When thousands of feet in the air, the last thing most travellers want is a disagreement with their fellow passengers.
One traveller sparked a plane etiquette row after their neighbour in the middle seat called them ‘rude’.
They described the sticky situation on Reddit, and shared how they and their sister had booked a flight together.
Their seating arrangement caused issues with the person they ended up sat next to.
‘She likes the window and I like the aisle,’ the poster explained.
‘When we sat down, there was someone in the middle seat. She asked if we wanted to change seats and we politely declined.’
But things took a turn when the traveller tried to interact with their sister, while the other passenger sat between them.
‘I passed a small snack bag to my sister while I settled in my seat,’ they recalled.
‘The woman said, ‘are you two going to be rude and pass things to each other all flight?’
‘I politely explained that I asked my sister to hold one thing. When I was settled and buckled in, I would ask for it back. Otherwise, my sister planned to sleep and I would watch my iPad.’
But the passenger was not happy with the reasoning and the conversation soon escalated.
They described how the other traveller ‘continued raising her voice’ and called them ‘rude’.
‘I think the fact that we declined to move really upset her,’ they added.
‘She continued to complain and even held my sister up by letting a few extra rows go first. Are we missing something here?’
The post attracted hundreds of comments, with many people eager to share their view.
One person said they felt ‘it would be extremely annoying’ to have to sit in between two people talking and interacting.
They added: ‘Once or here and there is totally fine. She probably thought you were going to keep doing it and snapped prematurely.
‘Once you explained and didn’t keep bugging her it’s completely on her and continuing to be rude was not warranted. Some people are just grouchy.’
Another reasoned: ‘It’s no fun being in the middle of two people who are passing things to each other.
‘Maybe the other passenger overreacted, but I’ve been in the same situation and it just felt awkward.’
While someone else sided with the poster and described the other passenger as ‘cranky’.
