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12th August 2021
01:34pm BST
I'm pretty sure I'm TA, because it was a family, but hear me out. I normally wouldn't care, but...
I paid a small amount extra for a seat that is in the front of the cabin - the coach seat that has a wall in front of it and extra legroom, because it's my second leg in a 20 hour total trip.
Two adults, two children (8ish?) and two infants would like to fill this row of four. Two adults with one infant each in the bassinet in front of them, and the two middle-schoolers. The attendant asked if I would move to a similar seat so they could sit together.
I said, "but I paid extra for this seat." The response was that the other seat was the exact same, so sure. It was not the exact same. It was the same chair, aisle, and class, but it was not with the extra legroom. I said, "absolutely not."
So one of the middle schoolers had to sit by themselves.
Why I'm the asshole: It made none of us comfortable for me just to be a stubborn prick, myself included. The other passengers around me were looking at me, and service on the flight for me was abhorrent in comparison to everyone around me (everyone's getting their regular meal and a coke or beer or whatever. ("could I have a drink with my meal, too?" "in a moment." forgets me; etc.) The other seat wasn't horrible, it's just I'm a pushover way too much, normally I'd happily move like it was all my fault, but I was very tired.
Why I'm not the asshole: Unlike the family, I'd just changed from a 10 hour flight, getting on another 10 hour flight, and I paid in advance to sit there.
"Abhorrent"? Give it a rest, mate, it wasn't Con Air. I mean, even if it's the fact he paid extra and therefore felt such attachment to his precious seat, are you really running the risk of being that guy that makes life more difficult for a family already having to manage the behaviour of four kids on a ten-hour flight? Then again, you lot might disagree. We can only assume since he deleted the question that wasn't really a question, that this bloke got the answer he was expecting despite secretly hoping he'd be absolved by the famously forgiving forum that is Reddit. As u/taylferr put it quite succinctly, we suspect the extent of the petulant passenger's treatment has been exaggerated and "can’t say [we're] surprised at the lack of empathy and that majority have clearly never travelled with others". As for the now anonymous Redditor, this one's for you fella: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLMgbV3uaz8Explore more on these topics:
