Internet Praises Man For Refusing To Swap Flight Seats With Pregnant Woman; Here’s Why

Asking to swap seats on a flight can be a tricky task and if the answer is ‘no’ then that response might sound a bit impolite and insensitive. But on this man’s part, things unfolded in a different way as online users praised him for refusing to swap seats with a pregnant woman on a flight and maintaining his stance in the air.

The incident was posted on a popular Reddit forum, under the username Hahaha Jump. The traveller seeks advice from Redditors about whether he was at fault for refusing to yield his free upgraded exit gate seat to a pregnant lady on a plane wanting to be sitting together. He went on to recount his experience of travelling alone on a flight lasting over 14 hours from Asia with an economy ticket booked as normal.

As per the post, the flight attendant offered the Reddit user to move to an aisle seat in the emergency exit row. He happily accepted the seat instantly. But the minute the Reddit user moved to the new seat and picked up his headphone for some iPad entertainment, a young man in his 20s already sitting in the window seat smiled to him and asked, “Hi, excuse me, my wife sitting far behind is pregnant now, she’s not very comfortable with the narrow seat; do you mind switching seats with her?”

The Reddit user then elaborated that he thought to check her seat behind but then wondered why the man had only paid for a premium seat for himself and not for his own wife. “My brain just instantly responded, ‘Oh, but you have a bigger seat. Why don’t you switch with hers?” wrote the user.

The Reddit user refused to switch seats and the man’s face instantly sunk, the user wrote. Elaborating further, the user said that as the flight took off, instantly fell asleep with his headphones on as he was quite tired. But when he woke up after 3 or 4 hours, he found the man’s pregnant wife sitting beside him.

The Reddit post has pulled more than 4,000 upvotes in just six days. Needless to say, Reddit users chimed in to the comments section to share their take. Some assured the user that they were not judging him for keeping the seat upgrade, others criticised how the man seemingly planned on exploiting the system to get a better seat for his wife. Some users were also startled that a pregnant woman was allowed to sit in the exit row, as people who are in the exit row must agree to assist during an emergency.

“NTA that was a great question for the man. Why would he expect a stranger to give up their seat when he wasn’t willing to do it,” commented a user.

Another remarked, “They were playing on you being sympathetic. NTAH. It’s the husband’s responsibility to make sure his wife is comfortable.”

“Exit seats normally come with a responsibility to be able to help open doors in an emergency. Older, younger or disabled can’t sit there. I’m guessing a pregnant person would also be considered not physically able to do this though I’m not sure. Also, he’s a cheap shit who thought they could manipulate someone to move. NTA,” expressed an individual.

A Reddit user added, “NTA, you did nothing wrong. I hate when people refuse to pay for seats next to each other but try to make others feel guilty when they don’t want to switch.”