This wasn’t exactly what he had in mind when he paid for “extra legroom.”
A male passenger, who shelled out a premium for an exit row seat with added space, was left stunned when a family spent most of the flight standing in front of him, completely obstructing the area he paid extra for. He recounted the frustrating experience in a viral post shared on the Dull Men’s Fun Club Facebook page.
According to his account, he was traveling across Europe with his sister and niece. Each of them paid an additional €30 (approximately $35) for the roomier exit row seats—an upgrade that seemed worthwhile given the four-hour flight duration.
But his hopes for a comfortable journey quickly unraveled.
“A dad and his two kids decided that the emergency door window right next to us was the most fascinating thing they’d ever seen,” he wrote. “They stood there almost the entire flight, leaning over us, pointing, chatting loudly, and completely blocking the space we paid extra for.”
The passenger was incredulous at the family’s behavior, likening the scene to a standing-room-only theater in the sky. Despite summoning the flight attendant three separate times to intervene, the family kept returning to the same spot.
“The third time the FA [flight attendant] came to tell them to sit down, she was already pissed off and warned them this would be the last time she tells them to move,” he recalled. “Sometimes I wish Europe was as strict as the US with the no-fly lists.”
Commenters on the post were quick to empathize with the man’s ordeal.
“This really annoys me on flights — yes, I get people need to stretch their legs — but that shouldn’t be at the cost of invading other passengers’ space,” one wrote.
“I would have asked them to move or get the attendant to move them,” another added. “Children should not be loitering by an emergency exit.”
A third commenter offered a cheeky suggestion: “Just call the flight attendant over and tell them you saw the kid trying to open the door.”
Others chimed in with similar tales of their legroom being hijacked by standing passengers.
“I paid £400 ($538) for extra legroom in two seats from Manchester to New York only to find the space was going to be the holding queue for the toilets,” one person lamented.
This incident joins a growing list of airborne space invasions, which have ranged from seat squatting to passengers failing to keep their feet to themselves.
One Reddit user recalled a mom traveling with her children who seemed to be scheming for a better seat.
“Don’t unpack yet,” she told her kids, according to the witness. “Mom is anxiously refreshing the seating chart in the app.”
The poster explained that the family wasn’t trying to upgrade through official channels—they were simply trying to game the system. “They were watching the seating chart like hawks, hoping the seats don’t get booked, waiting for the door to close, because they wanted to take over an empty row!”
And it worked. The family successfully snagged the empty seats using their stealthy strategy.
Source: nypost.com