I told a white lie to keep the seat next to me on a flight – and almost got taken off the plane when cabin crew found out
A woman revealed on Reddit how a white lie landed her in hot water during a flight.
The passenger, believed to be from the US, does not specify where she was flying to or from, but tells the social media site that she hatched a plan to try and earn some extra legroom when she noticed the plane was “half-full.”
She explained to a fellow passenger who arrived to be seated that she was saving space for her husband, despite actually traveling alone.
However, her plan was unraveled when the man she had lied to became annoyed when her husband did not arrive to take that seat, and warned the cabin crew of her falsehood – who warned both passengers that they would be kicked out if they did not . resolve the situation.
She explained on the social media site: ‘I (25F) had a flight. When we board the gate agent says the flight isn’t even half full and they need us to spread out for even weight distribution.
Who’s right? A woman who tried to get some extra legroom on a flight by lying about someone sitting next to her saw her plan backfire when a fellow passenger called the flight attendants
“I was in the middle seat and they kept repeating that the flight was only half full, only 75 people on the flight.
She continued: “Almost literally the last second a guy (50) walks by and says “I’m coming to sit next to you” not even asking, so that gave me a red flag about him and I say “actually my husband is going to sit here “. The truth is I travel alone, but as a young woman I avoid telling people that.”
The man was unperturbed, clearly smelled a rat in her story and said he would take a seat at the window.
She continues in the Reddit post, titled “Am I the asshole for not wanting anyone to sit next to me on a plane?”, that he then told her “I’ll sit by the window” before replying that “the flight is only half full, there’s a whole lot of room’, hoping he would move.
She adds, “So I move to the aisle seat to avoid a problem and he’s like, ‘so where’s your husband?’ I ignore him. He asks again, “should we let the flight attendants hold the flight for your ‘husband’?” with literal air quotes and I ignore him again.’
After he calls her a liar, she reveals that her husband is actually being deployed to the Middle East – but it doesn’t earn her any empathy.
The lone female traveler goes on to explain that the cabin crew got involved after pointing them to the conversation.
“A flight attendant comes up to me and asks me what’s going on so I start to explain and of course he talks over me so another flight attendant comes up to me and tells me to move.
“I look at her stunned because I got there first and didn’t cause the problem he did. So she says either one of you has to move or you’re both off the flight. So I just grab my bag and move.”
She added an edit to the post to later clarify that she hadn’t sworn and only raised her voice “above a normal polite tone,” and that the cabin crew close to her new seat – at the back of the plane – stood sympathetically versus what happened.
