While you can prebook where you sit on a plane, you can't choose the passengers you sit next to.
That's what one 28-year-old came to learn after being seated in front of a couple travelling with their "extremely stinky" baby.
She explained how, rather than taking the infant to the toilet, the couple changed their baby's nappy on their fold-down food trays.
Taking to Reddit, she said: "I was on a flight for several hours, seated behind a couple with a baby. I’m a really nauseous flyer.
"[The couple started] changing their baby's extremely stinky second diaper right in the middle of their seats, using the mum's food tray as a changing table. We were at the back of the plane right by the bathrooms, which I confirmed had baby changing tables when I had to go back there to throw up after the smell hit me.
"I didn't say anything the first time, but the second time I heard them go into the diaper bag a couple hours later, I asked if they could please go use the plane bathroom instead of exposing everyone on the plane to the smell."
Annoyed by her request, the mum "went off" at her, shouting about how stressful it is to travel with an infant.
"The flight attendant at the back of the plane agreed with me and asked them to only use the bathrooms to change their baby," she added.
"A few minutes later the pilot made an announcement that all diaper changing needed to be done in the bathrooms, after which both parents looked extremely annoyed."
Wanting to know whether she was too harsh on the couple, she has asked Reddit users whether she was right to say something or should have stayed quiet.
In response, one user said: "There are changing tables in the bathrooms - that's what they are for. Thank God the maintenance crews disinfect between flights. The thought of eating/drinking off a tray table used as a changing table makes me want to hurl."
Another user added: "Basic rules of baby changing, don't do it where people eat or where people are in close proximity. If you have a choice always use the changing tables."
A third user said: "The flight attendant and the pilot agreed with you and made announcements to verify that what they did was gross.
"People eat on those trays and while I know they are supposed to clean them between flights, let's be honest, sometimes they might missed."
Do you have a story to share? Email paige.freshwater@reachplc.com.
