Plane seat drama

[itstoohotnow]

Just returned from a European break, booked 4 plane tickets for DH and 2 DS (19 &16) and I, eldest DS decided too old to go away with mum and dad so stayed at home. I contacted the airline as cheap non refundable ticket but said I can use it as a spare seat between DH and I so all good.

On return flight, only 2 hours long and we have seats A (me) B (spare) C (DH) and D (DS) then a couple with a baby in E & F

Couple with baby realised we were together and pretty much demanded DS moved to seat B - I politely pointed out it wasn't a random spare seat but a booked and paid for one, now I have 2 kids so appreciate it's hard to travel with a little one and would have offered the seat but they were so bloody rude and entitled. I pointed out we had paid for 4 seats and they had only paid for 2 - so asked for a contribution towards cost £30 (by this point they are just demanding the seat because they have a child)

They got pretty rude and offensive (called me a fat b**ch) so I said no, stewardess said was up to me

Should I have given them the seat?

Don't know if anyone's corrected this, so here goes.

Sounds like you've half-remembered the rule & in this case got it wrong. Your example uses a completely different sentence, so it's irrelevant that 'I' is correct in it. You've changed from a sentence with first person object (me) to one with first person subject (I).

Suppose your original sentence was 'Mum gave a book to my brother & I'. Take out 'my brother &' & you're left with 'Mum gave a book to I' which isn't grammatically correct. I think that's the rule you referenced.

Anyway (1) it's hot & I'm winding down after a walk in the sun, so I hope I've got it right & that's my excuse if I haven't😁& (2) I'm glad you didn't give up the seat.

Grammatically either can be used but it depends on the situation

🤷‍♀️

Why did you have to say it loudly, was the air steward hard of hearing?

And what was the point of telling us about the person with the drip?

@ifIwerenotanandroid Yeap, this is what I said, the OP has remembered part of a grammar rule and is applying it completely incorrectly. Then tries to tell us either is correct!

I don't often comment on incorrect grammar but this just sounded so wrong! No one would say 'a seat next to I' so why would they write it? It's similar to when people write 'reply to John and myself' instead of 'reply to John and me'. I've never in real life heard anyone say 'reply to myself' or 'give that box to myself' or 'would you hand that to myself' so it's baffling that so many people write it. It sounds so weird to read.

This was not a package holiday so return flights were not dependant on everyone being on the outbound flights - I think that's the difference and the fact that we had checked in for both flights and told them at he fare what the situation was

If the flight was overbooked it could have been a different story,,,?

Just to confirm a few details

I had checked all 4 of us in online for all flights so had boarding passes

This was not a package holiday - independently booked flights so return is not dependent on you being on the outbound flight

I had contacted easyJet about keeping the seat so we had more space, they agreed this was fine but we could not take 4 carry on bags only 3 and I had followed their instructions on how to let gate staff know etc

The flight was not overbooked so the seat was not required for someone to travel

The couple with the baby were not unpleasant to my teenager

I was about to offer the seat when I realised they had a child but the mother got in first with her rude demands

Asking for £30 may sound cheeky but I thought it was compromise to make them realise it wasn't a random free seat - we had paid for it any wanted to use it for our comfort

A couple of weeks ago we went to a European city. Around lunch we checked out from the hotel, and there was a thing young adult DD said she was a bit disappointed we hadn’t had time to do.

Just before getting an uber to the airport we checked our flight and it said it was cancelled (it wasn’t, it was overbooked and we had paid nothing because we used bonus points so they probably chose us), the next one would be in 4 hrs. The sun was shining and it was pissing down with rain at home. Best afternoon ever.

We also received £80 to shop for at the airport, plus a total of €1000 as an apology.
For a flight we hadn’t even paid for. Brilliant! We booked new tickets for another holiday straight away for the money.

Ours wasn't a package either, must just depend on the airline/who you speak to.

@CryYourHeartOut why don’t you believe it?

You did the right thing. I say that as a mum of a 2.5yo and a 1 yo. I would never have expected you to give up that seat. If you offered, I’d have been elated but I would never ask. What a pair of CFs!

