Bored Panda
Young woman with round glasses sitting on a bus, dealing with seating arrangements.

31 Entitled People Who Acted Like The World Owed Them The Best Seat In The House

30
5
You can't always get what you want. If you grew up with siblings or you're a huge fan of The Rolling Stones, you should know this well. But for some reason, people's manners and decency tend to fly out the window when they have to sit next to strangers in a public place.
Whether it's a movie theatre or a train carriage, seating arrangements are a common source of tension between strangers. And apparently, many of us have encountered extremely entitled behavior from people who aren't happy with their assigned seats. Bored Panda has compiled a list of some of the most appalling reactions people have had in these situations, so enjoy reading about all of this drama, and be sure to upvote the stories that sound like they came straight out of a sitcom!

#21 Please Move Your Bags, You're Taking 2 Seats

A white mini bus driving on a road, showing crowded seating arrangements in public transport.
This happened 3 years ago but thought I should share it.

So in my country there are taxis that we call "big taxis" and they function like a bus but have only 6 seats,my mom was pregnant at the time and we were coming from a hospital to go home.

At the taxi station there was an empty taxi so I went ahead and got my mother the front seat as it's the most comfortable and she was pregnant so that explains itself (most people would offer the seat to a pregnant woman either way tbh).

then comes karen looking at me opening the front door for my mother and looking disappointed, she probably wanted that front seat, anyways she goes into the back seat where there are 3 seats and puts her bags on a seat and sits on the next seat, these big taxis don't leave the station till they are full and there was a guy behind me and 2 dudes were already seated that makes it six, when I hop on to the seat next to the woman I ask "can you please move your bags" as obviously I can't sit with the other guy in a single seat. She starts cursing me and telling me to shut up and that I have no right to tell her what to do as I am a "kid" and that she saw me racing for the front seat , I being 15 at the time didn't know what to say till the guy behind me and my mother started defending me and telling her that she can't take 2 seats for herself and that she either can put her bags infront of her or in the car's cargo.

And then the taxi owner intervened and told her that she should move her bags.

the guy offered to change seats so I don't sit next to her and when we got off at our station she kept eyeing us from the window.

Please forgive my difficulties in english.
9points

#22 Ladies' Big Bag In My Reserved Movie Seat

A woman sitting in a movie theater enjoying snacks without drama over seating arrangements.
I have regal unlimited and decided to go to the last showing of Sinners in a VIP seat(saw it twice in the huge imax we have) so I figured it was so good, why not go once more. I booked Row D Seat 6, the middle of the theater. I arrive and to my surprise see, not a person, but a giant weekend bag(I assume full of snacks) in my seat flanked by a lady in 5d and 7d. I politely say, “this is my seat where your bag is” to which one of the women says “You can sit somewhere else”. That didn't go over well with me, but I took a few breaths, scowled at them, and walked a few feet away, pulled up my Regal Unlimited app to see neither 5d or 7d are booked, so I smiled at them, walked out to get an employee(assuming they'd catch on and move). The employee and I come back in, and they're still there. The employee says Ladies, “you're in I his seat”, actually “you’re bag is in his seat” and “can I see your tickets?” Sure enough they didn't have tickets for this movie! The employee proceeded to say, “I am going to escort you out of the theater now”. I took my opportunity to smize and say “Have a nice day ladies, 👋🏻” and then enjoyed the excellence of Sinners for a third time in peace. A little luckily polite on my end FAFO for them today and a little petty revenge before an awesome horror flick.
8points

#23 Feeble Attempt At Seat Stealing

View down the aisle of airplane seating arrangements filled with passengers
S
Flying Charlotte to Cozumel, my wife and I always book 2 aisle seats, in this case, 7C and 7D. We are boarding group 5.

There is a couple already settled in 7E and 7F when we get to our seats. No problem, my wife takes 7C, and I take 7D.

A while later, 2 guys come on and say they are 7E and 7F. The seated couple say, "Oops, we're 7A and B". I know, it's hard reading the seat designator on the overhead bins. There is a lady in 7A that my wife asks what seat you are. She says 7A.

The 2 guys are trying to be nice and let the couple stay together, but it turns out the couple are really 7B and 9E. Both middle seats! The guys say no way are they trading for that and the couple shamefully move to where they are supposed to be.

Entitled? Stupid? Cheap? All of the above? What is wrong with people?
6points

#24 There Are Empty Seats, So I Deserve One

I was on a long haul flight, completely exhausted, just wanting to sleep... About an hour in, a woman a few rows back started loudly arguing with a flight attendant because she wanted to switch to an empty seat in business class. The attendant calmly explained she hadn’t paid for it and couldn’t just move... Her response? “There are empty seats. It’s a waste if I don’t use them.”

She kept insisting, getting louder, saying she “deserved to be comfortable” and that rules like that were “ridiculous.” At one point she even tried to walk up there with her bag like it was already settled... They had to call another crew member, and eventually she was told to sit down or risk being removed when we landed.

The wildest part wasn’t even the entitlement, it was how genuinely confused she seemed that “no” actually meant no.

Some people don’t just break rules… they truly believe they shouldn’t apply to them.
6points

#25 Old German Guy Took My Seat On German Train - Heidelberg To Köln.

Older man waiting at a train station platform near train seating arrangements.
I don’t speak much German but he placed his and his wife’s coats across their seats and they sat in mine. I showed him my ticket … told him these are our seats using German I got from translator…I took German language classes in college. He blathered on in German and gave me the hand wave. Most seating on German trains is assigned. So not to be the younger American jerk demanding my seat from an elderly German … my wife and I quietly took other unoccupied seats nearby as other passengers took note of the exchange. Hoping people who belonged in our seats didn’t show up. And I also didn’t want to be the American jerk who got a conductor to get Großvater to move to the proper seats.
6points

#26 Rude For Not Giving Up My Seat.

Happy spectators taking a selfie in stadium seats, depicting seating arrangements at public events.
So this happened a while ago at my kids soccer game. Usually games are back to back and therefore it’s normal to have people waiting a few feet away for other families to pack up and leave so that people waiting can get their spots. So like usual I sat a few feet behind a family watching a game waiting. When it was over I started packing (folding up my chair ) getting my toddlers snack/toy bag. to move forward. I was with my mom and toddler. My mom set her chair down and my toddlers little folding chair next to her. I saw a woman and her husband saying something to my mom but couldn’t hear them the woman had set down one of her chairs and had another in her hand. As I walked forward and moved my toddlers chair and put mine in its place since there was now no more room, she looked at me with a confused was and called me rude. “I told her (my mom) to move the kids chair so my husband could sit down and you just decided to sit instead.”I looked at her husband and he just said it’s ok I’ll just sit behind you (his wife) since people behave so rudely these days. Am I in the wrong here ? My mom then told me that the woman had asked her to move my kids chair so her husband could sit there and my mom had said no because she was saving the spot for me and pointed at me.
6points

#27 Person Wants A Specific Seat On A Bus

A young woman holding a phone while standing on public transit near seating arrangements.
I actually don't know if this is really that entitled but it felt like it in the moment.

The bus is practically empty in the back.

I'm sitting all the way in the back so like that back row of seats. This girl climbs up the steps to the back, and Idk I'm assuming she'll sit anywhere on the empty seats. She instead crosses over me in an awkward position to specifically take the seat all the way to the right of me (next to me) in the back by the window, hitting me with her back back. (Mind you the back row is like 6 seats against the back wall and I'm sitting closer to the right side). She asks if I got hit and I said yeah its okay. She says sorry her back pack big. I just say it's fine again and that it only caught me off guard because there's so many empty seats and you specifically decided to crossover me into the corner. And then she gets defense and says yeah I'll apologize for hitting you but there's nothing wrong with wanting to sit in the back. (I don't get why she didn't go for my left where she would have still been in the back row but wouldn't have bumped me) I low-key just moved to another seat.

was kinda weird lowkey and low-key felt kinda entitled. I guess I compare it to a urinal? Like using the urinal next to the one someone's already at just because you like that one instead of going to one on the opposite end

But y'all tell me if that's some entitlement or not. Maybe the person doesn't understand social cues idk

Edit: Okay so each letter is gonna be a seat

Z B A A A A D

A A. _____ A A

AA. _____ A A

I'm sitting at B and she crosses me to sit at Z instead of choosing D or and of the A's

Edit 2: y'all can call me the entitled one that's fine, I get the perspective . But thinking about it this isn't really entitled from her side either. This belongs mildly infuriating? Not even infuriating. Like some mildly annoyed subreddit. I kinda posted it here because I be doom scrolling on this subreddit and I texted my friend first and she said it was an entitlement.

