Giving up your seat for a pregnant woman is customary in public transport, such as buses and trains. Most of us stand up and let them have our seats if we see them standing right? But seating etiquette on planes is a wholly different beast.
Still, this pregnant lady expected a passenger to give up their seat so she could sit beside her husband. However, the man refused, since his partner needed company next to him. And, because she was barely even showing and her husband wasn't really protesting, the man questioned whether she really needed the seat.
Bored Panda reached out to the man who refused to give up his seat to the pregnant lady, u/gayboythrowaway25. He kindly agreed to tell us more about how the interaction impacted him and his fiancé, and what he would say to the woman now if he ever met her. Read our conversation below!
A man planned to sit next to his fiancé on a flight to help him with panic attacks
Image credits: coffeekai / Envato (not the actual photo)
When a pregnant lady came over and demanded he switch seats with her, he flat-out refused
Image credits: winnievinzence / Envato (not the actual photo)
Image credits: gayboythrowaway25
The Redditor supposes that the husband might be used to his wife throwing tantrums in public
Image credits: benzoix / Freepik (not the actual photo)
There's nothing inherently wrong or entitled about asking someone to switch seats on a plane. In fact, three-quarters of American travelers say they would do it. At the same time, the reason matters: if it's to just sit next to a friend, people are less likely to switch compared to if people want to sit next to a younger family member.
Perhaps the biggest surprise in this story is how uninvolved the husband was. u/gayboythrowaway25 tells Bored Panda that the husband remained pretty stoic before and after the incident with his wife.
"We started taxiing not too long after she sat down, but before that, [the energy in that row] was pretty varied," the Redditor recalls. "I was miffed but busy making sure Jeremy had everything he needed. Jeremy was a bit on edge, I think, but it's hard to tell if that was because of the whole plane about to take off thing or the interaction."
The netizen speculates that the husband might be used to his wife behaving this way." After the interaction, he just pulled out a book and started reading," u/gayboythrowaway25 tells us. Now that's some real nonchalance!
"Other than the guy who told her to move, the other passengers in line were getting pretty annoyed. She was kinda loud so people around us were turning their heads and all," the Redditor adds. "The flight attendants were helping other passengers and the interaction was quick enough that there was no time to help."
The netizen thinks it's best to avoid these kinds of people: "She's clearly got way more issues than I do"
Image credits: EyeEm / Freepik (not the actual photo)
u/gayboythrowaway25 agrees with other Redditors that his last comment to the pregnant lady wasn't that nice. "I don't regret keeping my seat," he reiterates nonetheless. "It was an early flight and I didn't sleep too well so I was a little irritable. I recognize that the 'knocking up' comment was kinda coarse and I should have been a bit more eloquent, I think."
Now, the netizen thinks that saying something along the lines of 'You being pregnant doesn't mean I didn't buy these seats' would've sounded more polite. As far as his fiancé's reaction, he says it wasn't bad at all. "My fiancé missed half the conversation so I don't blame him for saying to be nicer."
If the Redditor had the unfortunate chance to meet the woman again, there's really nothing he would like to say to her. "Frankly, I think if I saw her again I'd avoid her. I don't have too much animosity towards her and she's clearly got way more issues than I do," u/gayboythrowaway25 says.
He also suspects she might've been a tad homophobic. "I did refer to Jeremy as my fiancé when I pointed to him, I said 'My fiancé loses it' or something to that effect, and she got considerably angrier at me after that. I don't know if it was homophobically motivated but I wouldn't be surprised," the Redditor tells us.
He also clarifies that the shove the woman gave him after the flight wasn't as aggressive as some commenters made it out to be. "I said 'shoved' but it wasn't an open palmed two-handed shove or anything. It was more of an extra rough shoulder check that caught me off balance and my fiancé stopped me from falling. He yelled after her but she didn't respond," the Redditor recalls.
Many people sided with the man: "She asked and you answered politely"
Others, however, agreed with his fiancé: "YTA in this instance for that insult at the end
