‘’I refused to swap seats so a mum could sit with her toddler on the flight’

“It’s not my problem if they didn’t book their seats together,” the frustrated traveller reveals.

Sarah* had just settled into her bulkhead window seat on a flight from Japan when a mum “had the audacity” to ask her to swap seats so she could sit next to her toddler.

Sarah looked up at the woman in surprise.

It was not a fair trade – the woman had an uncomfortable middle seat while Sarah’s bulkhead seat had plenty of leg room – and Sarah couldn’t understand why she didn’t ask anyone else.

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“She asked me – and just me – to switch with her so she could have my window seat (next to her daughter) and I’d take her middle seat a row back,” she posted on Reddit.

“Hell to the f**k no.

“Not my problem they didn’t book together.”

Sarah added that there were plenty of passengers in the woman’s tour group whom she could have asked for a trade.

“The audacity to ask just me and expect an inferior trade on my side,” she said.

If the mum was smart, she would have accepted the woman's refusal, realising that it meant someone else would have to deal with her toddler on the long flight. 

The passenger stood her ground and refused to move, likely not realising how awful it would be sitting next to an unaccompanied toddler on a long flight. Photo: iStock

Reddit community shocked over woman’s choice not to switch with parent on plane

Many people were confused why the woman would choose to sit next to an unaccompanied toddler.

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“Sure, someone else could move, but either way someone has to move or someone has to sit next to a flying toddler,” one dad said. He then scolded Sarah for being “infuriated” about “a mum trying to watch her own kid”.

“Why were you so eager to sit next to a stranger’s toddler daughter,” said another person.

But not everyone agreed. Many people had their own personal policy about switching seats, and none of them were toddler-friendly.

“My rule of thumb is 1) Will only change an aisle for an aisle (my preference). 2) Will never change an aisle or a window for a middle 3) Will never change if I had to spend extra money to get my seat,” one person said.

“I’m sick of entitlement from people and it seems elevated on planes and even more so of late,” another person said. “I don’t know you, I don’t generally care about you beyond reasonable human compassion. And I certainly am not responsible for your poor planning. Don’t talk to me again and go away.”

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Woman stands ground refusing to let toddler take her seat

Standoffs over aeroplane seats are common on international and domestic flights.

In another incident a woman boarded her flight and discovered a toddler already sitting in her seat. When she told the dad it was her seat, the dad was unsympathetic.

“It was an eight to nine hour flight and I was travelling alone,” she posted online.

“I had a window seat booked for my flight and I was looking forward to it. When I got there, a child was sitting in my seat and the dad was in the middle seat. I looked at the dad and pointed at the window seat saying that I think it was my seat, expecting him to move his daughter.

“He looked at me and said, ‘She’s a child’,” the shocked woman explained.

After initially taking the aisle seat, she plucked up her courage and demanded to demand the swap.

“She started crying and I felt terrible, but I held my ground.”

*Names have been changed.

Originally published as ‘’I refused to swap seats so a mum could sit with her toddler on the flight’