Passenger defended after refusing to give up business class plane seat for economy

‘Do they really expect people to give up what they paid extra for?’

A traveller was willing to swap seats on a plane for a woman to sit near her husband, until she discovered exactly which seat she would be ending up in.

In a recent Reddit post shared to the “Entitled People” subreddit, the passenger shared an incident where a woman sitting next to him in business class asked him to voluntarily downgrade his seat so that she could sit next to her husband, who was seated in economy.

The Reddit poster explained that the seats were in a two-seat centre pod configuration when the woman was sitting next to him and asked to switch with her husband.

He said yes assuming that her husband was sitting somewhere else in business class, at which point the woman casually revealed that her husband’s seat was actually 18B — a middle seat in economy.

The passenger explained that he wasn’t moving to the back when the woman attempted to convince him that he should. “You can’t seriously expect me to swap a pod for a MIDDLE seat at the back of the bus. Are you kidding me?” he recalled saying to the woman in the Reddit post, thinking the entire interaction was some type of prank.

“It’s not such a big difference. And it’s their bulkhead row so there’s plenty of legroom,” the woman allegedly replied.

According to the Reddit post, the woman was originally seated in economy but was offered a free upgrade being under the impression that someone would be willing to swap to get her husband upgraded as well.

His final offer was to get someone else in business class to switch seats with her husband and he would take that person’s seat, but would not be making the switch himself.

“But I think you have two choices... sit apart, or sit together back there. I’m sure whoever is in 18C would love to sit up here. Take your old seat back and you can both sit together,” he wrote.

“They both angrily made their way back to the back, and I was half-expecting a new, confused stranger to appear, the lucky recipient of an instant upgrade... but no, she came back. According to her, 18A loved the window bulkhead and didn’t want to move. 18C had family in 18DEF and didn’t want to move either. Someone later told me that perhaps the flight attendants got involved and just told her to go to her assigned seat; no seat-swapping allowed,” the story continued.

So, the woman ended up sitting apart from her husband for the entire duration of the flight.

After posting, many people ended up taking to the comments to express how shocked they were at the woman’s attempt to switch seats.

“Do they really expect people to give up what they paid extra for?” one commenter asked. “The airlines should take some accountability here too. Before they upgrade someone they should ask if they are travelling with anyone. And if they see the Karen haircut ‘No upgrade for you.’”

Another commenter agreed, writing: “I would have said no immediately no questions. Why the heck would I switch out the super expensive seat I paid for ANY other seat on the plane just so she and her companion can sit together instead, and her companion gets a free seat that I paid for?”

“I especially would say heck no once the words ‘but he’s ALREADY on his way over to do the switch’ comment, and laugh in her face and ask what the heck does him being on his way to claim a seat he WON’T be getting has to do with me? I never agreed to the switch to begin with, so he has no reason to be coming back here for MY seat like it was ALREADY decided that I was going to switch just because the two of them stupidly thought otherwise before they even got around to asking me first.”