We constantly hear various tales about people sitting in the wrong seats and being forced to change them. Nowadays, it’s probably one of the most frequently discussed subjects online. Today we have a superb addition to it.
It’s a story about a man, who agreed to switch seats numerous times during one flight. And he wasn’t some kind of jerk, who deliberately sat in the wrong seats. In fact, the whole sequence started because he planned to sit in his assigned place.
More info: Reddit
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Image credits: Toa Heftiba (not the actual photo)
A man boards a plane and notices that there’s a woman sitting in his assigned seat
Image credits: Kaysha (not the actual photo)
She says she’s settled there and gives him her place, which he takes, but a few moments later asks for it back saying it’s due to her claustrophobia
Image credits: Mpumelelo Macu (not the actual photo)
He switches, but shortly after she exits the plane and gives him her seat back, from which he’s soon moved by a new passenger
Then, this passenger moves to another seat, giving him it back, resulting in the man switching seats numerous time even before the flight took off
Today’s main story happened about 8 years ago. The OP was traveling from New York to Salt Lake City in Utah. He just spent around a week working and in his words “tindering” in New York. A night before the flight he spent long hours working and going out. And so, the man was tired and was looking forward to crashing into their plane seat as soon as possible. But the universe had other plans.
The guy’s seat was 12F. When hecame to their seat, he noticed it was taken by some random woman. When faced with a situation like that, a traveler can simply inform a crew member. Then, this employee might ask a person to sit in their assigned seat and so a traveler doesn’t need to deal with it.
But the OP chose to confront a woman himself. When he did, a woman claimed it was her seat and he must be mistaken. Yet, he didn’t back down, after all, he held a ticket with a written seat in his hand. The woman dug through her bag and found a ticket, which proved that she wasn’t in her place.
Then, she proceeded to ask the man to sit in her place, because she she was “settled.” Since the seats weren’t that different, he agreed. He sat and fell asleep. That didn’t take long, as beforehand he took some cold medicine that makes some people sleepy.
But just as falling asleep didn’t take long, the sleep itself wasn’t long either. A few moments later the same woman woke the man and told him that now she wanted her seat. She claimed she had claustrophobia. As you are probably aware, it’s a fear of confined spaces. About 12.5% of the people have it.
And so, since planes are basically closed-off tubes with a bunch of people inside, it is normal that some claustrophobics have a hard time flying. Enclosed space, limited room to move and other passengers nearby are some of the people’s nightmare fuel.
Yet, the original poster kind of doubted this woman’s claim about the condition. He thought that she might simply want to have the middle seat empty near her. But since he just wanted to sleep without any drama, he just let her sit in her assigned seat. For this reason, some other people nearby told this man that he was too nice for putting up with this behavior. But what else was he supposed to do, right?
Image credits: cottonbro studio (not the actual photo)
However, the desired uninterrupted sleep was still far away. A few other moments later the same woman woke the man again to offer him her seat back. Apparently, she was having a panic attack and decided to exit the plane. So, the man offers others to take her seat, but when they don’t, he takes it himself.
If you thought that the woman exiting the plane would be the end of the whole story – you are sorely mistaken! Another character of a man bugging the OP appeared. Now the author was the person sitting in someone else’s seat. Evidently, when the woman left the plane, her ticket was sold to this gentleman. While nowadays it’s usual to buy tickets online, in some cases it is possible to buy them in the airport right before the flight, just like this man did.
Again, not wanting to cause any scenes, the original poster moves seats. At this point, it’s kind of hard to keep count of how many times he did that. And it wasn’t even the last one!
Soon, he was woken up once more. This time by the same guy, who moved him. Now, he said that the OP can take his place, as he’s going to the back, where there are more open seats. And so, for the last time, the author moves.
Summarizing the story, the author himself said that he shouldn’t have let someone else take his seat in the first place. Well, the whole sequence was kind of amusing to read about, but it would have been very annoying to experience, so we can understand his frustration.
While many people in the comments were amused by this story, there were some, who found some details questionable. For instance, why did the man keep switching seats when he sat on his own? This would’ve solved the situation and he could’ve slept, just like he planned.
The original poster himself agreed that was a valid point. Yet, it doesn’t change the fact that he kept moving. Well, at least now he has a fun story to tell not only on Reddit but for people in his life as well.
People online found this whole sequence both funny and annoying, because they wondered why he just simply didn’t stay in his own seat, when he got it back