A recent flight had a dramatic incident when a woman in Premium Economy refused to give up her seat to a mother with a child. This led to a heated conversation between the woman and the flight attendant. Even though the flight attendant begged her to change her mind and eventually did, the woman was adamant about her right to the seat she had booked. People are arguing on social media about the rights of passengers and the moral problems that come up when flights are overbooked.

The event was:

I, a 58-year-old woman, was taking a major airline from London to New Delhi with two friends (80M and 62F). My friends were sitting in Upper Class, and I was in Premium Economy with an aisle bulkhead seat. The flight sold out too quickly.

An airline worker asked me if I could switch with the woman behind me who had a child on her lap. She was supposed to be in Upper Class with her husband, but one of them had to be moved back because the flight was too full.

I didn’t say many of the things that were going through my mind, like why wouldn’t one parent and the child stay in Upper Class, where there is more space, with the parents switching seats every so often during the 11-hour flight? Or why not buy three Premium Economy seats and give the child their own seat?

For the record, I had three kids in five years and took long-distance trips with them all while they were young. We always bought a seat for each person, usually in economy. Also, I didn’t tell her that my bad knee was one of the reasons I chose the seat I did because I knew at this point that that would be seen as less important than the mother and child together.

I just told them I didn’t want to switch seats. The flight attendant kept trying to make me feel bad, so I asked, “So, let me get this straight: your airline overbooked the flight, and you have to deal with angry passengers, and you want me to help you out for the bad management practices of the company?” “Yes,” she answered.

“I’m sorry, but no, I’d like to stay in this seat,” I said. Then she told me that I shouldn’t expect the flight attendants to be friendly or helpful, and that I shouldn’t be upset if the kid behind me kicked the seat.

I didn’t argue because I knew she was trying to get me to give in so she could threaten to kick me off the flight if I didn’t. I stayed in my seat. Is it wrong of me to not want to switch seats?

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