A man has left people divided after he revealed how he refused to switch airplane seats for a mother and her baby as he paid more to get extra legroom.

Taking to Reddit, the unnamed man explained that it cost him an additional fee to get plenty of space for the 10-hour journey.

“My wife and I were traveling on a 10-hour flight from Europe to Asia last week,” he wrote. “We booked our tickets well in advance and also managed to book the specific seats we wanted – two seats in the first row. We paid for these seats as it was going to be a long journey and wanted the extra leg space.”

The man said that when they boarded, there was a woman carrying her baby in the middle seat. But before he put his bag in the compartment, the mother asked him: “Can I be really cheeky and ask you to switch seats with my husband?”

The mother then pointed toward her husband in the second row and said that she needed her husband to be next to her so he could help with their baby.

“My wife stayed quiet while I politely but firmly told her that unfortunately as his seat is in a second row, I wouldn’t be moving there as I had specifically paid for the seat with extra legroom,” he went on.

The mother then called a staff to help them sort out their seating arrangements but the man refused to switch seats.

“Thankfully the steward came back and told me that there were two vacant seats in one of the other first rows and offered to move us. We ended up moving there but could hear this lady animatedly make comments about us to her husband from behind for some time after that,” he added.

But when the man shared the story with his in-laws, they told him that he should’ve just moved as the woman had a baby with her.

“My wife agrees with me that her poor planning is not our problem and that we should have stayed out if there were no other first row seats,” he added.

People on Reddit were left divided, with one person commenting: “You paid for extra leg room, and paid for that seat. You were under no obligation to switch. If she wanted to sit with her husband, she should have booked side by side seats.”

Another wrote: “People need to stop asking people to trade seats. If you need special accommodations, talk to the airline. It’s their business. It’s not your fellow traveler’s responsibility to sort out your seating.”

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