Airline Passenger Refuses to Switch Seat So Dad Could Sit Next to His Son — Were They Wrong?

Air travel can be a strenuous experience. There's the stress of worrying about arriving to the airport on time. And then, you have to prepare for whether or not the TSA line is going to be some type of unmanageable monster filled with people who think personal hygiene is a Boogeyman created by big soap.

Then there are others who think that turkeys count as emotional support animals and some who believe taking a hammer to an airline's equipment is a good response for being scammed by a fake travel agent.

Once you're finally past worrying about everything that could go wrong and you're finally aboard your flight, you probably just want to sit in your seat and relax.

Which is exactly what this Redditor was attempting to do on their own flight. That is, until someone asked if they wanted to switch seats with them.

User @Mediocre-Chain1210 writes that they specifically booked themselves a spot near the window, and noticed a upon boarding the aircraft that a 7-year-old boy was seated in it.

They said that the kid's father was sitting in the aisle seat of the same row and in the opposite row, two other people, who he presumed to be the child's mother and sister, sat directly across from them.

Upon seeing the child in his designated seat, he pointed to it, which prompted the father to ask the Redditor if it was OK for them to switch seats.

OP replied that a swap was OK, as long as it was for a window seat. Dad said that it would have to be a trade for an aisle one, which then caused the Redditor to decline the trade offer.

Dad wasn't happy with this response and OP recounted the following conversation that they had.

• Him: So do you want to sit next to my son?

• Me: I don't care I just want the window seat.

• Him: standing up and getting his son up you are a very nice person. I mean not a very nice person

• Me: It's none of your business and be polite.

• Him: I am not (referring to polite)

• Me: (I said something I don't remember) and behave yourself.

The Redditor went on to say that dad's conversation began as an attempt to "shame" him, but ended up cutting their dialogue short. This appears to be a consequence, OP says, of their reaction to the dad's "shaming" attempt.

"I just stood there looking at him serious, I think he was trying to shame me initially but he didn't respond anything else to that."

Ultimately, the father was able to sit next to his kid, that's because "somebody in the row behind saw" their interaction and "offered to swap."

That person ended up sitting beside the Redditor throughout the duration of the flight. OP posed the question to folks on the site's r/AITA sub, asking if they were in the wrong for outright refusing to switch seats.

From the Redditor's perspective, if sitting next to his son meant that much to the dad, then he should've booked his seats in advance "like everyone else."

Furthermore, OP explained that they "didn't have a good reason why [they] need[ed] the window seat except that [they] like it and don't like the aisle seat."

They capped off their post with a "lol" but mentioned prior to that their man gripe with the situation was that it felt as if Dad was attempting to pull off a "fait accompli."

Which means that a decision involving them was made without their knowledge, putting them in a position where they felt compelled to accept it.

Numerous folks who responded to OP's post seemed to agree with their point of view. One person echoed the sentiment that if being seated next to his son mattered that much to the father then he would've addressed his travel arrangements accordingly.

This same commenter added that they were in a similar situation while on an Amtrak train. They summed up sour reactions to being told "no" as an inability to reconcile their own emotions. "People are just jerks when they don't get what they want, you did nothing wrong. You booked your seat, and just because he wanted it doesn't make him in the right."

However one person did state that while flying recently with a party of six people on every single flight that they took they had their seats changed by the airline. So it's possible that the father did in fact reserve specific seats in advance, and that the airline just took it upon themselves to spread their group out.

What do you think? Would you have taken the aisle seat so a father and kid could sit next to each other? Or do you think that the Redditor doesn't need to offer an explanation to a stranger if they declined his request?