Man refuses to swap seat for free with honeymooners flying from Melbourne to Dubai

A passenger offered a honeymoon-bound couple his seat on the plane at a cost they weren’t willing to pay.

Wondering if they were in the wrong for charging the newlyweds, the passenger asked Reddit users what they thought, detailing the situation in the popular confession forum, Am I The A**hole. The Reddit writer prefaced the story by admitting their flight was from Melbourne to Dubai, a 13-hour and 50-minute flight non-stop.

Because the Redditor knew the travel time would be long, he splurged on a premium economy seat for comfort purposes. The passenger assigned to the seat was the newlywed husband, who received an upgrade.

“They asked if I could switch seats with his wife as they had just gotten married and were on their honeymoon,” the original poster explained. “I congratulated him on his nuptials and asked where his wife was sitting.” Her seat wasn’t anywhere close to them.

To the Reddit user’s disappointment, the wife was assigned an economy seat much closer to the back of the plane. At first, the Redditor politely declined, but upon further pushback, they agreed to swap seats for a price.

“I offered to switch if he paid the difference between the seats,” said the Reddit user. “It is a goodly amount. I had been lucky to get mine at a decent price.”

According to the original poster, the couple would have had to pay $1,000 AU or US$676 to switch. While the Redditor thought the offer was more than generous, the newlyweds didn’t bite because of the strict budget they had set for their trip.

So, when they ultimately turned down the price, the Reddit user congratulated them on their nuptials and popped in earbuds, which didn’t please the husband in the slightest.

“He muttered that I was an a**hole. I said he was a pr*** for taking the upgrade instead of either sitting with his wife or giving it to her,” the Redditor confessed. “I told my wife about the incident, and she thinks I should have done the nice thing.” Yet, the Reddit user doesn’t believe his wife would have switched if she was in the same position.

The majority of readers disagreed with the Redditor’s wife, arguing the newlyweds were at fault, specifically the husband.

One supporter said: “If he really wanted to sit with his wife? I’m sure the person sitting beside her would have loved an upgrade to premium economy. He was essentially asking you to pay for his wife’s upgrade.”

“Him trying to guilt trip you by telling you he was on his honeymoon was supposed to mean what exactly? Why were he and his wife entitled to a $1,000 gift from a stranger at the last minute?” another reader added.

A third wrote: “Their lack of planning is not your fault. The sheer entitlement of some people is laughable.”

“As I’ve flown back and forth between US and Sydney, I totally get why you want the better seats,” an experienced flyer confessed. “Being newlyweds doesn’t entitle you to special treatment.”

The Independent