Teen called ‘little b****’ for refusing to give plane seat with extra legroom to older woman

A teenager was branded a “little b****” for refusing to give her plane seat to an older woman.

The 18-year-old managed to bag one of the seats with extra legroom near an exit on a flight with no assigned seating. However, an argument broke out when another passenger tried to get her to move.

Posting to the Am I The A**hole subreddit, the young woman explained that she was flying back to campus after spending Thanksgiving with her parents.

The tall teen checked in quickly to ensure she could get a window seat in the exit row so she could stretch out.

She settled into her seat, and as the last few passengers were boarding an older woman confronted the college student.

Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter

The woman, described as “larger-bodied” and “middle-aged”, approached the teen and appraently said: “Excuse me. You aren’t old enough to sit in this row, sweetie. And I need that seat because I need extra room.”

The teen argued that she’s entitled to the seat, and said she has been sitting in the exit row since she was 15.

The woman fired back: “No, I’m entitled to that seat because I paid for a ticket, and I have the right to fly comfortably. The other seats don’t give me enough room to sit comfortably. And at your age, you don’t have enough flight experience to do the exit row duties properly.”

This riled up the Redditor, who told the older woman that she’s been on hundreds of flights.

Explaining the situation to Reddit, she added: “I don’t want to be rude at all, but she did not look very mobile or like she could do the exit row procedures quickly.”

The flight attendant then intervened, and the older woman tried saying the “little girl stole [her] seat”. She also tried telling the crew member that the teen is “too young” to sit in the exit row, and said the other seats are too small for her.

The Redditor said: “The flight attendant told the woman she was causing a scene and to go sit in one of the other open seats.

“As she walked away, the woman muttered “little b****” at me. I’m quite shaken as I’ve never had a plane confrontation in all the times I’ve flown.”

She concluded the post by asking for outsider opinions on whether or not she did the right thing by refusing to move.

The top comment with over 6,500 upvotes was on the Redditor’s side, writing: “NTA [not the a**hole]. She forced you to engage, and the fact the flight attendant sided with you shows that you did nothing wrong. If she wanted an exit row seat, she should have checked in sooner.”

Another said: “You took the seat you were entitled to, and are not [an a**hole] for keeping it. The other person is [an a**hole] for trying to bully you out of it, whether it was a man or woman of any age, for any reason.”

Others praised her for standing up for herself (by remaining seated).

Sadly this isn’t the first time we’ve written about bad manners on planes. In November we wrote about how a woman was left horrified after a pair of “troll” feet invaded her space on an international flight.

Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.