Flights are generally not a very comfortable experience regardless of how long the journey is but there are some aspects that can make it slightly more bearable. For those of us who can't afford the luxury of first class, the euphoria of realising there is a free seat next to you before take off is arguably the next best thing.
One woman has been left undecided whether or not she is the wrong when she refused to give up a free seat beside her on a flight so that a mum could sit with her daughter, the Mirror reports. Taking to Reddit, to explain her decision she said that she is 'terrified' of flying and paid for the seat beside her too as she likes the comfort of knowing there's not a stranger beside her if she needs to 'vomit' or becomes panicked.
However, the mother was not pleased that the woman wouldn't allow her to sit down and branded her a 'd*******' before the cabin crew came to move her back to her original seat several rows back. The woman sought advice over her decision as she took to the online forum thread, questioning: "Am I the a**hole for not letting a woman have the seat next to me on the plane?"
In the post she wrote: "I recently had to fly across the US to deal with certain company matters. My company apologised profusely to me because I am terrified of flying, but seeing as it would have been a 25-hour drive, I obliged.
"For the trip, my company paid for my seat, but I decided to also reserve the seat next to mine. Again, this is an anxiety issue. I would have fit just fine into my seat, but if I needed to vomit/started to get panicky, at the very least I wanted to have a buffer between myself and the next person.
"I had an aisle seat in a three-person row, and people were shuffling around changing their seats before take off. I do not know how it works, but apparently, people can occasionally just sit down wherever they want and the flight attendants don't have to deal with it?
"The seating arrangement was me - open seat (mine) - teenage girl I'd place around the seventh grade. Right before we started getting taxied, a middle-aged woman abruptly sat down in the middle seat and fist-bumped the teenage girl."
The woman went on: "Immediately I told her that I had reserved that seat, and she started by being very considerate. She quietly told me she was getting away from a bad situation, and really wanted to sit next to her daughter.
"During this explanation, she repeatedly pointed out her daughter sitting next to her, as if I would be a monster for depriving her of that seat. I stuck to my guns though and told her that I would get the cabin attendant if she didn't go back to her seat several rows back in the middle.
"She called me on my bluff, so I flagged one down. He asked if I really needed the middle seat and I said yes.
"Then he politely asked the woman to move, which she did, but not before calling me a 'd*******." She added: "Since she did this rather loudly, several people were clearly looking at me, and I couldn't really read what they were thinking.
"I kind of feel bad about it now, and after arriving safely I wonder if I should have just given up the seat." Social media users flocked to the comments to reassure the woman that her actions were justified and that the 'entitled' mother should have paid to sit beside her daughter.
One person replied: "I understood that by reserved, you paid for the seat. If you did you are not the a**hole. I don't get why people don’t check seats before getting on the plane and choose with time how they are going to be seated, they feel entitled to bother everyone."
Someone else agreed: "Not the a**hole, and who cares what a bunch of strangers on a plane you will never see again think? You've done nothing wrong.
"None of them will give it a second thought the next day." Since sharing, the woman's post has now raked in over 500 comments.
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