A plane passenger has ignited a fiery debate after she refused to give up her extra seat for a toddler. The 34-year-old woman, who is on a journey to lose weight, shared her story on Reddit, revealing that she booked two seats for her flight to ensure her own comfort and to avoid inconveniencing others due to her size.
She posted: “I’m going over to see my brother and his husband for Christmas across the country and because I’m fat, I booked an extra seat so everyone can be more comfortable. I know it sucks having to pay for an extra seat but it is what it is.”
She detailed how her travel experience was smooth until she boarded the plane. That’s when a mother with a nearly two-year-old boy noticed the empty seat next to her and demanded to use it.
The mum brazenly told her to “squeeze into one seat” so her son could sit in the other. The passenger recounted: “She told me, not asked. I told her no and that I paid for this seat for the extra space. She makes a big fuss over it, which got the flight attendant’s attention.”
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“She told the flight attendant I was stealing the seat from her son, then I showed my boarding passes, proving that I, in fact paid for the extra seat.
“The flight attendant asked me if I could try to squeeze in, but I said no, that I wanted the extra seat I paid for. The boy, who the mom said is 18 months old was supposed to sit in her lap so he could do just that.
“The flight attendant eventually told the mom to put her son in her lap. After putting up with “direct looks and passive-aggressive remarks” from her throughout the flight, she has started to second-guess her actions.”
She asked Reddit users: “I do feel a little bad because the boy looked hard to control so am I the a***hole? “Commenting on her post, one user said: “She’s the a***hole for not buying a seat for her son and assuming someone else would give up a seat they paid for. Odds are she was hoping there’d be extra seats on the flight so she didn’t have to pay and used the lap thing as a loophole. Classic case of you snooze you lose.”, reports the Mirror.
Another user added: “You are a little bit of an a***hole (to yourself) for how apologetic you are in this post about your size. You should always do what you can to be as healthy as you can, but being fat isn’t a character flaw or a moral failing.”
“We all have our own challenges in life, and you deserve to not be ashamed of your body and yourself even if you aren’t currently meeting your goals. If mum wants an extra seat for her kids, she should have purchased one. She’s not entitled to a seat you purchased, and you don’t need to feel bad for her bad behaviour.”
A third user chimed in: “Some people are so entitled you paid for the seats, you should not have to give one of them up. The Cabin crew should have stopped this straight away once they saw you had booked both seats, it should have been obvious why. They should not have asked you to squeeze in to one seat. The mother was an a****** and so was the member of cabin crew.”