Yahoo Lifestyle Man Argues with Seatmate Over Bag Space on 6-Hour Flight: ‘So Shocked When the Other Passengers Were Agreeing with Him’
The tall seatmate used the man’s under-seat storage — instead of his own — and justified the action with his height
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Two passengers on an airplane (stock image)A man is in disbelief after he got into a confrontation over storage space on a recent flight — and even more “shocked” that fellow passengers didn’t take his side.
The incident occurred on a 6-hour flight from California to Canada, the man shared Friday, Jan. 3 post on Reddit’s "Am I the A------" forum, noting that he was “flying business class (non-pods).”
The original poster (OP) explained he only brings a laptop bag “for easy access to my electronics” whenever he flies.
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But when he arrived at his aisle seat for the flight, the traveler quickly noticed that the under-chair storage in front of him had already been filled. The passenger in the window seat next to him had “placed his carry-on bag in front of my seat instead of his,” he wrote.
“I asked if he could move his bag to the seat in front of him and he replied that there wasn’t enough space for him since he’s tall,” the OP said, adding that the passenger told him, “You just have a suitcase, so what’s the big deal with putting it in the overhead bin?”
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A man using a laptop on a plane (stock image)Standing his ground, however, the OP said he refused, stating that he wants to have “easy access to my laptop and would like to use the space in front of me.”
As they fought over the under-seat storage, passengers began taking the other traveler’s side, “agreeing with him and saying I was being unreasonable,” according to the OP.
“I told him, ‘Why do you get access to space in front of you, in front of me when we both paid for business class seats?’ ” the OP wrote, noting that “things did start to get heated and I was about to call over the flight attendant and he eventually moved his bag.”
Though the situation was resolved, the man “was just so shocked when the other passengers were agreeing with him,” and couldn’t help but wonder if he was in the wrong for being “too confrontational” and “unreasonable.”
In response, most Reddit users agreed that the OP was right — and not “unreasonable” at all — to stand his ground, as it was his storage space after all.
In the top reply, one user wrote that they “can't believe people agreed with” the window-seat traveler, particularly because they faced a similar situation when someone used their young daughter’s under-seat storage with the justification that “she doesn't need much room.”
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An airplane passenger placing a bag in under-seat storage (stock image)“Don't stress about it OP,” the user wrote. “You haven't done anything wrong.”
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Others agreed, writing, “Not his space to use, full stop,” and “Y'all are in business class which means early boarding. He could have put his own s--- in the overhead.”
Agreeing that the OP’s actions were justified, another user explained how they would’ve handled the situation in another top reply. “Upon discovering something in my footwell, I would have pulled it out, placed it in the aisle, and called over the FA [flight attendant] and reported that someone from the last flight must have left it,” the user wrote.
“Seriously, first rule of air travel: never justify, never explain, never engage,” they continued. “It just leads to arguments, conflicts and, sometimes, worse. IMMEDIATELY call the FA who will put a stop to such nonsense. And commercial aircraft aren't mini-democracies where [passengers] get to vote on allocation of resources.”
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