Man Refuses To Change Plane Seats With A Mom So She Could Sit Beside Toddler, Says ‘It’s Not My Problem’

Jul 25, 2022 by apost team

Flying is a stressful business, starting all the way from making sure your luggage meets weight and size requirements, to getting to the airport on time, or standing for what seems like hours to pass security checks. Only once you are sat in your seat on the aircraft do you feel like you can finally relax, sit back and enjoy the flight.

But some people have had trouble that follows them into the cabin, too. One traveler took to Reddit in March 2022 to share their experience on a 10-hour flight from Japan in which another passenger asked if they could switch seats.

Now for some reason or other, airlines are not always able to give you and those you are traveling with seats next to each other. This doesn’t usually pose a particularly urgent problem, save for the inconvenience of having to miss out on some conversation during the flight. But for some who are traveling with elderly folk or young children, this can be quite bothersome. 

Although traveling alone, the person on the Japan flight discovered this would become an issue for them. The traveler was allotted a perfectly acceptable window seat but soon realized the odd seating arrangement for the passengers around them.

“Had a woman ask me to change on a TPAC flight from Japan. I was bulkhead window and her toddler daughter was in the middle next to me while she was in the middle seat in the row behind me,” he wrote.

While the arrangement was curious, the traveler did not expect it to be any of their business — until the mother made it so.

The passenger was then made an offer they said they simply had to refuse. They wrote:

“She asked me – and just me – to switch with her so she could have my window seat (next to her daughter) and I’d take her middle seat a row back.”

In the Reddit thread about how “irritating” it is to be asked to switch seats on a flight, the passenger said when faced with the prospect of moving to an “inferior” seat, they flat out refused. They added that the passengers seated around the woman appeared to be part of the same tour group she was in, but she did not ask any of them to swap seats. He added:

“Not my problem they didn’t book together. Worse is we were surrounded by others from her tour group that she could’ve asked for a three-way trade instead. Or the tour operator. The audacity to ask just me and expect an inferior trade on my side.”

Reddit users were quick to share their opinions on the issue, with one asking how it felt to be seated next to a toddler throughout the flight. Another explained their protocol when it comes to seat swapping on flights. They said:

“My rule of thumb is:

1). Will only change an aisle for an aisle (my preference).

2). Will never change an aisle or a window for a middle

3). Will never change if I had to spend extra money to get my seat.”

However, some of the other comments were not very sympathetic to the person on the Japan flight.

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One parent appeared to have been taken aback by the traveler’s response to the situation. They wrote:

“As a parent of a toddler, I’m surprised that you preferred to sit next to someone else’s unaccompanied toddler vs just moving. Sure, someone else could move, but either someone has to move or someone has to sit next to a flying toddler. I honestly don’t know which is more annoying for the other passengers,” u/snarky00 wrote, adding, “It’s not always possible for families to book seats together for some reason, and go figure, sometimes they need to fly places. Idk what the answer is here but being infuriated about a mom trying to watch their own kid is dumb.”

Others also questioned the final decision of the passenger. “So how was sitting next to someone else's toddler the whole trip though??,” one user wrote. The passenger replied that they were able to enjoy the rest of the flight with a little help. They said:

“The combination of a sleeping pill and the fact that she was very well behaved made it a very pleasant trip.”

The passenger added that throughout the flight, the mother appeared to be interrupting her daughter’s rest every half hour or so “just to get back at me.” He added: “So it was clearly a demonstration of ‘Look what *I* have to do because YOU wouldn't let ME sit there.’ And of course, every time she did this, my seat was disturbed and she was talking not quietly. So it disturbed other people, too. It was just so obvious.”

While there is no clear right or wrong thing to do when faced with such a seat swapping situation, until airlines begin enforcing hard and fast rules, one simply has no choice but to follow their gut.

What did you think of the passenger’s decision not to move? Have you ever found yourself in a similar situation and how did you deal with it? Let us know and pass this on to all your high-flying friends and family.