"As If I Had No Choice But To Move": Woman Refused To Switch Plane Seats

Modern airlines do often attempt to get away with too much, since what, are you going to drive across the ocean? They overbook, charge for average-sized bags, and attempt the weirdest seating arrangements.

A worried woman asked the internet if not giving up her first-class upgrade was the right move. On a long flight that she had booked well in advance, the airline offered her a free upgrade to first class due to the travel points she had accrued. But just moments into the flight, a flight attendant came by to ask her if she wouldn’t mind downgrading her seat.

Setting aside moral dilemmas for a moment, air travel, while magical, can be highly stressful at the same time. If we were to ask, for example, a Medieval peasant, what might be the worst, most tension-inducing part of air travel, they would probably suggest the safety issues, perhaps storms and wind, air bandits, dragons, and other sky-monsters. They might be as shocked about air travel as they would be learning that the main issue is lines and other people. But that’s what studies say. Being confined in an elongated can for extended periods of time ends up creating a decent amount of tension and even rage.

Air travel isn’t the only case where we are “trapped” with other people for some time, but there are a number of other factors that make airplanes the perfect storm of brewing rage. Air travel, for the most part, is pretty expensive and involves dealing with an airport. As many a novice traveler has learned the hard way, airports are far away from city centers and generally require the person to be there well in advance of the flight. Why? Check-in and security, of course! Even if one is taking zero luggage (congratulations,) going through an airport means dealing with lines of irritable people, security, and other hassles. And pretty often, flights are at inconvenient times, so you and all the people impatiently waiting in line with you are often tired, perhaps even jetlagged, and probably in a rush.

But, finally, you have made it through and after waiting a bit and hopefully not having a delayed flight, you are off. But, research says, the tension doesn’t end there. In nearly all commercial flights, first-class passengers, like OP, board first, near the front of the plane. Then everyone else piles past them, getting a full view of the legroom they won’t have and the larger seats they won’t be sitting in. This creates a feeling of envy and can manifest itself as “air rage.” On top of that, planes are frequently loud, cold, and stuffy, creating a host of tiny irritants for most passengers, and that's not even getting around to the tiny irritants that are screaming kids.

This phenomenon, unfortunately, appears to be growing more common, and one can find frequent examples in the news, of diverted flights over passenger arguments to literal terminal-side brawls. The causes are many and, obviously, an airline can’t be held responsible for immature, aggressive people acting like lunatics. However, there are numerous things the airline can do to perhaps lessen the stress passengers go through. Overbooking has become all too frequent and planes are already packed to the gills, leading many an amateur-humorist to speculate that standing room in planes will be next.

Fortunately for OP, the worst that happened to her was the nosy, somewhat judgemental older woman who felt entitled to give her a piece of her mind. Indeed, the free upgrade is one of those little things that airlines do which other companies could learn from. Imagine if Ford would give you free leather seats for buying your third vehicle from them. As many commenters have noted, she was absolutely not in the wrong for refusing to give up her seat. Firstly, the parents simply could have stayed in economy and taken the upgrade later, if it was that important to them. However, there is a pretty strong argument to be made that the child didn’t exactly need to be with them for the whole time. There are flight attendants and both parents and the child can move around the cabin. And it’s not like a kid can really “enjoy” first class anyway, the free champagne and legroom might be lost on them.