u/Fun-Resolution6038

This happened 2 days ago and I’m still getting texts about it from coworkers because someone recorded part of it.

I booked a window seat for a 6 hour flight almost 2 months in advance because I get really bad anxiety while flying. I specifically pay extra for window seats because being able to lean against the wall and not sit between strangers helps me stay calm.

I board the plane and there’s already a woman sitting in my seat with her son next to her.

I politely say something like “Hey I think you’re in my seat.”

She immediately sighs dramatically and goes, “Can’t you just take yours? My son wants to look out the window.”

Her assigned seats were middle and aisle in the same row.

I apologized and explained I specifically booked the window seat for a reason. She rolls her eyes HARD and says, loudly, “Wow. Imagine saying no to a child.”

At this point people are already staring.

I stayed calm and repeated that I paid for the seat. Flight attendant comes over and tells her she has to move.

That’s when she suddenly changes tactics and starts telling people I’m “making her son cry.” The kid literally looked fine and was playing on an iPad the entire time.

She finally moves but spends the next TWO HOURS making passive aggressive comments to the people around her about “how selfish people are these days.”

I ignored it until we landed.

Here’s where it gets insane.

As everyone’s getting off the plane she suddenly asks me where I work because apparently she overheard me talking to someone earlier about a work trip. I made the mistake of answering vaguely because I wasn’t thinking much of it.

Yesterday my manager calls me into his office because this woman somehow found my company online and sent an email saying I was “hostile toward mothers and children in public” and that I embarrassed her son in front of an entire plane.

Thankfully my manager laughed it off because the whole thing sounded ridiculous, but honestly… who does that?? Over an airplane seat YOU didn’t even pay for?