Woman praised for making little girl cry on a plane after child sat in her seat

Usually a grown adult making a little girl cry is not something you'd expect to be praised.

However, plane etiquette is such a hotly-debated subject nowadays, and should we be surprised?

With flight costs having sky-rocketed enormously since the Covid-19 pandemic, and additional fees for baggage, meals and seats setting you back another arm and a leg, it's no surprise that people get touchy and defensive about rules and regulations.

And just to make you even grouchier, you're crammed into a tiny cabin breathing stale recycled air and your knees shoved up by your ears due to the lack of legroom.

For one woman recently, all of these headache-triggering factors led to a colossal in-flight outburst, which resulted in a little girl bursting into tears.

Apparently, however - in a surprise turn of events - the vast majority of the story's followers sided with the distressed woman, as opposed to the sobbing child.

Would you kick someone out of a seat you'd paid for? (Constantine Johnny/Getty)

Let's go back to the beginning. The lady in question had booked a seat on a flight when returning from visiting her family and found the little girl sitting in her seat.

The passenger later took to the Reddit page 'Am I the A**hole?' to ask if she had behaved appropriately.

She had a reserved window seat on the flight and had been 'looking forward' to it after having a pretty emotional day.

However, when she arrived at her seat, a father and his young daughter were sat there, with the child sitting in the seat that she'd reserved.

"I looked at the dad and pointed at the window seat saying that I think it’s my seat expecting him to move." she said.

"He looked at me and said she’s a child and pointed at the aisle seat suggesting I take it."

The woman initially did, very perplexed at the situation, but when she mentioned it to her dad, he then called her.

The woman wasn't pleased her seat was stolen. (d3sign/Getty)

She said: "My dad called me and told me to get my seat because he paid for it and it wasn’t a free seat. I then told the girls father this and he asked her to move.

"She started crying and I felt terrible but my dad told me to hold my ground. The girl moved and is sitting in the middle, I’m in my seat and I’m also sitting back so she can see out the window.

"Her dad has made one or two snide remarks about me wanting my seat so I just wanted to know, AITA for insisting on sitting in my seat?"

And the response from commenters was overwhelmingly in her favour.

One person said: "If the father wanted their child to have a window seat, they should have selected one.

"People choose their seats of preference for all sorts of different reasons, and they shouldn’t have to deal with someone just assuming that they can sit there."

The child was left in tears. (Getty/AndreyPopov)

While another replied: "It's not a free seat. I travel regular and have seen enough arguments about it and majority of the time you get the seat number indicated on your ticket."

A third said: "It's your seat. If girls dad wanted a window he should have chosen one when he bought the ticket."

And a final said: "NTA. No, what is this epidemic of people assuming they can take another person's assigned seat?

"The seats can have different prices, and can be selected ahead of time. The father can keep his snide remarks to himself."

What do you think?