I made a little girl cry on a plane because she sat in my seat

A solo traveller who became embroiled in a row about seats with a father on a plane has asked if she was in the wrong for making his young daughter cry. 

Taking to the US discussion forum Reddit, the 22-year-old woman said she’d reserved a window seat for her nine-hour long international flight. 

Once she boarded the plane and reached the correct aisle, she saw a young child was in her space and her father was in the middle seat. 

The man stared at her and said ‘she’s a child’ before pointing at the aisle seat, implying the young woman should sit there instead, but she insisted on taking her pre-booked space, which sent the little girl into floods of tears. 

Commenters were widely supportive of the young woman, who herself was feeling upset about leaving her family behind, and said that  

Explainng how the drama unfolded, the woman said that she felt emotional when boarding her flight. 

‘Leaving my family this time has been hard and I’ve been crying on and off the entire day,’ she said. 

‘I had a window seat booked for my flight and I was looking forward to it. 

‘When I got there, a child was sitting in my seat and her dad in the middle seat. I looked at the dad and pointed at the window seat saying that I think it’s my seat expecting him to move. 

‘He looked at me and said, “She’s a child” and pointed at the aisle seat suggesting I take it. 

‘Perplexed I did and had mentioned this to my family. My dad called me and told me to get my seat because he paid for it and it wasn’t a free seat. I then told the girls father this and he asked her to move. 

‘She started crying and I felt terrible but my dad told me to hold my ground. The girl moved and is sitting in the middle, 

‘I’m in my seat and I’m also sitting back so she can see out the window. Her dad has made one or two snide remarks about me wanting my seat so I just wanted to know, am I the a*****e for insisting on sitting in my seat?’ 

Commenters rushed to report her, with one user replying: ‘You bought a seat to be able to use it, and the father in this situation knew that the seat he put his child in wasn’t theirs to use. 

‘If the father wanted their child to have a window seat, they should have selected one. People choose their seats of preference for all sorts of different reasons, and they shouldn’t have to deal with someone just assuming that they can sit there.’

A second added: ‘Yep, this same thing happened to me years ago. I was a kid but the child who took my seat was even younger. Instead of asking me, the mom just told her daughter (in earshot of me) that I was nice and would let her have the seat. I was too shy to say anything, so I took the aisle seat but was really bothered by it. So I’m glad OP [original poster] stood up for herself and went back and got her seat!’

Commenters were unanimous in their support for Reddit user u/Sm782_, who was worried she was being rude for asking a crying baby to move from her pre-booked plane seat

A third wrote: ‘What is this epidemic of people assuming they can take another person’s assigned seat? The seats can have different prices, and can be selected ahead of time. The father can keep his snide remarks to himself.’

A fourth added:  ‘Well if you wanted it so badly you could have paid for it before. Why the hell should we pay extra and then have to give it up to someone else cuz of some sob story?? [sic]’

While a fifth put: ‘Kids don’t get special treatment on planes just because they want to see out the windows. 

‘They need to learn not everything will go their way sometimes. Your dad paid for that seat so sit where you are meant to on the plane and the dad of the kid can stop bullying you now.’

Another user gave them travelling advice for the future, adding: ‘You sound like you don’t have much traveling experience yet. There will be so much manipulativeness and emotional blackmail trying to game you out of a better seat that you’ve paid premium for. Get used to it, and learn to politely hold your ground.’