Man shocked after mom ordered him to switch seats and wouldn't take no for an answer

Securing your preferred seat on a flight can be crucial, especially for those prone to nausea or who made the effort to book early. It’s frustrating when strangers feel entitled to swap seats just because they want to sit with family and won’t take no for an answer. Reddit user u/DinckinFlikka shared a similar experience with a woman who wanted to sit next to her kids and asked Reddit for advice.

"I booked a window seat months ahead of time for a flight for work, as I get severe nausea if I can’t look out the window on a flight. I’m sitting next to two kids, who appear to be around 12-14 years old. Their mother appears and directs me to move to her seat so she can sit next to her kids," the man began. "She didn’t ask me to switch, she TOLD me I would be moving." He added, "I look at where her seat is and it’s a middle seat in the second to last row." The woman's husband was sitting at the window seat of the same row. The man explained how he experienced nausea, hence he made a point to book the window seat on the wing. However, he could still exchange seats with her husband.

The man agreed even when there was movement at the back of the plane. "I s*** you not - don’t bring my husband into this, this about needing to sit next to my kids," the woman responded. "We went back and forth a bit where I kept pointing out that her own husband wasn’t willing to take a middle seat to allow her to sit next to her kids. Again and again, she kept saying 'Don’t bring my husband into this,'" the man continued. "It went nowhere so I just told her that I was sorry (I wasn’t) but that I wasn’t moving. She responded by calling me a child." The person shared, "The thing that irritated me the most is that she called the flight attendant who then took her side, even after I offered one final time to change window seats with the husband and the lady refused that offer."

"The flight attendant also directed (again, not asked, but told me) to move and exchange seats with this woman. I again said no, put my headphones in, and turned the music up. After a bit, the lady called me a selfish a*****e and took her seat," the man continued. "It’s been 8 hours since we landed and I can’t stop thinking about the audacity it takes to insist a total stranger switch to a middle seat to allow a family to fly together when her own husband refused to take that same downgrade." People took to the comments section to support the man and offer solutions for future flights.

u/BooRoWo commented, "She could have sent one of the kids to sit next to the husband, she sits next to the other. Her problem to solve." u/systemfrown wrote, "Look, the airlines have created this environment where they’ve commodified and often even up-charge for every last fricking seat nuance. They even go so far as to charge extra for the privilege of choosing your seat. You can’t do that and then turn around and say that the seat you bought isn’t the one you get to use, and it’s unacceptable for them to suggest otherwise." u/mb0205 remarked, "I go for the noise canceling headphones move. I just pretend I don’t see them talking usually and just keep staring ahead until they give up."