A young woman was labelled “stingy” and harassed on a flight after “ruining” a couple’s attempt to get more space.
The solo traveler typically pays more to select her seat in advance, but a medical emergency on another plane had her waiting on a standby list.
She was then greeted by a couple who had purchased window and aisle seats in an attempt to have more space, a “hack” that has been popular on TikTok lately.
Since few people actively choose the middle seat, couples often have plenty of extra space. This arrangement has been dubbed “the poor man’s business class.”
“When I got to my row, the man and woman were chatting and sharing a snack… it was obvious they were together. I mentioned it to the man in the middle and he stood up to let me in,” the unsuspecting traveler wrote on Reddit.
“I asked them if they preferred to sit together and I said I was totally fine with it. The woman reacted rudely and said, ‘You’re not supposed to sit here anyway.'”
The plane was full and she offered to show the couple their new ticket with the correct seat number.
“She waved her hand at my ticket and made a disgusted sound. I offered her again if she wanted to sit together, to which she didn’t respond. Her partner said it was fine and… we chatted for a bit,” she continued.
A solo traveler felt the wrath of her girlfriend when she accidentally ended up in the middle seat between her and her boyfriend.
His girlfriend interrupted him: “Did you use one of those third-party websites to book your flight? It’s so frustrating when people cut corners to inconvenience others.”
The American woman explained that she had booked her flight directly and had been put on a waiting list like everyone else and had not chosen the middle seat, but had been assigned to it.
He then attempted to keep the peace by refusing to interact with the angry woman.
“I got so fed up with his attitude that I put my headphones on and tried to do my thing,” she explained.
But the “entitled” girlfriend didn’t let it go.
“This woman was constantly coming up to me and hitting her partner, trying to talk to him in a super intrusive way,” she said.
‘I could tell that even her partner was trying to get her less involved so that she would hopefully stop, but she didn’t.
“Airplane etiquette” is a hot topic on the Internet, with flights even being forced to ground after disputes over reclining seats and swapping seats.
“I think they tried to use that tactic of not sitting together on purpose… hoping that no one would sit between them. But on full flights that doesn’t work. And even then, it’s not the other person’s fault.”
Hundreds of people unanimously criticized the “monstrous” couple.
Everyone agreed that the “insufferable” bride had a case of “air rage” and was taking it out on the woman who wasn’t at fault, especially after kindly offering to switch seats so the couple could sit together.
“It’s like a little kid having a tantrum,” one woman said.
“She was disappointed and a complete jerk. Rude and entitled people,” added another.
Some people were impressed by how sensible and diplomatic she had been in offering to sit anywhere in the row.
‘“Wow! You are my hero for keeping it classy. I’m afraid I wouldn’t have been as nice as you,” one said.
One man dismissed the common strategy for air travel: “The old ‘redneck upgrade’ trick: Book the two seats on either side and hope the middle seat stays empty.”
Others admitted that they had tried the seat trick several times, but had never used it with the third person if the strategy did not work.
“It’s a very strange hill to die on. Sometimes you play and win, sometimes you lose. This time they lost, but it wasn’t the fault of the original author of the post,” one man argued.
“As someone who has definitely tried that exact same tactic, I’m so sorry that the other person was such a jerk,” one woman said.
“Whenever my partner and I do it, we tell the person who is joining us and ask if they want the window seat, so we sit together,” she added.
One man had his own opinion on why the couple didn’t sit together in the first place.
“I would have ended up saying to my boyfriend, ‘I understand why you didn’t want to sit next to him,'” she joked.
(tags to translate)dailymail
