It happened again. Reddit user Kitsune_chan29 was sitting in an aisle seat. The woman picked it out for herself in advance so that the long flight would be more bearable. Then a fellow passenger came along and asked her if she could trade places.
However, in a post on the subreddit ‘Am I the [Jerk]?‘, the woman explained that this time, after she refused, another traveler joined in, pressuring her to switch seats. As she stood her ground, tensions rose, and the situation became increasingly uncomfortable.
Image credits: DC_Studio / envatoelements (not the actual photo)
Image credits: kitsune_chan29
Seat swapping happens on nearly every flight
Image credits: Skitterphoto / pexels (not the actual photo)
We contacted the woman behind the post and she agreed to tell us more about what happened. “No one stood up for me but another passenger was keen to get involved and stand up against me, as I described in my post,” she told Bored Panda.
“As a solo female traveler, it was a little intimidating to have another male passenger not only be rude to me but also antagonize me to one of the teenagers of the family by making it seem as though I was deliberately trying to separate a family and make their life difficult out of selfishness.”
According to the Redditor, the fact that she had pre-booked a seat and ordered a specific meal to that seat for health reasons was irrelevant. People shouldn’t treat each other like this. “He was very rude when I confronted him on this, as I don’t think he expected to be called out on his behavior.”
Last month, Mitra Amirzadeh, an Orlando-based flight attendant and union representative for a major airline that charges for advance seat assignments, said seat-swap requests happen on 8 of her 10 monthly shifts. Increasingly, they are from couples not seated together.
Amirzadeh said it has reached the point where she rarely intervenes because she doesn’t think passengers who paid for a particular seat should be forced to swap simply to appease others.
Which is exactly what happened on this plane, too. “The airline staff didn’t really get involved,” the Redditor explained to us. “They came to find out what the issue was, as this was holding up boarding, and when they were told, they allowed me to make my own decision rather than persuade me to do anything, which was quite good of them.”
People should understand that no means no
Image credits: SHVETS production / pexels (not the actual photo)
The traveler thinks it’s fine to ask somebody to switch seats, but people have to respect that no means no. “I was being asked to switch from an aisle seat to a middle seat, which would give me much less convenience and comfort on such a long flight, and my decision wasn’t being accepted. I’ve happily switched seats before to an equivalent seat, but I think it is unfair to ask people to switch for something worse and then be rude because of poor planning, especially as Emirates didn’t even charge for seat reservations on this flight.”
Etiquette expert Rosalinda Oropeza Randall agrees.
“If someone asks you to switch seats, you are not obligated to do so or even consider it,” she said. “You have the right to decline – politely, of course.”
She even believes that you shouldn’t explain yourself when the person wants to know why you won’t move. “You may say something like, ‘I prefer to stay where I am,’” she added.
The Redditor reiterated that the family wanting to switch wasn’t the issue. “It was the third party and his attitude. I think solo female travelers are asked to switch seats more often than men are, which I think speaks to a larger issue of certain people feeling that women can be coerced and do not deserve the same respect.”
Those who read her story believe the woman had every right to remain in her seat
