Airline passenger sparks debate after woman asks to switch her middle seat for his window
‘Very awkward request… No thank you.’
An airline passenger has told of the awkward moment he refused to swap his window seat with a woman after her own husband didn’t want to give up his spot next to the aisle.
The 45-year-old man explained how the couple was seated in the same row as him, with the wife sitting in between him and her husband.
Shortly after settling in, the wife learned towards him with a “sweet smile” before asking, “Would you be a darling and switch seats with me? I really can’t fly well in a middle seat”.
“So I leaned towards her and asked if that was her partner, to which she said, ‘Yes it’s my husband’,” the man said in a Reddit thread.
“I told her that I would never want to come between a husband and wife but I was more than happy to help accommodate by switching with her husband so I would sit in the aisle and the two of then could figure it out amongst themselves.”
Despite the kind gesture, the wife responded: “Oh my husband would never sit in the middle or at a window… So maybe you can do a woman a favour and switch?”
However, the man declined to swap seats with her.
“I apologised to her and said I won’t do it,” he said.
“Moments later, I hear her yelling at her husband in another language (which I am fluent in), ‘The jerk won’t switch seats so you got to switch with me’.”
Her husband eventually ends up swapping seats with her.
When they landed at the destination, the man made a cheeky remark.
“I actually did wish them a good rest of the day in their language at the end of their flight… The look on the wife’s face was priceless,” he said.
‘Buy the seat you want’
Despite the encounter, the man asked the internet whether he was being unreasonable.
“Am I the a****** for NOT switching with her? Perhaps I should have been more considerate because her husband was not, instead of feeling that she acted like she was entitled,” he said.
His post was met with 120 comments, with many applauding him for not giving up his seat.
“I travel a lot for work and this happens so much. I’m a woman in my 30s so people 100 per cent think I should be a nice girl and move — even cabin crew sometimes! Never surrender,” one said.
Another suggested: “Very awkward request to ask you to sit between them. No thank you.”
While one added: “Switching seat requests are never appropriate anymore. Buy the seat you want. End of story, unless you are offered something better, but it seems that is never the case.”
SOURCE: 7NEWS