A man was left feeling “terrible” after the neighbouring passenger on his flight refused to stand up to allow him to go to the toilet.
The bloke was booked into a window seat on an eight-hour, during which nature called on a couple of occasions. Taking to the r/AmITheA**hole subreddit, the man recounted what happened after he did his best to squeeze past the woman next to him.
Writing on Reddit, he said: “I (40M) just got off a long flight, the kind where even the comfiest seats feel like torture racks. Now, I’m a big dude. Not yet book 2 seats level, but enough for plane seats to be absolute hell. Booked a window seat, figured the extra space would help…”
But the extra space did not help when the woman placed in the middle seat “politely refused” to get out of the way when he needed the loo.
He added: “Nature called a couple of times during the flight, and let’s just say squeezing by in that cramped space is an exercise in contortionism at the best of times. The woman in the middle seat politely refused to get up whenever I needed to use the restroom
“Now, I get it. Nobody wants some sweaty dude brushing past them. I tried my best to minimize contact, literally sucked in my gut and held my breath like I was underwater . But even with all the contorting, there was some unavoidable brushing past.”
After the woman made comments to him about “personal space”, the Reddit user said he was left feeling “terrible”. But other members of the forum said he had no need to feel uncomfortable and had actually been quite restrained in his response.
One user suggested he had not been an “a**hole”, writing: “You’re nicer than me, my response would have been: ‘Ma’am you refused to get up, so my only options were to either encroach on your personal space or pee on you. I’m sorry you feel I chose the wrong option.'”
But some felt the seat choice was the issue and suggested the original poster head for the aisle next time around. One wrote: “If you have to get up multiple times, you should have booked the aisle. I personally book windows as I can hold it for most flights.”
Another suggested: “Why wouldn’t you get an aisle seat? Seriously. He says he’s a big dude who uses the bathroom often and he gets the most inconvenient seat. Get the f**k outta here bro lol.”