Nope. They were rude and entitled. You had allocated seating, and the 'spare' was paid for. If they hadn't been arsholes you would have offered, but they were. You owed them nothing

No, they were completely unreasonable.

The person with the drip was mentioned because this was why the plane was unusally crowded - I was giving the setting. I can't remember why I said it loudly, but I felt a bit harassed by the stewardess, who was being pretty obnoxious (their were other factors to this, not germane to the story).

I think I'd probably have put on a sad face for the flight staff and played the victim (which you were) and told staff I don't feel safe with them near me with the hipe that the nasty cow would have been forced to move elsewhere and at the very least have been inconvenienced.

Sadly I have heard people say things like, 'reply to myself' & 'I'll send that to yourself'. I always want to scream.

(I guess they're trying to avoid the me/I problem, but it's worse, so much worse.)

When traveling with our under 2-year-old at the time, we used some BA airmiles to get business class seats to a European destination. They offered to put away the table between us, so our toddler could have a seat (lap seat infant) when it was not take-off and landing. Absolutely brilliant to get extra space.

There are lots of things you can do with airlines, depending on individual rules/ how busy the flights are/ what the captain and cabin crew are happy with..

@itstoohotnow - *Grammatically either can be used but it depends on the situation.

The easiest way to decide is to put in into a sentence without DH or DS as follows,

Me had seat A
I had seat A

Obviously you would say I had seat A so using I would be grammatically correct*

You're wrong, I'm afraid. The example sentences you used aren't the same construction.

'In a seat between dh and me', 'me' is always correct.

'I' is the subject: 'i did this.' - Correct.

'Me' is the object. 'He came with me', 'he came with dh and me' - here 'he' is the subject. - Correct.

I would try to channel my inner Winston Churchill, when Nancy Astor said to him in the House 'You, Sir. are drunk' he replied 'And you Madam are ugly, but tomorrow I will be sober...........'.

If I had been called a fat bitch the correct response is 'You are an arsehole but at least I could go on a diet..............!'.

I don't understand people thinking it was cheeky to ask them for money. You had a seat you had paid for, they wanted it, why on earth shouldn't you offer to sell it to them.

What is wrong with people, if you need an extra seat then bloody pay for it and stop bullying people into giving up the seats they’ve paid for. Obviously you know your needs before you fly

Good for you!

Absolutely not. I have been hearing more and more stories about entitled plane passengers and people need to stop capitulating to them or it will just continue to get worse.

I was flying in the US and I had recently had shoulder surgery, so I spent extra money to buy a roomier window seat so that my bad shoulder would be against the window and not in danger of being bumped by anyone. It was a 2-4-2 configuration across the plane, so I only had the aisle seat next to me. The woman who sat next to me demanded, not asked, demanded that I trade my premium economy seat with her boyfriend’s regular economy middle seat a few rows back. I said no and I first thought she was joking because who would ask this if someone? She became irate, berating me, telling me I was selfish, all kinds of nasty things. She wanted the flight attendant to make me move.

The flight attendant actually had the nerve to ask me if I would move to appease her and I said that I would not be moving from my specifically-selected premium seat, that this woman was obviously aggressive and I wanted her moved because I had no idea what she’d do once we were in flight, and, if she desperately needed to sit next to her boyfriend, she should have paid extra to book 2 seats together, or ask one of her boyfriend’s neighbors in regular economy if they would be willing to move to an aisle seat in premium economy. The gentleman sitting next to the boyfriend piped up and said that he would be happy to switch so they could sit together. She started throwing a tantrum because she wanted to sit with her boyfriend in the premium seats and the flight attendant finally had to tell her that, based on her behavior, she needed to switch, otherwise she’d be escorted off the plane because they weren’t going to let her sit next to me.

I do not understand these people who ask for a favor, and refuse to take no for an answer, especially when they’re expecting you to take the lesser option.

No. If someone called you a fat b*tch you should absolutely not do them any favours. What a horrible person!

No because you had paid for the seat. They also insulted you which is disgraceful behaviour especially in front of their child. Loser parents for sure.