This Traveler Took Justice In Their Own Hands After a Rude Interaction With a Fellow Flier—Who Is Right?

Flying is, for the most part, a pretty joyous experience. It means you get to go somewhere new, perhaps to a glamorous vacation or off to see someone you love. But, on rare occasions, the act of flying can turn into a total nightmare—especially if you have a bad seatmate. That’s exactly what happened to one traveler on a recent Delta flight. But how he reacted to that bad-behaving seatmate is getting everyone talking. 

In March, he took to Reddit to discuss his experience, starting with, “For context, I’m not a big dude. I’m tall and heavy, but I fit comfortably between the seats.” 

He added, “I was very unlucky that I got the middle seat on an Airbus A321. As soon as I sat down in my seat, a guy from across the aisle said to me, ‘Man, you should have bought two seats. I don’t want to sit next to you.’ Yes, he later was sitting next to me. As you can expect, I was extremely upset and wasn’t sure how to react. The only thing that came out of my mouth was, ‘That’s pretty f***ing rude!'”

According to the Reddit user, this reaction didn’t seem to phase his seatmate. However, “anytime he got up from his seat to use the restroom, I changed the language on this IFE and watched him struggle and get visibly frustrated to change it back to English. I did this about three times. Justice was served!” 

He summed up his story by making a point: “Don’t be rude just because you can; otherwise, you might come back to someone who messed with your seat.” 

But was he in the right? According to the majority of Reddit commenters, yes. “This is great. Thanks for the tip, as I’ve been in multiple flying situations where petty revenge of this form would have worked perfectly,” one commenter wrote. 

Though a few were calling this out as equally nasty passenger behavior.

“So you are a big dude (tall and heavy), you didn’t pay for a more comfortable seat, thus rendering the passenger next to you uncomfortable, and throughout the flight, you kept messing with that passenger’s seat area (that they paid for),” another commenter added. “And you’re trying to make it seem like you were the victim and somehow served justice?”

As for what etiquette pros think, it was indeed a little uncouth. “While potentially satisfying, we don’t want to add more rudeness to the world, and unfortunately, this tit-for-tat approach is not etiquette-approved,” Nick Leighton, etiquette expert at Were you Raised by Wolves?, told Travel _ Leisure. “Retaliation, even mild, means you no longer have the high road.”

According to Leighton, a better response “is a composed, assertive rebuke: ‘Your comment was inappropriate and unwelcome. I trust that’ll be the last of that for the remainder of this flight.'”

And truly, that would sting far more than being unable to change the channel. What do you think?