Here’s what happened to me on a recent flight, and I genuinely want to know if I was in the wrong.
I’m on the heavier side, and after years of traveling, I’ve learned that on longer flights, it’s better for everyone if I just buy an extra seat. It’s expensive, sure, but it means I can travel comfortably without invading anyone’s space.
This Thanksgiving, I flew across the country to visit my sister and her kids. Everything was going smoothly until a woman with a little girl—maybe three years old—stopped at my row. Without even a “please,” she told me to move over so her daughter could take the other seat. I calmly explained that I’d purchased both seats for myself.
She immediately huffed, called me “selfish,” and waved down a flight attendant. The attendant came over and asked if I might “make an exception,” but I politely refused and showed my two boarding passes. Apparently, the child was ticketed as a lap infant, which meant the mother wasn’t entitled to another seat anyway.
Eventually, she had to sit with her daughter in her lap, fuming for the entire flight. I could feel the tension around me—the glares, the muttered comments, the judgment. At one point, I even heard someone whisper that I “lacked compassion” and that “karma will hit me soon.”
I stayed quiet, trying not to let it get to me. I understood that traveling with a small child is stressful, but I also knew I hadn’t done anything wrong. I paid for both seats, fair and square, to make sure no one would be uncomfortable—including me.
Maybe some people saw that as selfish. Or maybe I simply refused to apologize for taking up the space I paid for.
