AITA: Traveller refuses to swap seats so newly-weds can sit together on long-haul flight

Most people sided with the man who had paid $1110 to sit in premium economy.

A man refused to swap seats with a newly-wed bride so she could sit beside her husband on a long-haul flight. More than 22,000 people agreed he was totally entitled to reject her request.

The man, who posted his story to the Reddit thread “Am I the Asshole”, explained he had purchased a premium economy seat for a flight from Melbourne to Dubai, paying extra so he would be comfortable for the 14-hour journey.

However, when he sat down, the man beside him said he’d been upgraded and had a favour to ask.

“They asked if I could switch seat with their wife as they had just married and were on their honeymoon,” he wrote. The man offered congratulations but after realising the wife was back in economy, said he would not switch.

“He asked if there was any way to convince me. I offered to switch if he paid the difference between the seats,” the man wrote, explaining he’d spent an extra AU$1000 ($1110) for premium economy.

The husband claimed they were on a budget for their honeymoon, so the man said another congratulations and put his earphones in.

“He muttered that I was an asshole. I said he was a prick for taking the upgrade instead of either sitting with his wife or giving it to her,” he wrote.

When recounting the story to his wife, she claimed he should have swapped but he wrote that she wouldn’t have done it either because she “hates flying in economy”.

The post quickly accrued almost 2000 comments as people rushed to share their judgment of the situation.

Almost all shared their thoughts in the comments.

The most popular comment, with more than 26,000 votes, argued he was not in the wrong because if the husband’s priority really was being with his wife, he would have offered to swap seats with the person beside her in economy.

“I’m sure the person sitting beside her would have loved an upgrade to premium economy,” wrote the person, who claimed to be a “seasoned flyer” from Australia who works in aviation.

“I smell a rat,” they wrote, adding that the couple had the chance to “plead their case” when the upgrade was processed, either when booking or at the check-in desk.

“He didn’t have to take the upgrade, and you are not to blame for his selfishness and lack of planning,” he concluded.

Many others made the same point.

AITA for offering to sell my seat to honeymooners.
by u/UsualSuccess7450 in AmItheAsshole

“You can always downgrade to sit with your family and give up your nicer seat. But nobody wants to do that, so they try to guilt trip you to sacrifice for them,” one person wrote.

“It always blows my mind that people are like this. Anytime I’ve tried to switch to be next to a friend, we always gave up the better seat,” another person added.

Many comments suggested the couple were lying about being on honeymoon, calling an an “old scam” to invoke sympathy.

“I bet it wasn’t their honeymoon,” one person wrote, with another joking that it may have been their honeymoon when boarding the flight but it “was sure as hell over when he ditched her for the upgrade.”

Others went as far as to suggest the wife should research divorce lawyers during the flight.

“Use the Wi-Fi on the plane to send out emails for consultations,” one person advised, with another saying 14 hours was a lot of time “to plan”.

Most people labelled the husband as “entitled”, “rude as hell” and “crappy”.

Some said they didn’t mind when their partner was upgraded without them, or sat separately, typically if the partner was tall and needed the extra room.

One person said they would consider swapping if they received the upgrade for free.

“If I was given an upgrade for free and somebody asked me, I might be nice and do it for them. But if I paid for it? Yeah, forget it,” they wrote.

“That’s actually a fair bit of money to expect someone to just give away,” another added.

The consensus in the comments seemed to be that the husband was either manipulative for pressuring the man to swap or selfish for refusing to trade with someone in economy to sit with his wife.

Either way, most of the 22,000 votes labelled the traveller as “Not the A-hole”.