Plane Passenger Says Mom Threw a Fit After She Wouldn’t Give Up Her Seat so Woman Could Sit with Adult Children

Mar. 15, 2025

Photo:Getty

Getty

On Sunday, March 9, the flier took toRedditto ask her fellow forum users if she was in the wrong in a bizarre seat-swapping debacle.

The original poster, or OP, explained in her retelling of the incident that she was taking a late, cross-country flight to Newark Liberty International Airport, during which she sat in her assigned seat, “right behind the exit row in the aisle,” she wrote.

Airplane seating.PrathanChorruangsak/Getty

PrathanChorruangsak/Getty

The poster notes that had they been young children, this would be an understandable request to make, but the woman’s two sons appeared to be college age, at least “over 18,” she wrote.

“I started saying that I would prefer to stay in an aisle seat closer to the front since I get claustrophobic but she cut me off,” OP wrote.

The passenger goes on to explain that the woman called her a “bad person” for separating her from her children before giving up and going back to her own middle seat.

When the plane landed, the woman went back to the OP’s row and told her she knew that she must have had a “great flight” because she was sitting next to her “two amazing children."

On the contrary, the OP claimed to readers of the kids that “frankly they were obnoxiously loud and did not wear deodorant.”

Airplane passengers.Getty

Things only escalated as they deplaned, however.

The mom allegedly began yelling “tons of profanities” at the other passenger, which made the OP fear for her safety, she wrote. “Looking back I wish I got someone else involved," she said.

After the fact, the poster writes, she questioned if she should have just given up her seat, since if the children were younger, she would have been more willing to switch seats with the woman.

Interior of airplane with people sitting on seats.Getty

Redditors agreed that the woman should have bought her and her sons’ tickets sooner to guarantee they sat together or risk sitting away from them.

A few commentators saw another possibility: that the sons didn’t want to sit with their mom.

“The kids very very likely moved their own seats when they checked in in order to be away from her,” one person wrote. With another adding, “Her adult children were probably relieved to be rid of her.”

Travel expert Nicole Campoy Jackson of Fora Travel previously spoke with PEOPLE after a similar scenario discussed in a2023 Instagram postsparked a viral conversation.

“As much as it’s possible, passengers should be choosing their seats ahead of time for this exact reason,” advised Campoy Jones. “I don’t think that you can board a plane with the expectation of someone leaving their seat for you.”

Campoy Jones adds that if an altercation does escalate, it’s the job of flight attendants and the airline to handle as it’s “no longer one passenger’s responsibility.”

source: people.com