AITA for not letting someone switch seats mid-flight?

A Redditor shared a story about a flight experience where he and his wife were assigned a row with extra space after a no-show. Mid-flight, another passenger tried to take the middle seat without asking and was unhappy when he refused.

The situation escalated when the passenger accused him of being rude for not letting her friend switch seats. He remained calm, focused on his show, and consulted a flight attendant about the situation. Now, he questions whether he was wrong for standing his ground. Read the original story below.

‘ AITA for not letting someone switch seats mid-flight?’

My wife (36f) and I (34m) were flying back from Dublin to Washington DC. We were assigned the middle and window seats in a row. The aisle passenger no-showed so we ended up having the entire row to ourselves (huge win). Before leaving the gate, I moved to the aisle seat and my wife stayed at the window.

Nothing eventful happened for the first 4.5 hours of the flight. FAs were amazing and even gave us extra drinks for the “guy in the middle”. Randomly, the passenger from the aisle seat across from me comes over with her friend who was sitting a few rows back and ANNOUNCES that her friend would now be taking the middle seat to get away from an crying baby further back.

She did not ask – she told us this was happening. There were about 3 hours of flight time remaining. I ask the woman whether the Flight Attendants are on board with this. She said yes, but since these deals are usually brokered by the FA, I called over a FA.

The FA said the agreement was that they could take an available aisle seat but could not disrupt anyone’s seating arrangements. The woman then starts bitching about how I was assigned the middle but then moved to the aisle before takeoff, so I shouldn’t even have that aisle seat.

I had been sitting there for almost 5 hours and we had already distributed our items all over the row. The woman and her friend disappear to talk to another FA for about 5 minutes.

The woman across the aisle then comes back to her seat and proceeds to yell at me saying that “her friend would not be sitting there – not because she was not allowed to, but because I was so incredibly rude” and that I was a “f**king a**hole”. I kept my eyes on the show I was watching.

The only thing I did this entire time was ask to talk to the flight attendant. I did not say anything else to this woman, though I would have liked to. AITA for not volunteering the middle seat mid-flight?

Take a look at the comments from fellow users:

jrm1102 −  NTA – checking with the FA was appropriate.

apaw1129 −  I’m going with the unpopular opinion here. You paid for 2 seats, not 3. You didn’t ask the FA bc you wanted to “verify the rules.” You asked bc you didn’t want to lose your space and were hoping the FA would not permit her to move. You were assigned a middle seat. So per the FA, the woman could have sat in the aisle seat, once you moved into your actual assigned middle seat. She’s somewhat an AH as well for her attitude and rude behavior.. ESH

Every_Criticism2012 −  And in a twist of events the crying baby she needed to get away from was her own… But seriously, I get that a crying baby can be disturbing, even more so, if it’s not your own. My own daughter got seriously on my nerves on more than a few occasions – and I love that child more than anything!

But that is no excuse to being rude. If she had asked nicely maybe you could have considered moving back to your original seat, even though you would not be obliged to do so. But with that attitude? No way. So NTA.

slinkimalinki −  ESH. They should have asked politely, but you paid for two seats and had the benefit of three for most of the flight, and you were not actually e**itled to h** all three seats while somebody else suffered. It would have been fair to decide which of the three seats you would let her have, but refusing her a seat because her friend was rude was an a**hole move, and the flight attendant shouldn’t have let you do that.

EscapeAny2828 −  Wanted to get away from a crybaby just to become a crybaby

vivianlight −  I kind of don’t understand most comments but maybe it’s cultural… In my opinion you were definitely rude and, most importantly, I don’t think that I would have ever considered “mine” a whole aisle if I didn’t pay for every single seat… I don’t understand this point: why everyone here seems to consider it normal? I have never seen this “the aisle is mine” mentality irl (Europe).

You are on your seat and that’s pretty much it. If you have a middle seat who is free, it doesn’t become yours (even if you obviously can enjoy it as long as it lasts, which is usually the whole flight). In comments it seems to be a conventional “rule” but it just never seemed to me.

It happened to me that people asked to use the seat near me. I said yes and it was in an “almost automatic” way… I never really thought that saying “no” was justifiable since I didn’t pay for it (in this case you were also occupying another seat you didn’t pay for so… you should have probably come back to yours, if anything).

I guess I don’t understand on what basis you should say no, I guess the difference is that I don’t consider anything “yours” unless you paid for it… You pay for a seat, not for an aisle.

But even without getting technical, I don’t understand why it should have bothered you that she used a spared seat that you didn’t pay for, I would have (politely and involving the FA) insisted if I was her tbh, because it seems a very e**itled behaviour on your part. Her reaction became disproportionate so she was rude too. But I don’t understand why you acted the way you did tbh.. ESH but almost YTA

uniqueme1 −  Wait. To clarify, your wife and you were.taking the aisle and window seat and someone wanted to sit in the middle? You weren’t asked to move, they just wanted that middle seat? And you refused to let them? In that case YTA. You paid for one seat you one seat.

If you were asked to move back to the middle so the person can get the aisle, then you’re NTA. But you said that the new passenger wanted to sit in the middle seat which is presumably unoccupied

Dont_quote_my_snark −  YTA, you get to switch seats but they dont? That being said, I’d do the same. But I’m also an a**hole.

PlasticLab3306 −  YTA. I understand it wasn’t convenient and you had already spread yourselves all over the empty seat. However, technically you had only paid for one seat, so if a seat is empty and a passenger wants to move at any point during a flight (especially for a valid reason like a crying baby), they should be able to.

In this instance it sounds like you could have even chosen which seat you’d prefer (middle or isle) so that’s even better for you. So while it made sense that you called the FA (they need to know when people change seats for number of reasons), you weren’t reasonable in not immediately gathering your things so this passenger could be accommodated.

Icy_Department_1423 −  NTA. You were not directed by the FA to move.

Do you think the husband was justified in refusing to give up the seat, or should he have accommodated the other passenger’s request to avoid conflict? How would you handle a similar situation in a public setting? Share your thoughts below!