I (24M) travel was travelling internationally for work. I had an 8-hour overnight flight and my company paid for my ticket but I still chose my seat. I got a window seat because I usually take melatonin and sleep through the whole thing. I don’t like needing to wake up for someone to use the restroom and it interferes with my work if I can’t rest properly.
When I boarded, a woman (late 20s? early 30s?) was sitting in my seat. I politely told her she was in the wrong place. She said she knew, but she was an “emotional support person”. I would’ve maybe been flexible if she needed to sit next to her child. But she was sitting next to a fully grown man (I assume her partner).
She explained that he gets severe flight anxiety, and she normally sits next to him to help calm him during takeoff and turbulence. She asked if I would switch so she could “stay with her person.”
Her seat, for the record, was a middle seat 30 rows back. I had a connection to make after this or I’d miss an important meeting, so I wanted to sit as close to the front as possible.
I said no mostly because I had a meeting right after my flights and needed sleep, and I wasn’t comfortable swapping for a middle seat in the back.
She immediately got upset and said I was being “selfish” and “choosing my own comfort over someone’s mental health.” The man wasn’t responding at all.
A flight attendant came over. I calmly explained the seat difference. The woman went back to economy but cried loudly for a while, telling the people around her that “some people only care about themselves.”
During turbulence mid-flight, I could see he was panicking and I felt awful. But they could’ve booked seats together in the first place.
My friends are split. Some say I did nothing wrong but others say it would have been a small sacrifice to prevent someone’s panic attack.
AITA?
NTA
Why couldn’t he switch and go sit with her in the back?
This is always the answer.
Yuupp, someone way at the back may have preferred a seat further up. The issue is they wanted to upgrade, not downgrade.
NTA. If it was important for them, then they should have booked seats together in the first place.
NTA. She could have also asked the people that were sitting next to her seat, but she wanted something better.
NTA
If you’re going to ask someone to switch seats with you, there are a couple courtesies you need to be aware of:
1) Offer the other person the better seat. You’re asking a favor of a stranger, the least you can do is give them the better seat while you move to the less-favorable one.
2) Be ready for the answer to be ‘no.’ The person doesn’t even have to give you a reason – that is their seat, that’s reason enough.
This lady did neither of these things.
NTA. These people are getting ridiculous. It’s not that hard to book seats together!
NTA
“some people only care about themselves”
Yeah, like the people who think they can take someone else’s seat because it’s better than the one they booked,
NTA
If he has bad flight anxiety they should have planned through that and booked seats next to eachother, if they booked late and couldn’t, it’s on them. PLUS he could have moved back next to her instead of trying to scam you out of a seat (yes, you didn’t pay for it, but she doesn’t know that)
NTA! If it was that important she could have asked the person in the seat next to her assigned seat if they wanted to move forward and the person she was supporting could have moved back. If it was that important for him to be near her he should have been willing to take the less ideal seat. This seems intentional on her part as well.
NTA. Sounds like a scam to me – she gets a free upgrade; you get dumped in economy. They had other options – like book seats together or ask someone from the back to come forward next to you so they could be together.
Yeah you notice how he didn’t need his emotional support person badly enough to go sit with her in the back.
NTA. Emotional support person is one of the dumbest things I’ve ever heard.
Why is it always the person with the good seat that needs to change. I bet the person next to her 30 rows back would’ve been willing to switch seats and get into a better seat to accomodate them.