How would you have acted here?

I was on a 4 hour flight with my 6 year old son, we were sitting in a row with 3 seats in it so we knew there would be a stranger next to us. He was afraid he would "fall out of the window" so I let him take the middle seat and I took the window seat. We settled in and the woman who had the 3ird seat walked up, she was huge, at least 300 lbs and was so big, she needed a seat belt extender. So she sad down and spilled into half of my son's seat, which annoyed me because I didn't pay for half a seat and she didn't pay of 1 1/2 seats but I ignored it, thinking that there isn't really anything I could do about it anyway and at least he is small and doesn't need the whole seat. The only problem was anytime he moved, he would bump her but hey, that's what happens when you take up someone's seat. 20 minutes into the flight, she looked at me and said in a snotty tone " could you have your son stop bumping me" I said "well if you would get in your own seat, he wouldn't but as you are so big that you have to take up half his seat, he can't help it. She rolled her eyes and called the flight attendant over and told her my son kept bumping her. You could tell the flight attendant was trying to find tactful way of saying it she said " well you are taking up part of his seat ma'am". She got pissed and said she was going to report her for verbally abusing her, which I looked at the attendant and told her I would happily back her up because she wasn't being verbally or in any other way abusive. Well after the flight attendant walked away, the woman snapped at my son for bumping her again, I looked at her and said " get your fat butt in your own seat and he won't bump you, until then, he will bump you all he wants, maybe next time you fly, you will pay for 2 ticket since that's how much room you need instead of using the seat I paid for". I complained when we landed and we were upgraded for first class for our flight home.

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Asked by Anonymous at 2:56 AM on Feb. 24, 2012 in Travel

Answers (11)

Well done.

Answer by Pucki at 3:10 AM on Feb. 24, 2012
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Good for you. I'm proud of you. I would've done the same thing.

Answer by wanita61 at 3:30 AM on Feb. 24, 2012
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I would have put the armrest down between my son and me so that he could move closer to me. I probably wouldn't have said what you did to her at the end, but I would have felt like it.

Answer by Bmat at 3:32 AM on Feb. 24, 2012
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Because I am pregnant, with twins, I didn't have much extra room in my seat for my child to share mine but either way, this woman was presumptuous enough to think she could share my son's seat and then got mad when he bumped her, she should have paid for two seats

Comment by Anonymous (original poster) at 4:36 AM on Feb. 24, 2012
I think the woman in this is extremely immature, she has to expect to an extent, yes, children are fidgety, but she should also understand that she can't complain when she knows fine well that she's larger than the seats. In the UK [not sure if we've brought it in yet or not] but you're going to have to pay for extra seats if you're over a certain weight, you also have to bring less luggage.

I think whoever you are that answered this, you done the right thing, you tried to be polite about it at the start, but when this woman was being obnoxious and whatnot to you, then you are well within your rights to do the same to her. I would have done the exact same thing, you get what you pay for and if you're too damn fat to fit on it & in turn get blighted by unpleasentries, then that's just your own fault.

It's good the airline bumped up your class though. :)

Answer by Elliepeanut at 4:44 AM on Feb. 24, 2012
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I would not have handled it that way at all.

I'd have had things moved around immediately. Flight attendants are super used to rotating the fluffy passengers around, it's routine. So they can be comfortable and you can too.

i think you were a little rude and didn't teach your kid a lick of tolerance.

he COULD possibly help bumping her..... she could not push a magic button and drop 50 pounds

Answer by hibbingmom at 5:17 AM on Feb. 24, 2012
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hivvingmom, I understand that she can't drop the weight instantly but she should have bought an extra seat since she is so big, And every time he moved he bumped her, there really wasn't any way around it, I mean he was staying in his own seat but since her blubber was on his seat as well, he was bumping her. He shouldn't have to stay perfectly still the whole time because she is rude enough to take up part of his seat. The flight attendant said the flight was full so she couldn't move her

Comment by Anonymous (original poster) at 5:24 AM on Feb. 24, 2012
blubber? really? she is a human being, not a beluga whale.

my husband is VERY tall. and we fly for free since he's an airline employee..... all planes and all flights are so different. sometimes his legs are crushed, sometimes he's very comfy. perhaps wherever you guys were located (say New York) when she flew there in ABCplane she fit just fine. But on return flight it was on XYZplane and she was squashed. Once you're in that seat and seeing you're uncomfortable, you can't exactly hand the pilot a visa card and buy a 2nd seat, can you? also, the flight was full. so.... um.... yeah...

Answer by hibbingmom at 5:43 AM on Feb. 24, 2012
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hibbingmom, yes but I doubt she bought the last seat so when she bought her ticket, it wasn't full. If it was the last seat, she should have booked a flight that had room for her, in her case, that means two seats. I was willing to tolerate the fact that she was taking up half my son's seat until she started bitching at him for moving in his own seat, had she only been sitting in her seat he wouldn't have bumped her

Comment by Anonymous (original poster) at 6:32 AM on Feb. 24, 2012
Was the flight full? Could she have moved to another seat? I would have closed the window and switched seats with my son. It's over now. Just enjoy the first class tickets home. Pretty soon they will have to ask us how much we weigh when we buy our tickets!

Answer by admckenzie at 9:34 AM on Feb. 24, 2012
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