Plane passenger labelled 'villain' after refusing to give up seat for a child - but who's in the right?
A woman has been criticised for not swapping her seat on a plane so a family could sit together.The debate began when a user posted her experience on the social media site Reddit. Posting on the channel r/childfree, the user wrote that she was on a seven-hour flight from Lisbon to Philadelphia in the US and had paid $58 (£43) extra for an aisle seat in the quiet section near the front. 'Sleep mattered. I board, dump my little backpack, do my seat belt, eye mask ready. A flight attendant is doing the stroller Tetris, a couple and two kids get on late and stop next to me.' Then came the divisive moment. The father apparently asked the woman if she would swap seats so the children could be with their mother.'We have a six-year-old and a toddler, you can take 32B, a middle seat at the back near the bathrooms.'After declining the offer because she paid for the seat, he apparently told her, 'You don’t understand, kids need their mother.'She claimed that the mother added, 'It’s just one seat, be human.' A woman has been criticised for not swapping her seat on a plane so a family could sit togetherThe user wrote: 'I repeat no, calmly. The attendant quietly says passengers are not required to switch and asks them to take their assigned seats. 'They huff but sit, one kid ends up across the aisle with the father, and the mother was behind me with the other. I put on my mask and try to go into statue mode.'But this wasn't the end. Some 20 minutes later, the woman was poked as the six-year-old played with cars on her armrest as the mother filmed. After asking not to be filmed, she was ignored and was called 'rude' by the father. 'I ring the little call button because now I’m hot and shaky. The attendant comes and backs me up, asking the mother to stop. 'We push back, take off. Lights go low. Kid behind me kicks for the first hour, gentle but constant, the metronome of rage. I turn and say, "Please stop kicking". 'The mother says he is only a child and asks me again to swap so she can manage both. I say again no. She mutters that single women don’t understand family life. We land. I survive.'Back at work, a coworker who was on the same flight told people that she refused to help a family. 'Suddenly I’m the ice queen of accounting,' wrote the user. 'One guy says if you don’t want to help kids, don’t fly. Another says I should be more flexible since I don’t have responsibilities at home. 'I would trade for the same or better, or for a true emergency, or if the airline messed up and offered an equal seat. I am not giving up sleep and back health for a middle next to the toilet because someone else did not plan. 'The part that lingered was the filming without consent. I keep replaying the moment I had to cover my face like a celebrity. That is a boundary I didn’t expect to need on a plane at 11 pm.'Responding to the Reddit post, one commenter wrote: 'Can you imagine how many airlines would immediately go out of business if families flying with children were their only customers? What world do these people live in?'You didn’t pay to book seats together, you don’t get seats together. I bet this works for them all the time, though. So why would they pay extra?''She should have heckled the dad for not being able to take care of his own six-year-old without mommy!' pointed out another.It comes after a plane passenger has been captured in a viral clip berating a couple while boarding a flight – after discovering they had 'given away' his $300 seat to their child.The flyer, who later identified himself in a follow-up TikTok video as Osaac Summer, had boarded an American Airlines flight on 6 July to discover his seat had been occupied by a child.A 20-second clip recorded by a fellow passenger, who goes by @lalawright2, captured the moment the young flyer gave the parents, who could not be clearly identified, a dressing down after reclaiming his seat.
