When it comes to travelling by plane, the majority of the time the conditions in the economy seating of a flight are rather cramped. Being given the middle seat can often feel like you've drawn the short straw but passengers are given a few opportunities to pay for extra legroom or an extra seat for additional comfort on a long flight.
Being sandwiched between two people is an awkward situation for most people but one "entitled" man who admitted to "manspreading" has been slammed online after he said he's "never comfortable" on a flight. The passenger, who was wedged between two women, said he was left humiliated after the stranger beside him reported him to an air hostess for invading her space without personally asking him to move over first.
Horrified by her complaint, the man frantically began to apologise but claims the woman "ignored" him and refused to engage with him. The tall passenger, who confessed he was taking up some extra space on his neighbour's side, took to Reddit to seek advice from others about whether or not he was in the wrong in the situation.
In a post, he wrote: "I'm tall and am never comfortable on planes. My knees always dig into the seat in front and it can be quite painful. I usually try to take a walk around the airport before flights to stretch my legs but neglected to this time.
"About half an hour after takeoff I found my left knee inching to the side for the sweet relief of open space - specifically, the no-man's-land in between seats, level with the shared armrest.
"But I wasn't paying attention to my knee the entire time. I'll concede it's possible that at some point I was occupying space that rightfully belonged to my window seat neighbour. All was well for two hours."
However, things turned sour when the woman beside him decided to complain about his manspreading antics to an air hostess without asking him to budge over first.
He explained: "At this point, the woman in the window seat called over the flight attendant. She asked her something like 'could you tell him to keep his f***ing leg in his own f***ing seat.' With horror, I understood she was talking about me. I instantly retracted my leg in deep shame." T
The man said he was very apologetic but the complainant refused to engage with him and he "went from embarrassed to confused". He concluded the post by saying: "She ignored me the whole rest of the flight and I ignored her. I got a good but painful workout of whatever muscle it is that keeps your knees together."
However, in the comments, the oblivious man received little to no sympathy from other Reddit users as many told him he should've bought an extra legroom if he knew that his height would be an issue for other passengers onboard. One replied: "This is a known, reoccurring issue. You KNOW you will feel better with more leg space. Stop pinching pennies and pay for an aisle seat or an exit seat. There are options!"
Somebody else advised: "Everyone sucks here. She absolutely could have just asked instead of calling over the flight attendant. But you were also taking up space that wasn't yours.
"'All was well for two hours' in your mind, not in hers. You were blissfully unaware of the situation but for two hours she was putting up with you invading her space. There was probably a lot of side-eye you missed during that time."
Someone else criticised: "You're a grownup - it shouldn't be hard to figure out physical boundaries and respect them. Yeah, those narrow plane seats really suck for tall/big folks, but that doesn't mean you're entitled to someone else's space, even if you think they're not using it at the moment.
"The woman in the window seat handled the situation badly. She should have said something to you right away - a normal, 'hey, would you mind moving over? You're crowding me', etc. I assume that you, like most people, would have said, 'Oh, sorry!" and shifted away from her.
"But instead, she went full-on ballistic. Still, her overreaction doesn't make it right for you to infringe on her space. There are no winners here. Save all your points/mileage for an upgrade for a more comfortable seat next time."
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