This article was first published in February 2023.
A woman is being reassured on Reddit that she was not in the wrong for upsetting a child and parent on a long-haul flight.
She confessed to making the young girl cry by getting her to move from the window seat, which also drew "snide remarks" from the father - but other internet users are applauding the move as she'd pre-booked the window seat.
On the popular subreddit AITA (am I the asshole?), user Sm782_ said she was a 22-year-old female travelling alone on a eight - nine hour flight.
"Leaving my family this time has been hard and I've been crying on and off the entire day. I had a window seat booked for my flight and I was looking forward to it," Sm782_ said.
"When I got there, a child was sitting in my seat and her dad in the middle seat. I looked at the dad and pointed at the window seat saying 'I think it's my seat', expecting him to move. He looked at me and said 'She's a child' and pointed at the aisle seat, suggesting I take it."
The Reddit user said she was "perplexed" and called her father, who said she should insist on taking the seat that had been paid for in advance.
"I then told the girl's father this and he asked her to move. She started crying and I felt terrible but my dad told me to hold my ground," Sm782_ said.
"The girl moved and is sitting in the middle, I'm in my seat and I'm also sitting back so she can see out the window. Her dad has made one or two snide remarks about me wanting my seat so I just wanted to know, AITA for insisting on sitting in my seat?"
The consensus on Reddit was overwhelmingly in favour of Sm782_ with the vast majority of replies using the acronym NTA, meaning she was "not the asshole".
"If the father wanted their child to have a window seat, they should have selected one," said one commenter.
"People choose their seats of preference for all sorts of different reasons, and they shouldn't have to deal with someone just assuming that they can sit there."
Another advised: "I've had to deal with these people as well. It just bums me to no end. If need be get a flight attendant involved."
"What is this epidemic of people assuming they can take another person's assigned seat?" a third raged.
"The seats can have different prices, and can be selected ahead of time. The father can keep his snide remarks to himself."
Other commenters told Sm782_ she shouldn't feel bad about the child crying as it was their father's fault.
