A couple have been publicly shamed for refusing to swap seats, so a child with a fear of flying could be seated closer to her mother.
But not everyone thinks they were in the wrong.
The woman and her boyfriend were on a TUI flight from the UK to Gran
Canaria, when she was asked by the third passenger in their row if one of them would swap with her daughter. The young child had been seated in the row in front.
However she flatly refused, saying that they had paid $42 each for a window and middle seat so they could fly together on the four hour flight.
Sharing her ordeal with Mumsnet the steadfast passenger revealed why she and her boyfriend refused to budge.
saying that they had paid $42 each for a window and middle seat so they could fly together on the four hour flight.
"I politely said 'no'. Which she wasn't happy about," read the confessional.
Trying to shame them into swapping seats, the mother said that her child was "scared of flying" and as adults they should do the right thing.
The result was they didn't move and an awkward flight to the Spanish islands.
While the couple did not budge, it appears that they were still struggling with their consciences on return, a week later.
"Was I in the wrong?" she asked the forum.
The reaction was surprisingly united against the pushy mother.
"She should have paid to book seats together the same as you did," wrote one.
Others blamed the mother for a lack of foresight. "I have a child who is scared of flying and so I would have paid to ensure that I had the seats I needed."
However others said they would have caved immediately to avoid the embarrassment.
"What an awkward flight!" wrote another. "You were totally not unreasonable not to [swap] and she was rude to pressure you. … But I would have swapped for the daughter, not her rude mother."
However none of the forum users seemed to blame the airline for splitting the mother and child in their seating plan.
Seating choice on TUI, like other budget carriers, is an optional extra that must be paid for - as the couple did.
In 2018 the UK business secretary blamed airlines' "evil algorithms" for splitting up families for profit.
A 2018 CAA survey showed that an estimated eight million family bookings a year had been asked to pay for seat allocation by major airlines, or face being split up on the plane.
TUI's seat allocation policy says that children travelling with a child under the age of 12 will be "sat with" at least one adult in their party. However, they cannot guarantee it will be in the same row: "this could be next to, across an aisle, or in front & behind."
Children aged 2 years and older must pay the full fare and have their own seat.
