'Pay for an aisle seat': Flyer under fire for 'manspreading' on flight and invading co-passengers space
A man has been slammed online after he admitted to "manspreading on a plane" and taking up his co-passenger's leg space. The scenario was detailed by the user in the popular Reddit group 'Am I The A**hole?', where it received more than seven thousand upvotes along with over four thousand comments.
Speaking of his supposed ordeal, the Redditor said that the flight was six hours long and he was in the middle seat between two women. He wrote: "I'm tall and am never comfortable on planes. My knees always dig into the seat in front and it can be quite painful. I usually try to take a walk around the airport before flights to stretch my legs but neglected to this time. About half an hour after takeoff I found my left knee inching to the side for the sweet relief of open space - specifically, the no-man's-land in between seats, level with the shared armrest. But I wasn't paying attention to my knee the entire time." In the Reddit post, he confessed, "It's possible that at some point I was occupying space that rightfully belonged to my window seat neighbor," before adding, "All was well for two hours."
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'Could you tell him to keep his f***ing leg in his own f***ing seat'
However, things turned foul when the woman next to him decided to complain about his manspreading antics to an air hostess, without asking him to move first. "At this point, the woman in the window seat called over the flight attendant. She asked her something like 'could you tell him to keep his f***ing leg in his own f***ing seat.' With horror, I understood she was talking about me. I instantly retracted my leg in deep shame," he continued.
Recounting the embarrassing incident, the man said that he began to apologize but the woman did not engage in any other further talk and "ignored" him. "She ignored me the whole rest of the flight and I ignored her. I got a good but painful workout of whatever muscle it is that keeps your knees together," he concluded.
'Stop pinching pennies'
The comments section under the post ruthlessly criticized the user, stating that he should've bought an extra legroom seat. A top comment read, "This is a known, reoccurring issue. You KNOW you will feel better with more leg space. Stop pinching pennies and pay for an aisle seat or an exit seat. There are options!" Another comment read, "I’m just baffled that he’s decided to pretend he’s confused and has no way of knowing that if he spreads his feet into the other peoples spaces that would be uncomfortable for them."
A third comment said, "Everything about his wording is minimizing his accountability “I found my left knee inching over” really? It just did it by itself and you had no way of controlling it?"
'She went full-on ballistic'
A Redditor blamed both parties involved. "You're a grownup - it shouldn't be hard to figure out physical boundaries and respect them. Yeah, those narrow plane seats really suck for tall/big folks, but that doesn't mean you're entitled to someone else's space, even if you think they're not using it at the moment. The woman in the window seat handled the situation badly. She should have said something to you right away - a normal, 'hey, would you mind moving over? You're crowding me', etc. I assume that you, like most people, would have said, 'Oh, sorry!" and shifted away from her. But instead, she went full-on ballistic. Still, her overreaction doesn't make it right for you to infringe on her space. There are no winners here. Save all your points/mileage for an upgrade for a more comfortable seat next time."
This article contains remarks made on the Internet by individual people and organizations. MEAWW cannot confirm them independently and does not support claims or opinions being made online.