A plane passenger has been blasted online after he refused to let an elderly woman sit in the same row as him. The man was thrilled when he boarded his AirAsia flight and realised that the two seats beside him were vacant - meaning he had the whole row to himself.
Hoping to catch up on some sleep during the journey, he waited until the seatbelt sign was turned off before laying down across the seats to get some shut eye. However, half an hour later, he felt a tap on his leg and was stunned to find an elderly passenger wanting to take the seat at the end of the row.
Frustrated, he called over a crew member to tell the woman to move as she was not in her allocated seat, the Mirror reports. But to his annoyance, the staff refused and pointed out that he was not in the seat he had paid for either. Sharing his experience on Reddit, several commenters agreed with the cabin crew member and criticised the man for 'throwing a strop' on the plane.
Posting to " Am I the A******" forum, the passenger wrote: "I was flying to Asia on AirAsia. Flight length is 7 hours. The setup is 3-3-3, 3 seats on the sides, and 3 on the middle aisle. Most people have their seats setup so it's x-o-x, 2 people in each row, with a space between them. I get lucky and have a row all to myself o-o-x. But I didn't want to take a chance to move so I put all my stuff in my seat pouch (tablet, water bottle, phone, earphones).
"During take-off I stay in my assigned seat, then when the seat belt light goes off I put on my earplugs and eye mask and lay down. About 30 minutes in someone taps my leg, I wake up and reposition in the middle seat." He then claimed he was tapped by someone he termed an "old" lady, who "sat down in my original assigned seat when I got up."
He continued: "I thought she was sitting down to let people pass her by, but she stays there and starts putting her purse under the seat and water bottle in the seat pouch (my stuff is still inside). She gestures for me to move to the other seat. I'm just confused, and stare at her for a good minute thinking what is going on.
"I call the help button. A crew member comes and I explain that the woman is sitting in my assigned seat and the the other seats in the row were not occupied, so its obviously not her assigned seat, so I'm asking him to tell her to leave. He says that since I moved seats she can too. Visible confusion just radiates from my eyes. At this time she didn't say anything to this crew member.
"She gestures for me to move over to the other aisle seat again so it's x-o-x, but I tell her no. So I decide to just play hardball and get my tablet from her seat and start watching movies. Another 20-30 minutes go by and they start serving drinks. She gets a drink and starts having a long conversation to a different crew member.
"Idk what they said, but she chugged her drink, took her stuff (I was watching if she was trying to steal something) and left. Never saw her again. She wasn't even in the vicinity when I went to the bathroom, no idea where she came from.
"When she left I laid down and went to sleep. So [Am I the A*****?] for not moving over to share the row with this woman?"
People were quick to call out the passenger's 'bad behaviour', with one user commenting: "You sound entitled as hell."
Another said: "If you're going to throw a strop about people not sitting in their assigned seats then follow your own rules." And a different person said: "You moved seats- she can too! It wasn't 'your' row; you had one seat in the row. You cannot claim more than one seat, or an entire row. You sound like you behaved really badly tbh - playing 'hardball'?! Ridiculous."
Updating his post, the man further explained: "I laid down on the row. Someone tapped my leg, I got up because I thought it was crew telling me to put on my seat belt. It just happened that when I sat up I ended up in the middle seat. Before I had the chance to say or do anything the lady took my seat without saying anything. I did not willingly move to the middle seat. I just sat up and she took it, so even if I wanted to move to my assigned seat, I couldn't because she was there."
However, other users still disagreed with his plane etiquette, with one person commenting in response: "She could only sit there because you weren’t sat in because you moved."
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