Anyone who has flown by plane will understand how cramped the conditions are, and how annoying it can be if your seatmate is hogging the armrests, or listening to music through their headphones at maximum volume.
Whether it's appropriate to swap seats on a plane has caused heated debate in recent months, as many have been questioning what the correct plane etiquette is. Equally, people who loathe sitting next to upset kids in the sky are calling for baby-free flights, causing quite the stir.
One woman has been left gobsmacked after an 'entitled' mum demanded to take her plane seat, and even cruelly body-shamed her when she refused.
The woman took to Reddit to explain that she was "taken aback" when a plane seat drama happened to her, as she stated she normally "only ever reads this kind of encounter" online.
She wrote: "Last month I took a flight back home after visiting my parents. At boarding time, I walked to my seat, 23A. There was already someone sitting there. I had to double-check, make sure it's the 23rd row. Yep, I was right.
"So I told the lady sitting there [that] it's my seat. Suddenly a man on 23D offered me 23E seat. Turns out they are a family, and the mother didn't want to be separated from her children (who are in 23B and 23C) so she took my 23A.
"I was confused, it's not like she will be long separated from her children. The children were in 23B-23C, and she and her husband were in 23D-23E. Only separated by an aisle! Obviously, I refused. I specifically booked a window seat. It could help me feel at ease looking at the clouds and helps me fall asleep."
When she said "no, I booked the window seat", the mother was "immediately offended", criticising the woman for not switching. The original poster wanted to question why the mum hadn't booked the seats they wanted in the first place, but she just repeated that it was her seat.
The woman moved but the mum whispered "angry words" aimed at her. The woman needed the mum's children to move as she couldn't reach her seat, and she was left mortified when the mother chose to body shame her, cruelly calling her "huge."
She continued: "Her daughter, silently (and with blatant panic) whispered at me 'Please forgive my mother. She is always like that.' Her daughter, who I assumed to be no more than 12 years old, looks sincere.
"The angry tirade stopped around five minutes when the mother told her kids to move seats a few rows away. Once more the daughter pleaded apology to me. It's crazy, to think that a 12-year-old was way more emotionally mature than her entitled 40s mother.
"The whole time her mother spouted insults at me, the daughter looked pale and her body rigid. Her gaze fixated on one spot. I assume she was very embarrassed. Poor kid."
In the comments, people defended the woman's decision not to let the mum steal her seat.
Someone wrote: "There were four of them, so they couldn't all sit together anyway. They could have swapped so that each parent had a kid next to them. Problem solved. She wasn't just entitled, she was stupid to boot."
Another said: "My guess is she wanted a window seat but it cost more so she figured she could bully some stranger out of it and let them eat the extra cost."
A Redditor sympathised: "That poor girl was probably begging to be away from her mother."
What would you have done in this situation? Let us know in the comments.
