Man refuses to give his aisle seat to old woman with 'mobility issues,' asks if he was wrong

Travelers often receive a request to swap their seats with other passengers. While sometimes these request stems from something understandable, other times, it is just a baseless demand. As such, one man was asked to give up his aisle seat on a recent long-haul flight to one such passenger, and he declined. Later, the man – who goes by u/chiwis111 on Reddit – took to the platform to talk about the whole situation and asked the community if they felt he was at fault. 

"We were on a 777, and the economy seating configuration was 3-4-3. I was seated in the aisle seat of the bulkhead row in the middle section. Next to me was an older lady, probably in her 60s," the man wrote at the beginning of the post. "When I first sat down, she apologized and said she needed to get up. I told her it was no problem since there was enough space for her to move without me needing to stand up," he further explained.

After a few minutes, the woman returned with a flight attendant and asked if she could swap seats with him because she had "mobility issues." The man politely declined because he wanted to keep his aisle seat, and the seat next to the woman with mobility issues was occupied by a very large woman "who was spilling into part" of her seat. He added, "My thinking was that if the older woman truly had mobility issues, she likely would have been pre-assigned an aisle seat, Also, there really was plenty of room for her to get out of her seat without me having to move, so it seemed to me that she just didn't want to sit next to the larger passenger."

People in the comment section sided with the man, adding that everyone gets the option to pre-book their seats. "Airlines allow people to pre-book their seats. She knew she had mobility issues and chose not to book a seat that was comfortable for her and thought she would just force someone else out of their assigned seating. The entitlement is on steroids," said u/Mother_Search3350. A former cabin crew also took to the comment section to explain, "People with reduced mobility are usually supposed to be seated on a window seat for safety reasons. In case of an emergency they are the last to get out of the plane to make sure the vast majority of the passengers get evacuated safely," wrote u/AdEducational1519.

"Just look at the flight attendant in the eye. Smile politely. And say, 'I'll swap seats if my alternative is a business class or higher," added u/Sassypants2306. "When I had special needs on a flight, I paid a tiny bit extra so I could choose my seat. The other person could have made sure they got the seat they needed for their mobility issues before the flight. I was then asked to change seats by a family that wanted to sit together and initially declined (I felt bad to say no though), but when the plane was filled, I saw that I would be able to get a seat that covered my needs and agreed to change seats and asked if I could have that one instead, which the flight attendant agreed to. I had a good option that time and it didn't hurt me in any way to change," shared u/Wildlyunethical.