Edit 3: also I'm a woman, I just gave the urinal example because I'm slow and that seemed like a good similar situation? But like obviously that example if like more of a privacy matter
5points

#28 Middle Aged Lady Demanded Seat While 90% Was Still Free

People sitting on benches at Circular Quay station, displaying outdoor seating arrangements.
So this happened to me a few hours ago. I was waiting for a ferry, while my family explored the surrounding area. Because we needed to take the bus we arrived 2 hours early, so we were nearly the first to arrive, so almost no benches (there were no single seats) were taken, so we decided to take the bench closest to the gates to the ferry. My family decided to look around a little bit so I stayed behind on the bench with our whole luggage (6 persons).

Like 5 minutes after my family left a group of 4 arrived, an elderly man and the lady from the title and two others. This lady first asked me, if I was sitting there alone (mind you, 90% of the benches, there were like 20 of them, were still free). I said, I'm waiting here for the rest of my family, so technically I'm sitting here alone for the time being and she demanded I remove the luggage and take another bench because the elderly man had to sit. And ok, the man looked like he really needed to sit and I would have gladly stood up or removed the luggage from the bench if there were no other options to sit down available. But nearly every other bench was still free and the man also had a rollator, where he also could've sat down, so there really was no need to even talk to me in the first place. I guess my bench was the closest to the exit, so I think that's why they wanted to sit there.

Anyway she argued her father really needed to sit down and after a short period of arguing I was annoyed and removed some luggage from the bench, so that the elderly could sit down, but I didn't chose another bench and I also didn't make enough space for the other 3 to sit down (I was mildly infuriated at that point, but I thought its not worth the effort to argue more with this entitled lady).

After that, the woman and the two others decided to wait, standing exactly before me, looking at me from time to time, while mostly all other benches were still free and the ferry was like 1:30 h away from opening the gates.

Anyway sometime later my family returned and sat down, while the woman was still glancing at us. I thought that was it, but 20 minutes before the gates opened those 4 including the elderly man decided they were still not close enough to the gate, so all of them moved directly in front of the gate and the elderly man sat down on his rollator. So why was there any need to bother me in the first place and arguing with me? I still can't understand it.

If there are any mistakes excuse me, English is not my first language 🙃
5points

#29 Stolen Seats At School Function

An audience sitting in red seats during a lecture event, showing seating arrangements.
This happened when I was 11 year old(M) at a school function. I had just finished my performance and wanted to sit in the audience to watch other teams perform. It was a packed house. Seats were taken on first come first serve basis. I finally found 2 seats opening up and went for it. A minute or two after I was seated a family(husband, wife and a toddler) comes up to me asking me to go somewhere in the back(I believe they saw me going for the empty seats). I tried getting few words off my mouth saying I do not want to go. The husband scolded me to basically go somewhere in the back. He was too loud for what I was used to when elders spoke to me. What I faced from the grown man made my eyes swell up and I stood still while they occupied my seats. I did not want to cry nor could I control my eyes from getting wet. None of the neighbouring seat occupiers came to my rescue. I went to the sides dejected getting angrier on myself for not standing up for myself but there was very little I could do to correct it.

I still remember this(32M) and it makes me angry everytime.
5points

#30 You're In My Seat....

A vintage steam train traveling through an autumn forest, representing seating arrangements on classic transport.
Wife and I took a foliage train tour up in New Hampshire. The train basically went up a route, we stopped for lunch then got back on the train. The train then took the exact route back to the starting point. Seats were not reserved. It uses old commuter rail cars so the seats are bench seats facing each other. Room for 4 if you don't mind knocking knees.

On the way up, the side we were sitting on did not have the best views. It was okay, but the best views were out of the other side of the car. So we made sure to get on early and sit on the opposite side.

Edit: Train had two engines so basically went in reverse down the same set of tracks. Changing what side you were on gave you a different view out the window.

Apparently we were not the only ones. A couple sat behind us.

Soon after, and elderly 'gentleman' comes up to the couple behind us and basically tells the couple they need to move because 'we were sitting there'. Mind you, there were plenty of open seats on the other side of the car and on the train in general. Unfortunately, after a little discussion, the other couple caved and gave up the seats.

My wife and I agreed that if it had been us, that would not have happened.
5points

#31 Went To A Movie Showing With 6 People. Someone Was In Our Reserved Seats.

People wearing 3D glasses watching a movie in theater seating arrangements.
Booked the tickets 20 minutes before the movie start time, so the seating chart showing four other people had to be up to date. All four of them were different seats. Two of them were in our carefully picked, best for our peculiar preferences seats. We were in the theater 10 minutes before start time, so it wasn’t even as though they had waited for previews to start and then moved.

To be honest, I decided that it wasn’t worth the time it would take to argue while the fresh made popcorn got cold. Chose to let this one go.
2points
30
5