A disabled woman has sparked furious outrage after she revealed she was branded a ‘monster’ for refusing to switch seats on an eight-hour flight so that a family could sit together.
The Reddit user has reignited the ongoing conversation surrounding airplane etiquette, which has captivated the internet over the last few months – most recently when a frequent flyer revealed she had refused to give up her window seat in an empty row because she wanted to sleep across all three seats.
Now, a 22-year-old woman has added further fuel to the fire after explaining that she declined to switch seats with a father so that he could sit next to his wife and baby – noting that she had booked her particular seat in order to ensure she was able to travel comfortably with her chronic pain disability.
The traveler – who is based in the US but has not shared her name – asked Reddit users if she was an ‘a**hole’ for putting her foot down and remaining in her seat, which she paid extra for.
A disabled woman has sparked furious outrage after she revealed she was branded a ‘monster’ for refusing to switch seats while traveling so that a family could sit together (stock image)
The Reddit user, 22, has reignited the conversation surrounding airplane etiquette by asking Reddit users if she was an ‘a**hole’ for refusing to give up her seat
In her now-viral post, the unnamed plane passenger explained that she was travelling back home to the US from Europe and had to sit through an eight-hour flight
In her now-viral post, the unnamed plane passenger explained that she was travelling back home to the US from Europe and had to sit through an eight-hour flight.
She said that she had picked an aisle seat behind a dividing wall on the plane – which is also known as a bulkhead seat and is immediately behind the area of an airplane that separates the different classes – so she would have more ‘leg room for slouching and the ability to stand up and move around.’
The Reddit user said she did this because it helped her with her disability, which caused her to develop pain when sitting upright.
She further explained: ‘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 neighbors by forcing them to get up so I could get through.’
After getting settled into her seat, another woman and her two-year-old child joined her and sat in the middle and window seat in the same row.
She explained that the dad was ‘several rows’ behind his family and was sitting in a window seat, before adding that she ‘expected’ that the mom would ask her to switch seats.
‘As I expected, as soon as they were settled in, the mom 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.
‘I even explained to her what I wrote above about my disability and why I needed the seat.’
However, the mom refused to take no for an answer and continued to interrogate the 22-year-old, eventually even questioning her about her medical condition.
Finally, after having enough of being ‘insulted’ and called ‘heartless,’ the 22-year-old called over a flight attendant, who eventually got the mom to stop.
However, the Reddit user revealed the mom continued to be rude.
Other users on the social media platform were quick to come to her defense and slam the mother for behaving that way
‘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, but 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.
‘Still, I did get a lot dirty looks while the mom 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,’ she said.
The 22-year-old ended her post by questioning why the family didn’t buy three seats next to each other ‘in the first place.’
She added that she paid extra for her seat and purchased months in advance, and while she didn’t believe she was an a**hole, she felt horrified when a whole ‘cabin of people’ were looking at her like she had just ‘kicked a lost puppy.’
Other users on the social media platform were quick to come to her defense and slam the mother for behaving that way.
One person wrote: ‘Absolutely not the a**hole. She’s not an a**hole for asking, but she’s a total, complete and utter AH 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, my friend. She sucks and I feel sorry for that baby.’
‘People like her should be removed from planes. This whole demanding of people switching seats is out of control. At this point, I wouldn’t switch with anybody out of principle,’ commented another user,
Another person said: ‘Not the a**hole. If a family needs three seats together they should book in advance the same way you did.’
‘The answer is always the same: the two people in with the husband can move up to the better seats and they can sit together. Funny they never want to move to the worse seats to be together,’ added another person.
Other Reddit users also emphasized the fact that she should have switched with two people in her husband’s row and branded the mom ‘entitled.’
One person commented: ‘Not the a**hole in the slightest. If they wanted seats together they should have booked them like that. They didn’t. That sounds like a whole lot of their problem.’
Another person wrote: ‘Not the a**hole with or without the disability. 8 hours is a long flight. I see why you wanted the extra leg room.’
‘If they wanted to sot together then they should have gotten seats reserved together. That what you should have said loudly at her,’ said one person
One user said: ‘Entitled parents are the worst. You’re literally disabled. Her husband clearly wasn’t bothered with sitting with them. Not the a**hole.’
Reddit users went into a furious rage at the mom after the 22-year-old explained her situation, which comes after DailyMail.com columnist Jaci Stephen explained her take on switching seats.
Jaci confessed she ‘absolutely refuses’ to swap seats, no matter how angry the passenger requesting to switch may get.
In her confession, she explained she travels a lot and carefully selects her seat way in advance, she noted she even choose which direction she wants to face when traveling.
Jaci added that in the past, she’s had many passengers yell at her, and glare at her in annoyance, but she doesn’t mind as she noted its her ‘right to refuse.’
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Read more at DailyMail.co.uk