One of the most convenient ways to travel from one place to another is to hop on a plane in one location and off of the plane in another. It is convenient, but it can also be a very stressful time as well.

One of the things that many people stress about when they are on a flight is their weight. I’m not talking about the weight of the bags, but when an individual is obese, they may get some harassment. That is why some people, including the woman in this story, decided to purchase a second seat.

The problem was, she did get a second seat but the woman who sat next to her demanded that she give the open seat to her young son. When the woman refused, things didn’t turn out well.
I 34F am obese. I’m actively working toward losing weight and I’ve made progress but I’m still obese as I’m typing this.

I’m going over to see my brother and his husband for Christmas across the country and because I’m fat, I booked an extra seat so everyone can be more comfortable. I know it sucks having to pay for an extra seat but it is what it is. I know Southwest Airlines has this “customer of size” policy but I’ve had some bad experiences with Southwest even before I was obese so I wasn’t doing that and it’s mostly my fault I even got fat.

Everything goes smoothly from checking in to security and boarding, at least at first. This woman comes to my row with a boy who appeared to be about a year old. She told me to squeeze in to one seat so her son could sit in the other. She told me, not asked. I told her no and that I paid for this seat for the extra space.

She makes a big fuss over it, which got the flight attendant’s attention. She told the flight attendant I was stealing the seat from her son, then I showed my boarding passes, proving that I, in fact paid for the extra seat. The flight attendant asked me if I could try to squeeze in, but I said no, that I wanted the extra seat I paid for. The boy, who the mom said is 18 months old was supposed to sit in her lap so he could do just that. The flight attendant eventually told the mom to put her son in her lap. I got dirty looks and passive-aggressive remarks from her for the entire flight and I do feel a little bad because the boy looked hard to control so AITA?