When it comes to travelling abroad, most people are organised ahead of time to ensure their flight journey is as comfortable and relaxing as possible. However, one woman with an "invisible" disability who had booked an aisle seat so she could have more leg room was branded a "monster" when she refused to give up her seat for another passenger.
The 22-year-old, who was flying eight hours home to America from Europe, had picked a specific seat that would allow her to "stand up and move around" as she suffers from extensive nerve damage in her spine. In the seats next to her, she was joined by a mother and her two-year-old child.
The mum asked her to swap seats with her husband, so both parents could look after their toddler. However, when the woman politely refused, her fellow passenger became very angry and branded her disability as a load of 'bulls***', the Mirror reports.
The upset woman held her ground and refused to move but said she was met with many dirty looks from other passengers for the duration of the flight because she had not switched seats. Taking to Reddit to explain the situation, she wrote: "I have a disability that caused cysts to erode my spinal nerves for years before we caught it, and, despite surgery, I live with severe chronic pain resulting from extensive nerve damage.
"This pain significantly worsens when I'm sitting in an upright position, but I knew I could manage the flight with my medication, leg room for slouching, and the ability to stand up and move around whenever I needed to ease the pain without having to repeatedly inconvenience potential seat neighbours by forcing them to get up so I could get through."
Speaking of the mother and baby that had been seated beside her, she explained the dad was several rows behind them in a window seat. She continued: "As I expected, as soon as they were settled in, the mum turned to me and asked me to switch seats with her husband so he could be there to help with the baby.
"I politely told her 'No thank you, I’d like to keep my seat,' which was not received well. She badgered me for several more minutes, but I stood my ground."
The woman explained that she was forced to go into detail about her medical condition in an attempt to get the mother to leave her alone, which was something she usually tends to keep private. She added: "She [passenger] said 'What a load of bulls***' [because] my condition is invisible, so that really got to me. I called over a flight attendant because at that point I was tired of being insulted and called heartless (also, the husband never once got involved in this situation) and she eventually got the woman to stop.
"She still spent the next eight hours very loudly talking crap about me to the baby and making a show of yelling back to her husband when she needed something. I put my headphones on, read my book, watched TV, got up and walked around when I needed to, and all around had an otherwise pleasant flight experience."
While some passengers offered a smile to the 22-year-old passenger, most joined in with the mum in scowling at her. She continued: "I did get a lot dirty looks while the mum was making a scene.
"There was one guy who smiled and nodded at me (he was close enough to hear my story), which I appreciated, but most everyone else around was throwing me disgusted stares for a while. I heard one older lady in the row across whisper to her husband that I was a monster."
Now questioning whether or not she had the right to stand her ground, the woman took to Reddit to ask their advice on the situation. She concluded: "I just feel like, if they wanted to sit together, why didn’t they buy three tickets next to each other in the first place?
"Perhaps I would’ve considered switching if it were only a minor inconvenience - I understand traveling with a baby must be hard - but in this case, switching would’ve negatively impacted my flight experience to a very high degree, and that isn’t what I paid extra for when I purchased my ticket months in advance.
"I didn’t think I'm in the wrong, but it’s hard to maintain that thought when you have a cabin of people looking at you like you kicked a lost puppy."
Other Reddit users flocked to the comments to reassure the author that she was not in the wrong as they slammed the entitled mother for her rude behaviour. One user questioned: "Did she offer to switch seats with the people sitting in the row with the dad? Didn't think so."
Another person replied: "Even if you did not have the disability you would not be an a***hole. They very likely made their own bed by deciding to get the two bulkhead seats (seat that back onto a wall) and gamble they would be able to badger their way into the third rather than getting three seats together further back in the plane."
A third user wrote: "She's not bad for asking, but she's completely and utterly wrong for not shutting up when you said no. That's a long flight, man! She didn't even deserve an explanation, but you gave her the reason and she still didn't shut up. You did everything right. She sucks and I feel sorry for that baby."
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