The man and his partner eventually got their assigned seats before the flight to Los Angeles, but not until the intervention of an Air New Zealand flight attendant. Photo / Grant Bradley
The man and his partner eventually got their assigned seats before the flight to Los Angeles, but not until the intervention of an Air New Zealand flight attendant. Photo / Grant Bradley
Would you - or should you - give up premium economy seats to elderly passengers on a 12-hour flight from New Zealand to Los Angeles?
An apparent incident on an Air New Zealand flight from the last decade has sparked a debate on the touchy first-world problem after making headlines in the Daily Mail this morning.
The alleged incident - as recounted by a traveller on social media site Reddit in 2019 - saw a man upgrade to premium economy on the 12-hour Air New Zealand flight because he’s 190cm tall and wanted more leg room.
But when he and his partner got to their seats they discovered an elderly couple had already taken them - and then copped “stink eyes” from other passengers when the man insisted on dispatching the interlopers to the back of the plane when they admitted they knew the seats weren’t theirs.
“I show them my ticket and seat number and point to my name on the screen. They then ask me [to] just sit in their seats which was 10 rows back. No leg room,” the man claimed on the Reddit thread.
“Me: You want me to sit in your seats? OP (old people): Yes that would be nice, thank you.”
When he told them he’d paid extra for his seats, the couple promised their assigned seats were “not that bad” and there was “plenty of leg room”.
The clue's in the name as to why it costs more to fly in the premium economy cabin. Pictured is Air New Zealand's planned new 2024 premium economy cabin for its Boeing 787 Dreamliner. Photo / Air New Zealand
When the blocked aisle attracted the attention of the flight attendant, the couple told her “this man wants us to move seats”.
The situation was resolved when he showed the flight attendant his ticket, and the couple were told to move - but not before the pair, aged in their mid-70s, asked for a cheeky upgrade, the man said.
“FA: Sorry, this is a full flight so that’s not possible. Old people: Pikachu face.
“[And] I got some stink eyes from other people on the flight. I paid for the extra leg room and I need it.”
But the man had the backing of fellow redditors, with thousands of posts in support.
“Seriously, what kind of person decides to take someone else’s seat on a plane? This kind of thing takes a special kind of entitlement”, wrote one.
The man’s height, wrote another, was irrelevant.
“Honestly wouldn’t matter if you were 4‘ 0 - they were your seats.”
It's not a good idea to take someone else's seat when boarding a flight, but a few give it a go. Photo / Unsplash
This morning, Daily Mail readers were similarly put out on the man’s behalf when the online outlet published the story this morning. More than 3400 have since weighed in on the stoush.
One wrote of being “intensely bored” with the sustained efforts by some to shame others for not giving up their seats to “entitled, lazy and cheap people who refuse to organise themselves and think everyone else must yield to their awful behaviour”.
“If I paid for a seat and then paid more for specific reasons to be in that seat, I am not moving for anyone. I don’t care what sob story or entitled attitude you have, the answer is no.”
Another used the opportunity to take a swipe at not only older people, but our youngest citizens too.
“Elderly couple trying to pull a swifty by not paying and getting the seats based on ‘the poor old dears’. The man paid for his seat, he sits there. Same as kids wanting window seats - pay for them.”
Most kept it brief, including this frequent flyer: “Age is not a passport to force favours.”
