A thoughtful traveller is urging others to avoid giving up their seat on a plane after the benign gesture spectacularly backfired.
The unnamed man says his ordeal, which he recounted on Reddit, “permanently changed [his] mind on ever being nice and trading seats with someone”.
It deepens the debate over the dos and don’ts of plane etiquette, with netizens recently sparring over the received wisdom of reclining your seat.
The fracas took place on board a flight from New York City to Utah.
He wrote: “This was about eight years ago. I’m dead tired. Working and Tinder-ing in NYC for the last week, my first trip ever there. I’m completely exhausted from working long hours and lack of sleep from going out at night.
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“Flying direct back to SLC in the evening. I’m looking forward to crashing in my seat; I’ve prepped by taking some Nyquil sleeping pills. The seats to know are in row 12. ABC DEF.”
The weary traveller clasped his ticket, which read 12F, as he made his way through the aircraft.
Much to his chagrin, he saw that a woman was sitting in his assigned seat.
The man said: “When walking down the aisle to my row. Seats CDEF are all taken. I’m holding my ticket for 12F. Of course, I mention to the woman in my seat that she has my seat.
“She claims it’s hers and I must be mistaken. (See one sentence before holding my ticket in my hand).
“She has to dig through her bag forever to find her ticket to see she has 12A and asks if I’ll just take her seat so she won’t have to move as she’s ‘settled’. Fine. Same seat. It doesn’t matter to me. I sit in 12A and fall asleep.”
However, he was abruptly awakened when the woman who took his seat approached him and demanded her spot back.
He explained: “Some moments later the woman from 12F is standing in the aisle tapping my shoulder saying she needs her seat. She is holding her ticket and says she has claustrophobia and needs her seat (12B is empty so now 12A looks better than 12F).”
Despite being sure she was “full of s***” and just wanted the middle seat to herself, he swaps with her once again because it is officially her seat.
Nearby passengers take notice and tell the man he is “nice” for putting up with what appears to be a game of musical chairs he did not consent to.
“I agree, but f*** it, I want to sleep so bad, so I fall back asleep,” he added.
However, his snooze is once again disrupted when the same woman approaches him once more.
He added: “Some moments later, the woman is waking me up again. She is offering 12A back to me again as she is suffering from a panic attack and has decided to exit the plane. (The door still hadn’t closed due to a delay waiting for a pilot).
“I nod to 12E saying he should take 12A. He’d have a better seat than the middle seat but he’s “settled” so f*** it I move back over to 12A, 12E ends up sliding over to 12F, of course and I fall asleep again,” he said.
And yet again the passenger is awoken – but this time by another traveller who is now demanding he move so that he can sit in 12A.
“Some moments later I’m awoken by a man standing in the aisle saying I’m in his seat. He’s holding a freshly printed ticket for 12A as the plane door is still open and he was issued this seat after the claustrophobic woman left the plane.
“What can I do? He doesn’t know everything that’s happened, it’s certainly officially his seat.
“I’m exhausted and look to 12C and say, ‘I’m sorry I’m just going to slide over to 12B, I’m not going to go take my seat back from 12E who is now in my seat 12F’. I fall back to sleep,” he added.
Of course, his shut-eye is short-lived. The man from seat 12A now offers him the seat back because he has decided to move to the back of the plane.
He explained: “Some moments later I’m awoken by the man in 12A who said I can take his seat as he’s going to go to the back where there are more open seats.
“The plane has only now just closed the door after sitting at the gate for three hours and is prepping for take off as I settle back in to seat 12A once again to fall asleep.”
The hapless passenger signed off with some cautionary advice for other Good Samaritans.
“Never give up your seat people,” he said.
The internet appeared to agree. One person said: “Agreed a million times over.”
Another user added: “This made me tired and mad just to read. Wow.”
A third wrote: “Wow you win the prize for Craziest Seat Swap Story.”
