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Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
World
Liam Buckler & Lottie Gibbons

Ryanair passenger 'felt judged' after refusing to swap seats for mum and baby

A Ryanair passenger has divided opinion after revealing he refused to move seats for a mum with a baby.

Posting his story on Reddit, the user said prior to the two-hour flight he had booked and paid for a middle seat. But upon entering the aircraft, a woman asked if he could switch seats with her husband who was at the back of the plane.

He refused to move but felt 'everyone' on the flight was judging him for his decision. He wrote: "I bought my seat on row 4B which is in the middle, it may sound odd to buy a middle, but I wanted it to be as close to the exit as possible and there were no other seats available.

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"The flight was landing on a minor secondary airport which has limited train connections so if I wanted to catch the best train, I'd have to run outside the plane and do passport control ASAP.

"If I missed that train, [the] other option was to wait an hour and a half, or get a $70 cab - so that's why I paid for that seat."

According to the Mirror, he added: "I board my flight, tired as hell, and I have this lady with her child of [a few] months quietly sleeping sitting in the window seat.

"She immediately asks if I can move to row 18 so she can sit with her husband. I just said I paid for the seat and I did not want to move.

"Whole row was looking at me and I could see the mother texting the husband about me. Eventually, no one was sitting next to the husband so she moved down the plane."

After dividing opinions on the flight, he asked whether he was in the wrong as "everyone was judging him" despite other passengers refusing to help the mum. The admission online has split opinions as most users were in favour of the man's decision and believe he had no obligation to move.

One person wrote: "It was your seat, you selected it. You have no obligations to give it up to anyone if you do not want to." Another added: "You bought your seat, you didn't want to move. If I took a flight with my three kids and wife and we weren't all together, it wouldn't bother me. People are so entitled. You did nothing wrong."

And a third user said: "Their lack of preparation isn't your fault. They were cheap and hoping to con/cajole someone into moving." Some users, however, thought the man should have thought of the mum's situation and paid her a favour by moving.

One said: "I get that you paid for That. Exact. Seat, but really? Why couldn’t you just do someone a favour? Have you ever been in a position where you needed a favour and that person just blew you off or was just plain rude?

"I just hope that in your future strangers are more considerate than you were."

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