Is Sitting in Your Own Seat Selfish?

When boarding your plane, there can be a lot of anxiety. You might be asking yourself: Is the seat next to me going to be empty? What if the person in my row talks my ear off? What if they aren’t friendly? What if I feel claustrophobic? So many things to ponder.

What has become just one more thing to now wonder is what if someone is in my seat?

Some have paid for the particular seat, for a myriad of reasons. Some prefer the window due to motion sickness or needing to sleep/rest on the wall. Others prefer the aisle so they don’t feel so enclosed, because it provides easy access to get up or to be one of the first to jump up to the aisle once they land and hear the bell ring. I can’t say I’ve ever heard anyone say they prefer and select the middle seat, but maybe there are some? Whatever the reason for your seat selection, you put time, thought and sometimes money into that choice. So your seat should be just that, YOUR seat, right?

Recently, I was boarding a flight with some of the aforementioned thoughts going through my head. Immediately, I notice an adorable little girl in my seat. My first thought was that I had the aisle, number or seat assignment wrong so I looked at my ticket again. Sure enough, this sweet girl was looking out the window of my window seat. I mentioned to her mother that the window seat is "my seat." She responded "well she’s already there and really wants to sit by the window."

Surprised there was no apology or attempts to make her move to her middle seat, I responded with, "It’s fine. I’ll just sit here," pointing to the aisle seat. The mother then offered me the middle seat (yes the seat between her and her three year old) to which I said, "No, I’ll sit here" (aisle). "Mom" didn’t seem to like that, nor did she like sitting in the middle seat apparently, because she turned to me mid-flight and said, "So do you LIKE sitting in the AISLE seat? Do you always have to sit in the aisle seat?" to which I responded, "No, I prefer the window seat, which is why I booked it."

There was no more conversation after that. I didn’t like that the mom had an attitude with the person that was kind to her daughter, but I have never once regretted being kind, and I don’t this time either. I’ll say, I am astonished at the entitlement and lack of thankfulness by some people in this world. The good news is that MOST of the people I encounter are NOT this way.

I can’t imagine a time when I would ask someone to ever give up their seat for me, but hope if asked politely, maybe someone would consider. I may consider doing so again for a family wanting to sit together, newlyweds that CANNOT be separated, a cute little girl wanting to look out the window or who knows what other circumstance.

For the most part I would say NO, it’s not selfish to sit in the seat you have selected. Don’t assume someone is being selfish if they do not switch. They have no obligation to do you that favor. And while on the topic, absolutely DO NOT hop on this strange bandwagon of getting them on video and posting it to publicly shame them for not switching seats! You never know what is going on in their life, why they made the choices they made and what they need to have a good flight.

Remember: you can’t control anyone else, but you can control yourself. 

Be a kind human!