Flyer Voices Frustration Over Co-passenger's Persistent Disturbance In Seat He Paid For

A Reddit user recently took to the AITA subreddit to share an incident that happened on a flight. It was during a three-hour fight where the passenger and his friend had bought the last seat in their row due to his friend’s debilitating social anxiety. Seated on the left side, the pair had paid a fee for the third seat to remain empty.

However, another passenger decided to park himself on the armrest of the vacant seat. "She was sitting by the window and I sat next to her and this guy came over and sat on the armrest of the empty seat to talk (very loudly) to his relatives who were seated on the other side. I immediately tapped him on the back and told him the seat was not available because we paid for it," the Reddit user wrote. 

The situation later became worse when the occupant went on to stand next to their aisle. "After that, he stood next to us in the aisle during the majority of the flight and kept being loud and very gestural (a member of the staff even told him to keep it down at one point) and leaned close to me with his a**, possibly as a way to provoke me (I was sitting close to the aisle at that point because my friend was taking a nap and resting her legs in the middle)," added the OP.

He went on to ask the members of the subreddit if he was the one at fault. "I feel like the staff should have done more about it. I don't fly often so I wouldn't know, but aren't you supposed to remain seated unless you have a good reason not to?" wrote the OP. 

Even after the flight, he kept talking about it to his relatives and gave the OP dirty looks. The OP just laughed at him because they felt he was making a spectacle of himself.

Many people took to the post and most of them felt that the OP made the right choice. "NTA. You paid for it, no amount of his complaining is going to change that," read one of the top comments.

"Inexcusable disruption! Disregarded our paid seat, and disturbed the entire flight with loud antics. The staff should have acted more decisively. Unfortunate first-time flying experience marred by sheer reconsideration," read another comment. 

One user expressed their dissatisfaction with the flight attendants' service, commenting, "How did the attendants never tell him to sit his a** down and just let him stay in the aisle?" Another Redditor said that the OP was not at fault and they would have taken extreme steps to stop the man from sitting on the armrest. "NTA I totally would have put something on the armrest to soil that bastard's trousers if he leaned on it and go full passive-aggressive level 10 on his ass!" they wrote.