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?

Oh yes. When someone at work tells me that ‘Mr X would like to speak to yourself’, I want to poke my ears out.

No. If They want an extra seat , they should pay for an extra seat. Preferably when they book. Taking a paid for seat from another passenger is not on.

That might generally be the case but somewhere in the distant past the OP stated:

”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”

So in this specific case the airline had approved the seat becoming a paid for “comfort” seat for use by the OP.

No u were In the right regardless of rudeness! It belonged to you and you paid for it 😆😅

Cheeky fuckers! Not a chance if they’re gonna speak to you like that. I like to think I’d have ended it by telling them I needed the extra seat for my fat arse, seeing as I’m such a “fat bitch” but would likely have actually just felt upset and shaken by people being so horrible 😫

Erm, no. Grammatically me and I are not interchangeable: it depends upon what/who the subject of the sentence is and how the main verb is being used. The test would more appropriately be ‘the seat next to me; the seat next to DH’ where ‘I’ does not work. You would use I if you were saying ‘DH and I sat with a seat between us’.

It’s an informal forum so it doesn’t really matter - but it’s definitely ‘between DH and me’.

And re the seat, if the airline and the air crew agreed that the empty seat was allocated to your party, even after the no-show, then obviously it was your choice how you seated everyone. Tbh, for a short-haul flight, and seeing a couple struggling with a baby, I’d have been inclined to free the seat up - but maybe not if they were abusive before I had the chance to do so.

I'd have gone and sat in seat D and annoyed them even more 😂

No. Had you not checked in for that passenger you could have reclaimed the airport tax.

Not really. OP bought it, they want it so they should buy it off OP. Why on earth would they expect someone else's paid item be given to them for free?

Apply it to any other scenario, for example:

Say I have Taylor Swift tickets booked for me a three friends and one can't go in the end. One of the other friends knows a friend of a friend who got bad tickets way at the back but would prefer to sit at the front in the good seats. Would you then expected I give that ticket away for free just because I already paid for it, my friends not going to be sat there and this random stranger wants a better experience but they don't want to pay for it?

Hell no, it doesn't work like that. Its cringe to demand freebies from strangers and then insult them.

You missed out “…booked tickets for X, Y, X and I”.

”… a spare seat between DH and me”

But isn't it "a bit cheeky" of the couple to demand to be given the seat the OP had paid for, for free? If they want the seat, they should have to pay for it, why would they be entitled to if for free? Ridiculous!

Your example is not appropriate. "between DH and I" can be rephrased as "between us". You wouldn't say "between we", therefore it should be "me", not "I".

The spare seat is the subject and you are the object.

Nope, it’s always “me” after between, never I.

Err…..you talking to me?🤔

Mountain out of a mole hill.

There's no advantage to a spare seat on a 2 hr flight.

Love how this thread has gone into two totally different directions. I'm here for the grammar.

@Lavenderblue11 the only reason it sounds ok is that you've been led to believe that 'me' is ruder than 'I'. It really isn't. One is the subject of a sentence i.e. the person doing the thing, and one is the object of the sentence i.e. the person that the thing is being done to . I is always the subject and me is always the object.

And don't get me started on 'myself' and 'yourself' - it's totally taken over.

I also heard a BBC journalist say 'hence why' the other day. I despair...

Not “generally”, always “I” if I is the subject of the verb.

As for not sounding wrong, it does, like nails scraping down a blackboard!

More importantly 💯 re the seat.

Please don’t make me tho k of the “self” epidemic !

Is it now impossible for anyone to say to you/us instead of to yourself/yourselves/ourselves?

the only reason it sounds ok is that you've been led to believe that 'me' is ruder than 'I'

I remember being told this by a very incompetent primary school teacher in the late 1960s. I was sure she was wrong and checked with my Mum, who confirmed I was right. It was the start of my faith in the infallibility of my teachers being shaken (and to be fair, I mostly had brilliant ones).

Another fun thing they teach you wrong in primary school is that "rectangle" is a better word than "oblong". In fact an oblong is a rectangle that is not a square, and this is a very useful concept in mathematics (and basic set theory).

Oh, and "get/got" is not as bad in all cases as they make out either. I once wrote "When I got home, I ..." in a story and the teacher circled it and put "Got? A very poor word for you, Samarrange". She suggested "When I arrived home", which I think sounds horrible.

(Sorry, as you were, back to the seat drama!)

I'm a copywriter for a living but seriously??!!

I agree that asking for money is a bit much Imho, but you were under no obligation to give them a seat

You should have given them the seat; in their view, it was unoccupied and they had a child. As a parent, you will appreciate the challenges of travelling on planes with young children. The couple assumed that the seat was spare and asked if your son could move over to accommodate their young child. I am unsure of your response other than charging them £30 for it's use. That makes me think that your communication was less than perfect. You shouldn't have been called what you were called but the couple were perfectly reasonable to ask for your son to move. Had you considered offering your son to move and allow them the adjoining seat to accommodate their child? That would have been the best option. I have just got off a plane this afternoon and offered to help with the luggage of a couple with a young child, pushchair etc etc

The grammar posts are utterly boring!

Wow, very selfish