Man shares angry rant about being moved plane seats for a mother and baby

The man said he and his partner paid an additional cost to secure bulkhead seats during a long flight. Photo / 123rf

A man's tirade over having to move seats on a long-haul flight for a mother and baby has sparked a fierce online debate.

In the rant, shared to Reddit, the man complained why a woman would travel with a baby and claimed his right to legroom should have taken priority over their need for the bassinet and quick access to the toilets.

Writing under the username Foxieon, the man said he and his partner paid an additional cost to secure bulkhead seats during a long flight.

"Then three days before our trip we get an email that says your seats have been changed to a few rows back... mmm what? We got downgraded but we paid extra for those seats? So naturally we were both upset and instantly called the airline support, which took two hours of waiting," he said.

"We booked these tickets MONTHS ago and they wanted to just give them to a mom and a crying baby that's gonna be on my plane now?

"It's not like a short trip - why would this mom bring her baby anyway?"

In following comments, the man shared that the flight was with Scandinavian Airlines and he would not be flying with the carrier again.

Despite claiming the flight to New York was 10 hours, the carrier only flies direct to the city from Stockholm, Copenhagen and Oslo; all of which have a flight time of around eight or nine hours.

The man said he called the airline to complain about the seat change and were upgraded to different seats that were supposed to have the same legroom as the seats they had initially booked.

"After hearing like 'yeah so sorry but the mom needs easy access to the bathrooms and she needs to put her baby bed in front' and all that… I don't know, I just got so pissed," he wrote.

"Why is a mother travelling with such a young child? Why did they act like I was the crazy one for not wanting to give up our seats we paid for to a 'helpless mother' who needs it?"

Those who commented on the post mostly supported the man's opinion, which isn't a surprise considering it was shared to a 'childfree' specific page. However, some did point out that this was a typical practice from airlines.

When passengers need access to bassinets, passengers are commonly moved from their seats to accommodate.

"We should all write to [the airline] reminding [them] that the child-free usually have more money to spend on travelling, and we will not be conducting our business with them after this bullsh*t treatment," offered one reader.

"So you basically had to spend 2+ hours of your life arguing with someone to get what you paid for - that sucks, honestly. You should tweet about the airline and tag their official twitter handle," wrote another.

A third shared the man's anger, writing: "I detest that we don't have kids so we don't have to accommodate our lives to fit a child's needs yet WE STILL HAVE TO!"

One person did see the logic and was brave enough to give their opinion.

"I get completely why they would need the special seats, same as wheelchair users on a bus," they wrote.