't on that plane. ...
Definitely lying imo, but I also have a question: Can’t you specifically book an aisle or window seat? (I‘ve never been on a plane so I wouldn’t know.)
Most times you can, given that you book your flight with enough anticipation, and there are seats available. Sometimes you have to pay extra money. There are some airlines that do not allow it.
Load More Replies... Me thinks the woman doesn't understand the background of that edict of her religion. Most religious rules that apply only to women were created by men. Why do you think some faiths required women to be covered head to toe, not allowed to be in public alone etc etc. Those are all designed to prevent another man from viewing, touching, interacting with what they consider to be a posession or property. Too bad these women sometimes do not understand just how bad they have it.
And I am sorry people -- especially those of you who DO follow a religion , to be so rude about another person. And I am sorry, but I do expect people to respect social mores. She was was perfectly entitled to ask, Maybe she got the last seat available? And the booking clerk suggested she ask for a change of seat once she had boarded? This Male Person was off to Lacrosse camp -- presumably young and fit? And in the arrogance of youth? So chuffed with now being an 'adult' he decides that is license for behaving like a brat?
this woman is a f*****g idiot. your imaginary friend has no bearing on seat i f*****g paid for. cow.
Boomers have raised such entitled people, god. What a joke. 90% of these people just say these things to have a more comfortable flight
I am so f*cking tired of this misogynist nonsense. As if all women are potential sinful sluts that need to be regulated and all men are sex-obsessed monkeys who can't control themselves. It si a truly terrible way to look at women and men.
You should look up ultra-orthodox Jewish traditions.
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