Woman Makes A Girl Cry By Asking Her To Sit In Her Correct Plane Seat Interview With Author
Experts already warn us that flying will never be the same after the pandemic. Flight prices are nowhere near as cheap as they used to be, many airports are often still understaffed, and planes are packed to the brink. No wonder airlines are charging insane prices for the good seats.
Speaking of seats, a 22-year-old woman got into a weird situation after boarding a 9-hour international flight. A girl was sitting in the author’s window seat, and being stressed and not wanting to look rude, the author was ready to give up her seat. But a phone call from her dad changed the whole situation.
A woman shared an incident on the AITA subreddit about how she made a child cry by taking the seat that she paid for on a flight
Image credits: leungchopan (not the actual photo)
Image credits: friends_stock (not the actual photo)
Image credits: Anon
“I don’t deal with confrontation very well sometimes,” the author of this story who wanted to remain anonymous told Bored Panda.
She continued: “And at that moment I was already feeling emotionally vulnerable about leaving home. I have read about things like this happening so often, but I did not expect for it to happen to me, so while I know I should have said something immediately I panicked and stressed out.”
“Instead of making the situation more uncomfortable, I would have just sat at the aisle seat and been miserable for the rest of the flight. My family knew that and that is why my dad refused to end the call until I had spoken up for myself and gotten into my correct seat,” the woman behind this story told us.
She said she is glad she stood up for herself. “I had been looking forward to the window seat but I felt bad cause the girl started crying and it’s never nice to see someone crying because of something you’re involved with indirectly or directly.”
Image credits: ijeab (not the actual photo)
The author also wanted to point out that there were no more snide remarks from the girl’s father. “We actually spoke during the flight and he seems like a nice man. The girl was able to look out during the flight. All in all, I just wanted to say that I had no more problems during the flight.”
When asked if flying has been feeling more difficult lately, the author of the story confirmed that soaring prices have definitely made it harder to fly. “Both international flights I took over the last 10 days were fully booked, but I’ve been diligent enough about booking the tickets in advance,” she said and added that she has also been very fortunate that her parents can afford “to fly me to and from, so I’m very grateful for them.”
Plane seats and their shrinking size have become a heated issue for travelers
Image credits: DC_Studio (not the actual photo)
For long-haul and long-distance flights, choosing a seat wisely may be a game changer. But if you are a frequent traveler, you know very well that seats often feel not just small, but tiny. So how are you supposed to sit back, relax and enjoy your flight?
Apparently, in 2022, the Federal Aviation Administration received more than 26,000 pieces of input related to airline seat sizing shared from a wide variety of commenters. They ranged from frequent and infrequent flyers to airline lobbyists, lawmakers and passenger rights advocates.
With the tiny seat problem in fully packed planes, the question of whether it’s okay to recline your seat is more relevant than ever before. But this survey showed that more than two-thirds of passengers, or 77%, think it’s rude. Meanwhile, more than 27% said they would still lean back, but politely ask if it was ok first, and just over 3% said they didn’t care and would recline without warning anyway.
The seating data shows how passengers have migrated from window to aisle seats and back throughout the years
Image credits: Chalabala (not the actual photo)
Interestingly, the seating chart data from ExpertFlyer’s Seat Alerts app discovered an interesting tendency with passengers shifting from window to aisle seats, and back to window from 2013 to 2019.
According to Katy Goshtasbi, researcher and behavioral expert at Puris Consulting, the trend makes perfect sense, but it’s not such a good thing. “As a researcher, it signals to me that there is a societal trend emerging that is not positive at all. Our use of technology is isolating people and making them feel lost, which makes many withdraw even more. And a window seat is a great place to hide.”
Measures have already been taken to bring people back at least a decent standard of comfort when flying with Congress passing the Seat Egress in Air Travel Act, or Seat Act. It is part of the FAA’s reauthorization bill that was signed into law in 2018, requiring the agency to issue regulations on minimum seat requirements “that are necessary for the safety of passengers.” Find out more about the Seat Act to find out how it may affect your flying experience here.
Many people supported the author and said that she did nothing wrong
Others took an opportunity and shared similar experiences
Can we just settle this once and for all? Your seat is your seat. Anyone else asks you for your seat and you don't give it to them, NTA, EVER! I don't care the situation. Either book your flight early or choose another flight if you don't get the seat you want. It's that simple.
I'll happily trade for an equivalent seat, but if I paid for a premium seat, I won't give it up without being reimbursed. If I have an aisle or window, I'm not trading for middle.
The ONLY time I'm aware that it's legitimate to ask someone to trade seats like these people want is what happened when I was traveling alone at 12 (I'm 45, so this was LONG ago). Somehow I'd been booked into a seat next to the ER door, and because I was a minor alone, they HAD to ask someone to trade with me because of regulations. The only other time I experienced anything like this was on the return trip (with my parents) somehow the airline screwed up and put my dad in 1st class and my mom and I in standard (I guess) he asked the lady next to us if she'd trade with him. At first she said no (it was a window), which my dad was FINE with accepting, UNTIL she realized it was an upgrade. Then she couldn't move fast enough. (Which is also absolutely fair! 🤣)
I don’t even understand how this topic keeps coming up. Book a damn seat when you book your flight. It really is that easy!
A thousand times this. Sure, you can be super duper nice and give up your seat for pregnant, sick, in love, young, old people, parrots, dogs or someone else's handbag. But it is perfectly fine not to do this.
Right?!
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
Wow, what an attitude. Never ever? Even if you don't care and someone kindly asks?
Read again what I wrote. If you want to give it up fine. But if you don't, NTA ever.
