Man refuses to swap plane seats for a mother and her baby because he paid extra to sit there

Long plane flights are never fun at the best of times, but one man thought he was making it more comfortable for himself when he paid for a seat with extra legroom.

But, when a woman with a baby asked if he could swap seats with her husband who was seated in a chair with no extra legroom he was left in an awkward predicament as he refused to move.

The man posted about the incident in a post on Reddit’s Am I The A**hole community, captioned: “AITA [am I the a**hole] for not giving up my seat on the airplane?”

In the post, the man explained that he and his wife were on a 10 hour flight from Europe to Asia last week and had paid to sit in the front row which has extra legroom as they are both tall.

He explained that they had each booked the end seat of the 3-seater row in the hopes that the middle seat may remain free, but on the caveat that may not be the case.

The anonymous man wrote: “When we boarded, there was woman holding a baby seated in the middle seat…

“This woman, before I even had a chance to put my bag in the overhead compartment, asked me ‘Can I be really cheeky and ask you to switch seats with my husband?’”

“She then pointed towards her husband sat in the second row on the left side column of the aircraft (only the first row has extra leg space and requires additional payment to book the seat).

“She then told me that her husband needs to be next to her to help with the baby.”

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The man “politely but firmly” told her that unfortunately, he wouldn’t move as he had paid extra for the legroom.

The mother then claimed her husband had also paid more but had been placed in the second row, which the man thought was suspicious.

A steward also asked the man to move seats but he repeated what he had told the woman, who “threw daggers” at him after his refusal to move.

In the post, the man wrote: “Thankfully the steward came back and told me that there were 2 vacant seats in one of the other first rows and offered to move us.

“We ended up moving there but could hear this lady animatedly make comments about us to her husband from behind for sometime after that.”

While speaking to his in-laws the man said they thought he was in the wrong, but his wife who was travelling with him agreed that “her poor planning is not our problem”.

In the comments, other Reddit users gave their opinion on the matter.

One person wrote: “NTA [not the a**hole]. Having a baby doesn’t automatically entitle you to whatever you want, especially because booking is in advance and they had ample time to do the same amount of planning as you.

“They tried to spring it on you on the plane hoping to get away with it.”

Another agreed, writing: “NTA You paid for them, they're yours. Even if she was telling the truth and they were somehow able to also book those seats, that's the airline's problem, not yours.”

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