Plane passenger sparks outrage after revealing she was bullied on her flight for sitting in between a couple – despite offering to switch seats

A plane passenger has detailed the shocking incident that took place while she was sitting between a couple, saying she was “rudely” criticised throughout the flight.

The 23-year-old, anonymous, frequent flyer shared her frustrations with people on the internet via Reddit.

In a thread with the title Entitled peoplethe passenger said she received a flood of unwanted comments when she was seated between a couple – despite offering to switch seats.

She explained that she was originally scheduled to travel on another flight, for which she had paid directly with the airline for an assigned seat, but was rebooked at the last minute due to a medical emergency.

And while they had no control over where she sat on the new flight, the two people next to her made it clear that they had a problem with last-minute passenger arrivals.

The post was captioned: ‘Apparently I ruined this woman’s flight.’

She wrote: ‘I am a 23 year old woman, I don’t know how old the couple is but they were in their late 20s, early 30s.’

“This was about a five hour flight. I always pay extra and choose my seat in advance. However, due to a medical emergency on a flight earlier in the day, I was put on standby because the people who had been evicted from that flight had been put on our flight because it was the next flight going to the same location.

‘Luckily my name was called towards the end of boarding. I was lucky and was able to get on this flight (I think they changed to a bigger plane), instead of having to wait for the next flight.’

She noticed that her new seat on the new flight was between two other seats.

When she got to her row, she saw a man and a woman chatting and sharing snacks. She asked if they would sit next to each other instead of having her sit in the middle, but they refused.

She said: ‘The woman immediately reacted rudely to this. She said something like: “You are not allowed to sit here.”

‘I explained the situation (I’m pretty sure everyone on the plane was aware of this, as announcements had been made and a rescheduling was going on). I offered to show her my new ticket as well (it had my seat number on it).

‘She waved her hand at my ticket and made a disgusted noise. I offered again to sit together… to which she didn’t respond. Her partner said “it’s okay” and seemed nicer between the two.

“I sat down. He started talking about how crowded the plane must be.”

And while the woman’s partner tried to be more understanding towards the new neighbor, she wouldn’t let it go.

The 23-year-old added: ‘The woman didn’t wait long and eventually interrupted us. She asked me, “Did you use one of those third-party websites to book your flight? It’s so frustrating when people do cheap things just to inconvenience others.”

“I told her that I had booked direct and that the only reason I had been put on standby (along with many other people) was because of the medical emergency that occurred on another flight. None of us were allowed to choose our seats. She asked me if I had paid for seat selection. I told her that I had.”

After that meeting, she explained, “I was so done with her attitude that I put my headphones on and tried to do my own thing.

The remaining four hours, [the woman] kept leaning over me and tapping her partner and trying to talk to him in a way that was very intrusive to me, as I was sitting between them.

‘I could tell even her partner was trying to get her to engage less so she would hopefully stop, but she didn’t. And the whole time she was acting like I was the problem in this scenario.

‘The unforeseen part of this aside, I think they tried that tactic where they purposely don’t sit next to each other, leave the middle seat empty, hoping that no one will sit between them. But on full flights (which most are) it doesn’t work. And even then it’s not the other person’s fault.’

People on the internet responded en masse to the comments and expressed their frustrations about the anonymous couple.

Someone said: ‘Sounds exactly like the middle seat thing. I really don’t get why they made it hard for themselves (and you) and didn’t just trade you. Weird hill to die on.’

Someone else added: ‘Every time she put her hand in front of my face to get his attention, I would wait a few seconds and then immediately do it again to adjust the window shades.’

“Wow! You’re my hero for keeping it classy. I’m afraid I wouldn’t have been as nice as you,” someone else commented.

“You did nothing wrong. I’m so sorry you were exposed to such a horrible cow,” another person added.

In the past, many passengers have also wondered whether you can change seats while traveling if someone asks you to do so.

A few months ago, a frequent flyer sent out a warning to fellow travelers about changing seats after he was thrown into a nightmare of having to change seats five times after reluctantly giving up his original seat.

The unidentified man took to Reddit to share his story about the seat swap, which “permanently changed” [his] ‘I sometimes think about being nice and swapping seats with someone.’

Another frequent flyer previously said she refused to swap her window seat with a passenger who was “entitled” and wanted to sit next to his wife.

The unnamed woman shared on Reddit how she refused to move to the middle seat during an 11-hour flight from New York to Cairo, Egypt, so the man next to her could sit next to his wife.

She shared her story on the social media platform to express her dissatisfaction with the man on the subreddit Entitled People. Others online then began to criticize the man for asking someone else to switch to a lower quality chair so he could be satisfied.