She Wouldn’t Give Up Her First-Class Ticket For A Child On A Flight Who Had To Sit Separately From His Mom
This 21-year-old woman is currently in a relationship with her boyfriend, who is 27, and just a few weeks ago, he surprised her with some first-class tickets for a long-haul flight they were going on together.
“He’s been doing well in his career and wanted to treat me, and I was really excited because I’d never flown first class before,” she recalled.
So, on the day of their trip, they showed up at the airport and boarded their first flight. They planned to take two connecting flights – both of which were 12 hours – and they used an airline that was very highly rated for first-class seats on long trips.
Right after settling into her seat, she started to feel a little overwhelmed by how luxurious the accommodations were, too.
“I grew up lower middle class, and I had never ever flown higher than the cheapest seats on a plane before,” she said.
But, just as she was getting comfortable around 20 minutes before takeoff, a flight attendant approached her with a woman and a young child – trying to take her first-class seat away.
Apparently, the woman started explaining how she’d tried to book first-class tickets for both her and her child. Yet, due to some “booking error,” the child – a young boy – was seated in economy by himself.
Then, she was asked if she’d be willing to switch seats with the woman’s son. That way, he could get to experience sitting in first class.
The request made her feel super awkward, and while she knew it was disappointing for the child to have to sit by himself in economy, she wanted to enjoy the first-class seat she’d been gifted from her boyfriend.
Yaroslav Astakhov – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only, not the actual person
So, she wound up politely telling the woman no and detailing how this was also her first time sitting first class, and she wanted to experience it with her boyfriend. Well, rather than understanding that, the woman actually became pretty upset with her.
“And tried to argue that her son would appreciate it more than me and that it was unfair because I didn’t even pay for the ticket myself,” she revealed.
The flight attendant even seemed to take the woman’s side, implying that she needed to be more understanding.
After about a minute of this back-and-forth, though, her boyfriend got involved. He stood up, told the flight attendant that he’d booked the first-class tickets, and pointed out how he was a platinum member of the airline.
“And that he tends to book all of his company’s business trip flights with the airline, and if she booted me to economy, he would take his business elsewhere,” she detailed.
This made the woman return to business class with her son, and she thought the situation was over. Still, throughout the rest of the flight, she could see the flight attendant glaring at her.
She tried bringing this up to her boyfriend, but he assured her that she’d done nothing wrong by simply using her own first-class ticket. He also claimed that he stood up for her because it was disrespectful for the woman and flight attendant to even ask her to switch seats at all.
“But some of my friends think I should have given up my seat to the kid, saying that it would have been the kind thing to do, especially since I didn’t pay for the ticket myself,” she vented.
So now, she can’t help but wonder if refusing to give up her first-class ticket for a child was justified or a jerky move.
Should she feel bad about staying in first class with her boyfriend? Or did she have a right to say no and enjoy the seat she was gifted? What would you have done?
You can read the original post on Reddit here.
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