"Asked to keep the seat empty"
but the flight attendant only said "Please understand"
A passenger who shared an unpleasant experience about a baby being laid down on an empty airplane seat ended up receiving backlash instead.
Recently, a post titled "Am I being too sensitive for complaining about a baby being laid down on an empty airplane seat?" has been spreading on an online community. The author shared an incident that happened on a flight to Europe, saying, "The more I think about it, the more upset I get, so I'm posting this."
"There were no completely empty rows, but since the flight wasn't full, many seats were empty one by one in the middle," they explained. "My seat was a 4-seat row, and the seat next to me was empty. The other two seats were taken by a mother and her daughter, who looked about five years old." They added, "It wasn't ideal to have a child nearby, but since she was a well-behaved girl around five years old, I was relieved. Above all, since it was a long flight, I was glad the seat next to me was empty."
However, the situation changed after takeoff. "When the child fell asleep, the mother naturally placed the child's head on the seat next to me and laid the child's legs on her own lap," they complained. "She didn't invade my seat, but she didn't ask for my permission either." The author confronted the mother, asking, "What are you doing? Didn't you pay for this seat?" The mother responded, "There is an armrest, so the child isn't touching you at all. Are you uncomfortable?" and added, "I asked the flight attendant beforehand if it was okay to lay the child down on an empty seat when she fell asleep."
The author said, "What the flight attendant agreed to has nothing to do with me. I am uncomfortable. I want to keep this seat empty," and refused to back down, which eventually led to the flight attendant stepping in. The attendant offered, "If you're uncomfortable, I can move you to another empty seat. However, there are no empty seats next to each other. Would you like to move?" The author replied, "I won't move. I like this seat. But since the seat next to me was originally empty, please restore it to that state," but the flight attendant only said, "Please understand."
Mr./Ms. A said, "I kept protesting, but since nothing was corrected, I flew for a long time feeling upset and physically uncomfortable," and pointed out, "The real problem is the inconsiderate mother." They expressed frustration, saying, "She didn't even pay for the seat herself, so how can she be so confident?" and added, "The term 'mameunchung' (a derogatory term for inconsiderate mothers) didn't come out for no reason."
However, this story did not receive sympathy. Instead, it was criticized. Comments included, "If you're going to claim the mother has no right to the empty seat, then you don't have that right either," "The author is being difficult to the flight attendant," "It's foolish not to realize you don't have rights to empty seats either," "If it were me, I'd tell her to lay the child down comfortably," and "If you wanted to claim rights to an empty seat, you should have booked two seats."
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