Mum's 'perfect response' when airport passenger refused to swap seats

Travelling through an airport can be one of the most stressful parts of any trip, and it gets even more hectic when you add children into that mix. Taking to Reddit, a person claimed that one passenger learnt the hard way that making that process more difficult than it needs to be will often backfire.

Writing under the username @pix-zzzs, they said that they were travelling through Paris with a connecting flight on its way to Rome. They weren't alone, though, as the trip also included her sister and two nephews, aged seven and four.

The post claimed: "When we landed in Paris, there was a very long walk from the landing gate and customs to our gate. When we finally got to our gate area, it was very crowded."

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The Reddit user claimed their seven-year-old nephew needed to sit down, sharing: "He has blade prosthetics and they were getting tight and needed replacing soon. Plus, the air travel makes his legs swell a bit."

With a packed flight, people were quickly claiming seats for themselves. The family noticed a woman who was sat alone between two empty seats, and thought a polite ask could secure the children a seat.

The post continued: "I approach the woman seated between two empty seats and ask her politely if she could please move one seat over so the boys could sit together, pointing at my nephew's legs, telling her he needs to sit. She absolutely refused and I think she thought we would look elsewhere for seats together."

The mum-of-two took one look at the situation and found an alternative that their fellow passenger probably didn't predict. Rather than shuffle off and look for two spare seats together, the mum sat the boys on the empty seats, leaving the woman sandwiched between them.

The post added: "The boys were really excited and bouncing all over the place. I ran to the restroom, and by the time I got back, my sister was sitting between the boys. I think it took only about one minute for the woman to realise her mistake of sitting between two excited little boys."

The comments were filled with people who thought this was the "perfect response". Another wrote: "This is perfectly petty!"

A third added: "The problem solved itself perfectly!" Someone else claimed: "Karma at its finest!" And, one more wrote: "What a charming lady. A real pity your lads interrupted her [rest and relaxation]!"

Others had similar experiences, with one sharing: "I showed up to my seating area at my gate a while back, and a family of five was each lying across several seats, leaving the rest of the travellers standing. I said, 'Hey, let’s go! Don’t take all the seats!' and they got so mad at me."