It wasn't until the mid-to-late '90s, with the advent of the digital era, that booking your own seat became the norm. Before that, you either had a random seat assigned to you or had to book it, for free, over the phone or even through a travel agent. But most people want a window seat, and for good reason.
You get to watch every step of the flight, from the exciting and anxiety-inducing takeoff that makes your ears buzz, to the entire flight above the clouds while you watch people turn into ants, and, of course, the descent, which can be just as exciting as you get closer to your destination. It's a fun experience, regardless of your age or even how many times you've been on an airplane.
But a woman actually vented on r/entitledparents about this exact situation. She paid for a window seat, hoping to experience everything she loved about flying, but when she reached her seat, it was already taken by a child. Despite letting the mom know she had specifically paid for that seat, the mother asked if the kid could watch the takeoff and claimed he'd be sleeping within 10 minutes, which never happened. The kid stayed awake for the entire flight, and the mom thought he should stay in that seat because he'd get cranky otherwise. Oof.
From the moment online ticketing came about, choosing your own seat is a feature that's widely available for nearly everyone
A woman paid for the window seat on her flight, but quickly realized it had been taken by a kid, whose mother was guilt-tripping the woman into giving it up
Most people want a window seat, but not many will actively pay for it
Everything related to planes, seats, and aerodynamics has been thoroughly studied to ensure the safety of the crew and passengers and to keep control in a high-adrenaline environment. So, it's not surprising that, as time has gone by, seats have started to be assigned, and passengers can now even pick them. Though, of course, many of us, when given the chance and if money allows, will actively choose the window seat — and 55% of people actually prefer window seats.
But research has found that, aside from the benefit of seeing our world from a different perspective, many people actually choose that seat for various reasons, one of which is better sleep thanks to the wall support, which helps them nap well. But apparently, it can also help with motion sickness. If the narrator is someone who struggles with inner-ear movement and gets easily nauseous during flights, studies show that looking at the horizon can help reduce motion sickness.
So, despite all this, the woman did pay for her seat, and under the contract of carriage, a ticket is essentially a legal agreement between the passenger and the air carrier. By paying for a specific seat, the passenger now has the right to occupy that seat, and having another passenger occupy it without permission — which she initially granted under pressure — could be considered a breach of that agreement.
Whenever there's any kind of disruption, it is always mandatory to bring up the issues with a flight attendant
According to flight experts, passengers should never negotiate directly with what they call "seat poachers." This means that the moment the woman realized someone was in her seat, she should have stepped back and immediately flagged down a flight attendant, with her boarding pass at hand. Flight attendants are trained to enforce passenger seating and manifests, so having an authority figure step in can solve the problem without further escalating the situation.
In fact, the universal etiquette rule says that a passenger should only ask to change seats if they're offering an equivalent or better seat in return, which wasn't the case here — especially since the narrator had paid an extra fee specifically to get the window seat. And unfortunately, the mother seemed to know exactly what to do to get her way: use her child. In an attempt to avoid a potential tantrum, the mom essentially exploited her own child to trigger the narrator's protective instincts toward him.
This way, the mother was able to use her own kid as a human shield and ignore any boundaries being enforced. Unfortunately, at the cost of her politeness and desire to avoid conflict, the narrator ended up without her window seat and without the money she had paid for it, which explains her frustration with the situation. Maybe next time, she'll remember that flight attendants are more than used to dealing with situations like this.
Understandably, readers were upset that these types of situations keep happening
