Man praised for refusing to swap seats with pregnant woman on plane

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A man has been praised for refusing to swap seats with a pregnant woman on his flight.

In a recent post shared to the popular “Am I The A**hole?” Reddit forum, one traveller, who goes by the username u/michaeldonelly, asked if he was in the wrong for not giving his seat on a plane to a pregnant woman. He went on to recall how travelling alone on a flight that was over five hours to see his family for the holidays. The Reddit user then described some of the planning he did when booking his flight.

“I specifically booked and paid extra for an aisle seat in the second-to-last row because I have medical issues that sometimes require quick access to the bathroom,” he explained.

However, according to the traveller, right before he started boarding the plane, a woman asked him to “give up [her] seat so she could sit closer to the bathroom”. He went on to describe that while he felt empathetic towards the pregnant woman, after claiming that she “did not seem distressed”,  he didn’t think it was “fair” for him to change his seat.

“While I felt for her situation, as someone with a medical condition, I did not feel it was fair to demand I move from the seat I planned for and paid for, especially since she apparently had not booked an aisle seat herself in advance,” he wrote.

The man went on to claim that “the flight attendants refused to help mediate” the situation, as the pregnant woman was still insisting that he “should have to move”. He continued to note that while there weren’t any other seats near the bathroom, he still expressed to her that he wasn’t going to move.

“There were also no other aisle or close seats available on the full flight that I or flight crew could facilitate swapping,” he wrote, before adding that his family told him that he “should have inconvenienced [himself] and given up [his] seat”.

“I disagree though,” he concluded, referring to his family’s recommendation. “I think [the pregnant woman] and the flight crew were unfairly targeting me instead of handling it through proper channels.”

The Reddit post has quickly gone viral, as it has more than 15,00 upvotes. In the comments, many Reddit users have praised the traveller for keeping his seat, since he’d made specific seat accommodations before the flight. They also shared how they’d react to the pregnant woman, if they were the plane passenger who had the medical condition.

“She should have booked another seat she wanted herself or not gone on the flight,” one wrote. “Seems she just assumed she wouldn’t have to pay for it, since some sucker was going to move. The flight attendants are at fault for not mediating. At some point they should have told her to go back to her seat.”

“I say this as someone who has been pregnant and has flown solo with a toddler… every passenger has equal opportunity to pre-book seats based on their needs and preferences,” another agreed. “It’s no one business why you booked that seat. Was the passenger or airline going to reimburse you for the cost of prebooking the seat? Zero obligation for you to move.”

“This is when you throw back, ‘I actually have incontinence so I have to be near the restroom”’or another bladder related medical condition,” a third wrote. “Realistically I would just tell her that I paid extra for the seat no thank you.”

This isn’t the first time that a traveller has been applauded for refusing to swap plane seats. In a post shared to Reddit earlier this month, a business-class passenger recalled how a woman asked them to switch seats with her husband, so she could be next to her partner. According to the Reddit user, when they found out the woman’s husband’s seat was in the economy section, they declined the request to swap.

The business-class passenger explained in their since-deleted Reddit post that the woman was “visibly upset” after not being given the seat and “couldn’t believe” she wouldn’t be allowed to sit next to her husband on the plane.

In the comments of that post, many people defended the passenger for not giving up their seat. “I can’t believe she thought this would work. What a moron,” one comment read about the woman who asked to swap seats.

Another wrote: “First-class seats long haul cost thousands. No way am I giving up what I paid for so some entitled arse can take it. “Tears or no tears I’m not moving.”