By Zahna Eklund

Copyright belfastlive

Switching seats on a plane is a contentious yet fairly common practice. If you and your travel companion haven’t managed to secure seats together, you might contemplate asking someone to exchange seats with you. While some passengers are happy to oblige, others prefer to stick to their allocated seat – and they’re entirely within their rights to do so. The most equitable seat swaps tend to be like-for-like. For instance, if you’re occupying a window seat next to a stranger, their partner might propose a swap so that you take another window seat elsewhere on the aircraft. However, one bloke claimed he was nearly duped into accepting an inferior seat after a family fibbed about their situation. In a Reddit post, the man recounted how he was seated in an aisle seat when a couple with a young child boarded the plane. The mum and her child took the middle and window seats next to him, while the dad appeared “distraught” before asking the man if he would consider swapping seats so he could “sit with his family”. When the man enquired where the dad’s seat was, he was taken aback to discover it was actually a business class seat. However, when the man agreed to the swap and accept the free upgrade, the dad had an odd reaction. He insisted that his wife would be taking the business class seat, leaving the man to occupy the middle seat instead – completely contradicting his earlier wish to sit with his family. Please note: The following Reddit post contains strong language. He wrote: “I started to get up and grab my luggage, but once I stood up, he was like, ‘Wait, my wife actually wanted to go sit up there, can you take her seat instead?’ I said, ‘No, I’m not switching to the middle row and being blocked into a middle seat by a screaming toddler… and you said you wanted to sit with your family’. “The dad got all defensive and switched up (holding up traffic during this entire interaction), raising his voice, going on about how I said I could switch seats with them and how it’s not fair to his wife, who had planned on taking his seat up in business class.” However, the passenger had the final word when cabin crew arrived to investigate the commotion, with nearby travellers supporting his version of events – resulting in him being escorted to the premium seat. He added: “At this point, a flight attendant had finally squeezed her way up to us and asked why we weren’t taking our seats. Before I could say anything, this man had the AUDACITY to say that I had offered to take his wife’s seat and now I wasn’t cooperating. “I called bulls**t, and thankfully, the passenger sitting behind me backed me up, and the flight attendant was not in the mood to play. She asked to see his ticket, told me to grab my luggage and escorted me up to his seat. “Needless to say, I had a very nice flight after that.” Commenters on the post were outraged on behalf of the man at the family’s “audacity,” but they commended the flight attendant for her handling of the situation. One person commented: “The audacity of trying to downgrade someone to a middle seat for 8 hours is insane. I’m glad the flight attendant wasn’t having it. The fact that he doubled down and lied to the flight attendant makes it even worse. “Glad karma was instant with you in business class. Entitled people always expose themselves. If he’d just been honest and polite, maybe he could’ve worked something out with someone else.” Another added: “I love the outcome. He tried to con you out of your aisle seat, and lost his business class seat instead.”