I had to read it three times to see what you meant. You could have phrased it much better. You meant "NTA, ever, if you don't", and NOT "don't give it to them, ever". I can quite see why Noltha would think you meant the latter and that would also have been my response.
It's not that hard to follow. Jeez.
I once got to my seat where a heavily pregnant woman sat in the middle with her kid sitting on my paid window seat. I stood there patiently till she made the kid move. In the end I had to ask her also to get up so that I could take my seat. She first expected me to climb over her pregnant belly and kept sitting. Maybe she assumed if she sat long enough I would tire out and take the aisle. I just kept standing. She finally got up when an attendant intervened and asked me to take my seat and I replied saying "I'm just waiting for this family to move so that I can sit" and I pointed to the window. The lady finally got up to let me in.
I thought you're not supposed to fly after a point in pregnancy?
Some airlines require a doctor/midwife's letter saying the pregnant person is safe to fly once they are 7 months pregnant. Others won't let you fly within in a month of your due date. The duration of the flight is also important, with short flights being more acceptable than long.
In my experience, every flight I have ever taken you are allocated a seat, and that is the seat you sit in and that's that.
I have taken many flights with no assigned seating. Southwest immediately comes to mind. Admittedly it has been a while since I traveled so this could have changed.
Southwest still does no assigned seating. I don't see that changing any time soon. I believe it's been proven to be one of the most efficient ways to have passengers board a plane. It was second to a method that was extremely contrived and impractical.
Maybe this is more a US thing, but for the last several years, I often find they won't let me reserve seats when I book. They open up online check-in a day before the flight and you can reserve seats at that point. If you don't do that, you get your seat assigned to you when you check in at the airport. It also seems to be getting more common to charge extra for aisle and window seats. That gets touchy when people with kids didn't reserve seats ahead of time, or were unwilling to pay the upgrade fee to get aisles or windows. Then they want to boot people out of their premium seat without paying them. Most domestic flights I've been on have three seats on each side of the aisle. So for two people to sit together, one of them is in an aisle or window.
Correct, that is how it's supposed to go. These are stories about people who don't think that rule applies to thim.
Can we just settle this once and for all? Your seat is your seat. Anyone else asks you for your seat and you don't give it to them, NTA, EVER! I don't care the situation. Either book your flight early or choose another flight if you don't get the seat you want. It's that simple.
I'll happily trade for an equivalent seat, but if I paid for a premium seat, I won't give it up without being reimbursed. If I have an aisle or window, I'm not trading for middle.
The ONLY time I'm aware that it's legitimate to ask someone to trade seats like these people want is what happened when I was traveling alone at 12 (I'm 45, so this was LONG ago). Somehow I'd been booked into a seat next to the ER door, and because I was a minor alone, they HAD to ask someone to trade with me because of regulations. The only other time I experienced anything like this was on the return trip (with my parents) somehow the airline screwed up and put my dad in 1st class and my mom and I in standard (I guess) he asked the lady next to us if she'd trade with him. At first she said no (it was a window), which my dad was FINE with accepting, UNTIL she realized it was an upgrade. Then she couldn't move fast enough. (Which is also absolutely fair! 🤣)
I don’t even understand how this topic keeps coming up. Book a damn seat when you book your flight. It really is that easy!
A thousand times this. Sure, you can be super duper nice and give up your seat for pregnant, sick, in love, young, old people, parrots, dogs or someone else's handbag. But it is perfectly fine not to do this.
Right?!
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
Wow, what an attitude. Never ever? Even if you don't care and someone kindly asks?
Read again what I wrote. If you want to give it up fine. But if you don't, NTA ever.
I had to read it three times to see what you meant. You could have phrased it much better. You meant "NTA, ever, if you don't", and NOT "don't give it to them, ever". I can quite see why Noltha would think you meant the latter and that would also have been my response.
It's not that hard to follow. Jeez.
I once got to my seat where a heavily pregnant woman sat in the middle with her kid sitting on my paid window seat. I stood there patiently till she made the kid move. In the end I had to ask her also to get up so that I could take my seat. She first expected me to climb over her pregnant belly and kept sitting. Maybe she assumed if she sat long enough I would tire out and take the aisle. I just kept standing. She finally got up when an attendant intervened and asked me to take my seat and I replied saying "I'm just waiting for this family to move so that I can sit" and I pointed to the window. The lady finally got up to let me in.
I thought you're not supposed to fly after a point in pregnancy?
Some airlines require a doctor/midwife's letter saying the pregnant person is safe to fly once they are 7 months pregnant. Others won't let you fly within in a month of your due date. The duration of the flight is also important, with short flights being more acceptable than long.
In my experience, every flight I have ever taken you are allocated a seat, and that is the seat you sit in and that's that.
I have taken many flights with no assigned seating. Southwest immediately comes to mind. Admittedly it has been a while since I traveled so this could have changed.
Southwest still does no assigned seating. I don't see that changing any time soon. I believe it's been proven to be one of the most efficient ways to have passengers board a plane. It was second to a method that was extremely contrived and impractical.
Maybe this is more a US thing, but for the last several years, I often find they won't let me reserve seats when I book. They open up online check-in a day before the flight and you can reserve seats at that point. If you don't do that, you get your seat assigned to you when you check in at the airport. It also seems to be getting more common to charge extra for aisle and window seats. That gets touchy when people with kids didn't reserve seats ahead of time, or were unwilling to pay the upgrade fee to get aisles or windows. Then they want to boot people out of their premium seat without paying them. Most domestic flights I've been on have three seats on each side of the aisle. So for two people to sit together, one of them is in an aisle or window.
Correct, that is how it's supposed to go. These are stories about people who don't think that rule applies to thim.