Was I wrong to move to the spare seat next to my husband?

[Inastatus]

I’m just after opinions on a situation I had on the plane yesterday. 5 of us flying - only 3.5 hour flight so didn’t pay to book seats. Airline put 3 of us together but split the other 2 - me and DH volunteered to sit away from each other. No problem with that, that’s the chance you take if you don’t pay to reserve seats.

However, before take- off someone moved seats leaving an aisle seat right next to DH’s aisle seat so I asked one of the cabin crew if it was ok for me to move there and he said yes once we had taken off. As soon as seatbelt lights turned off I moved and started chatting to DH. The woman I sat next to tapped me on the arm and said quite rudely ‘our son is coming to sit there - we asked’. I was a bit taken aback so just mumbled ‘I asked too’. Obviously I didn’t want to cause a fuss or get cabin crew involved as I didn’t want to sit next to disgruntled passengers for the rest of the flight so I went back to my original seat. The mother immediately put her rucksack on the seat to save it and eventually her son, who was in his 30’s, wandered down to sit there.

Am I right in thinking that they were no more entitled to the seat than me and her rude attitude was really uncalled for?

I’m cabin crew and I would have told the lady that you asked first and told you to remain in that seat.

Agree with a PP that airports and planes bring out the worst in people. The amount of arguments over the seat recline button I have to intervene in, like children squabbling!

She was rude you weren’t. Politeness with cabin crew always wins.

Double huh? 😂

I would have told her that possession is 9 tenths of the law so f**k off. But I can be a bitch when randoms try to tell me what to do.

I don’t think she was rude.

She had asked the crew if her son could sit there and they said yes, so she was just letting you know that the seat was taken.

It’s a bit rude to just take someone else’s seat and so she probably thought you were being cheeky by just taking someone else’s seat.

I would have just told her that you were told you could sit there but that as she had a child (thinking it was a younger one) then you don’t mind moving.

Neither of you were in the wrong but she thought you were in the wrong and so I would have made it clear that you wasn’t.

Don’t fixate on it though. It’s done and I wouldn’t give it a second thought.

The OP did leave her child on their own but they are older and so it’s not relevant.

OP didn’t state their ages in the OP though so that poster assumed they were younger.

This happened to me on a train once. For the first time ever I didn't have a reserved seat, (LNER) and I can't recall why as I always reserve. So I checked the lcd display above an empty seat and it said "free" (all the way to King's Cross, my destination). I took it, and then at the next station, a girl asked me to please move as it was hers.

I don't think quickly in situations like that, unfortunately, I never have, and in a fluster I assumed she was right and I moved.

... Only to recheck the display after I'd moved, and nope it wasn't reserved for her at all - still showed as available.

Annoys me to this day. She tried it on and succeeded.

If that plane seat was free, of course you can sit there.

OP is an adult, too. There is no difference between OP and the son's wish to move seats.

You seem quite unkind actually. Saying I "do go on" when I was just engaging with a thread you created is a bit mean.

@chocoluv - oh she was certainly rude in the way she said it!

@LiteraryBambi - I’m actually really not at all unkind and I’m sorry for saying that ☹️. I guess I was just getting frustrated that you kept questioning why I would have wanted to move in the first place which wasn’t really the point of my post.

Thanks everyone for your input. I’m taking advice and moving on now as I’m actually on hols 😅😎 though it’s probably cooler here than in the Uk at the moment!!

But that’s because she thought you were being rude.

I would be annoyed if someone sat in someone else’s seat.

That’s why I’d have made it clear that I also asked and was doing her a favour by moving.

Basically the staff say yes to everyone . They don’t mean yes to that specific person what they mean is anyone can move once the seatbelt sign goes off. It’s then first come, first served.

Neither in the wrong. You blinked.

Well you both asked both got a yes so none of you were more entitled to the seat than the other. She obviously thought she asked before you but you got there first. Just one of those things, I probably would have said the same as her but not rudely.

Dunno really, maybe she was a bit rude, but she obviously (like you) thought she'd 'bagsied' that seat, so stood her ground. Sounds like this was the cabin crew's mistake.

yeah we know that now.it was fair to assume a party of 5 would be parents and their children.

But, the airline usually sits children with their parent for free (if they are young.)

So it would make sense (if she didn’t pay for seats) that if the airline put them in a group of 3, and then a group of 2 , that the children are younger than she is stating.

Otherwise they would have given them 5 separate seats as adults.

It's maybe a bit harsh starting to blame the cabin crew here..

As a previous poster has said the "yes you can move after the seatbelt sign goes off " is usually a blanket reply (if it's permissible) to requests.

I wouldn't expect the crew to also run some form of booking or allocation system.

Its common sence that this is why you should reserve your seat numbers when booking even if it does have an extra cost involved so then this is not the case because their seats may of been ones they chose personally and paid for which you should of done upon yours which would of been better pre arrangements.

I would have said " I have asked the cabin crew member, I was told it was ok for me to move to this seat. If it means so much to you that your son has to sit by his mother, be my guest".

I've used this line if people try to push in front of me. Generally it makes them look twice at what they are trying to do.

You were a wet fish and the other woman a CF. The reading or comprehension in this thread is awful.

I would have just said "I'll sit here until your son arrives" and would have done just that.

I was going to question your reading compensation but given the lack of literacy in your post I shouldn't be surprised.

Right beside beats across the aisle in my book but people chatting across the aisle absolutely grinds my gears.

Yes, this is their mistake for advising two sets of people they could move to the seat with what appears like no communication between each other.