A plane passenger has sparked a debate on Reddit after refusing to allow another passenger to sit in the empty seat next to him. In a recent Reddit post shared to the popular “Am I The A**hole?” subreddit, the passenger explained that during a three-hour flight, he and his friend had purchased the last seat in their row because it was her first time flying and she had severe social anxiety.
''This happened during a three-hour flight. We were seated on the left side and paid extra for the third seat in our row because my friend has severe social anxiety and this was her first time flying. She was sitting by the window and I sat next to her and this guy came over and sat on the armrest of the empty seat to talk (very loudly) to his relatives who were seated on the other side. I immediately tapped him on the back and told him the seat was not available because we paid for it,'' he wrote.
See the post here:
AITAH for telling a guy the empty seat is not available because we paid for it?
byu/Dramatic_Safe_4257 inAITAH
However, this led to the man complaining about the situation “loudly” to his relatives and ''mocking'' him. ''After that, he stood next to us in the aisle during the majority of the flight and kept being loud and very gestural (a member of the staff even told him to keep it down at one point) and leaned close to me with his ass, possibly as a way to provoke me (I was sitting close to the aisle at that point because my friend was taking a nap and resting her legs in the middle),'' he continued.
The Reddit user said that the flight crew should have intervened in the situation as the passenger gave him ''dirty looks'' throughout the flight. He asked fellow Redditors whether he was wrong.
In response, many came to his defence and praised the man for keeping his seat since he paid for it. One user wrote, ''You paid for it, no amount of his complaining is going to change that.''
Another commented, ''Nothing will ever change in life if you don't take action. This person was bothering you so you have the power to alert a flight attendant to what was happening. Can't let people like him win because that's basically what happened.''
A third wrote, ''The seat WAS taken. It was paid for by you. I would have 100 percent called a flight attendant and explained that this passenger's behaviour was causing issues.''
Etiquette expert Michelle McMullen told Newsweek that "the man in the aisle was being a jerk. When you pay for an extra seat, it is yours, period."
