A Reddit user who refused to accept a man's request to change seats with his pregnant wife many rows behind on the plane was perfectly fine for rejecting the request and shouldn't feel bad about it, other Reddit users decided.
Posting to the “AITAH” subreddit on January 13, user “hahahajump” asked the community to weigh in on his story, titled “AITAH for not giving up my free upgraded seat at the departure gate to a couple…who wanted to [to be] sitting together.”
“AITAH” means “Am I the asshole here?” It's similar to the “Am I the Asshole?” subreddit.
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In the post, hahahajump (who did not specify gender) described a recent 14-hour flight from Asia, with an economy ticket booked “as usual.”
Before the flight took off, an attendant offered hahahajump the chance to move to an aisle seat in the emergency exit row, something the person “happily accepted instantly.”
The Reddit user was criticized by family and friends for not giving up the exit row upgrade to a pregnant woman who was traveling on the same flight and who was separated from her husband. (iStock)
Hahahajump moved to the new seat and found a young man in his 20s already sitting in the row.
As hahahajump began to settle into the seat, the man “suddenly smiled.” [at] “Me,” the Redditor wrote, asking if his pregnant wife could take the exit row seat, since the pregnant woman was not comfortable in her existing seat many rows behind.
Hahahajump wondered why the man had only paid for a premium seat for himself and not for his own wife.
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“My brain instantly responded, 'Oh, but you have a bigger seat. Why don't you switch to hers?'” hahahajump wrote on Reddit about the experience.
Hahahajump refused to change seats and the man's face sank “instantly,” the Redditor wrote.
When the fight started, Hahahajump felt very tired, as described in the post, and “it was over instantly.” [falling] “Asleep with my headphones on.”
The writer added: “I woke up 3 or 4 hours later,” only to find a new seatmate: the man's wife.
Exit row seats have more legroom than standard economy seats, and others defended a Reddit user for not giving up a free upgrade. (iStock)
“There was no story afterwards,” hahahajump wrote. “We just had no communication, which was perfect.”
While hahahajump did not believe anything was out of line in terms of behavior regarding the seat change request, the person's own family and friends said that the traveler should have given up the seat to the person's wife so that The couple could sit together.
“But I really feel, why? [didn’t] the husband changes his [seat] Was I already in the best seat?” hahahajump wrote. “Why me?”
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Hahahajump added: “I don't feel too bad. [about] my decision, but maybe I'm wrong.”
Fox News Digital reached out to the Reddit poster and an etiquette expert for additional information on the situation.
“Why would you expect a stranger to give you his seat when he wasn't willing to?”
On the AITAH subreddit, people can reply to posts and indicate the author as “NTA” (“Not the A–hole”), “YTA” (“You are the A–hole”), ” NAH” (“There are no fools here”) or “ESH” (“Everyone sucks here”).
Users can “upvote” comments they find useful and “downvote” comments they find unhelpful.
Most of the 500+ responses to the post assured hahahajump that he or she was “NTA” for maintaining the seat upgrade.
“That was a great question for the man,” Reddit user “l3ex_G” said in the top-voted comment.
This same commenter continued: “Why would you expect a stranger to give you his seat when he wasn't willing to?”
Reddit users assured the original poster that they were perfectly within reason not to give up their seat on the plane. (iStock)
Another user agreed that the response was well played.
“You did exactly the right thing,” said Reddit user “FairyPenguinStKilda.”
“You instructed Mr. Entitled Dude very well. Impeccable,” the same commenter continued.
“That's sneaky. Yeah, you should give up your seat.”
Others criticized how the man apparently planned to exploit the system to get a better seat for his wife.
“NTA. So he bought just one good seat and hoped to manipulate the person (who presumably paid to upgrade his seat, although that's not true in his case) into giving up his,” Reddit user “LabyrinthianPrincess” said in another top- upvoted comment.
“That's misleading. Yes, you should give up your seat,” the same responder added.
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“They were playing [your] being understanding,” said user “OldNCranky75.”
“It is the husband's responsibility to make sure his wife is comfortable.”
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Other users were surprised that a pregnant woman was allowed to sit in the exit row, since people in the exit row must agree to help during an emergency.
“If a passenger sitting in the exit row is pregnant, by law she must sit back down,” according to travel website The Points Guy.
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