An Airline Passenger Gave Up His First-Class Seat For A Mom & People Say He's So 'Petty'

An airline passenger with some obvious marital issues is getting torn apart online, after admitting he switched out of his first-class seat for an economy spot as part of a move to bother his wife.

The married man tried to explain himself on Reddit's r/Am I The A**hole forum, where he claimed that he was trying to teach his wife a "lesson" about economy class. His seemingly generous move did not go over well once people realized why he was doing it, and many have since urged him to get a divorce.

The man explained in his post that he and his wife were flying home from Hawaii after a great trip, and that they had side-by-side seats in first class. However, their seats on the flight home were near the back of the first class section, close to the "border between us and the 'undesirables.'"

The user says his wife is more accustomed to first class than he is, and that she got annoyed when a mother with a crying child got on the plane and walked past them.

"The poor baby was not having a good time," the husband wrote.

He says his wife kept commenting on the mom and baby during boarding, so he offered to go speak to the woman.

But he didn't just speak to her about the crying child. Instead, the husband offered to switch seats, giving the mom and crying baby a first-class seat right next to his angry wife.

"She didn’t want to initially but I insisted and her husband encouraged her to take it," he said of the mom. "She took her baby up to first class and I got [a] series of angry texts from my wife."

He added that it "was not a huge deal" because his wife had noise-cancelling headphones and he assumed that other first-class passengers did, too.

"The baby cried for maybe a cumulative 30 minutes on an 8-hour flight. So barely at all."

He says his wife was "livid" after they landed and she accused him of ruining the flight and the end of the trip.

"I told her that she’s overreacting to something that’s only mildly annoying. She has refused to drop this."

So, is he an a**hole?

According to Reddit users, he's definitely a jerk, though maybe not the only one in this case.

"Don't stay married to her if you need to do petty things," reads the top comment on the story, which declares him to be an a**hole.

Another top commenter declared that they're both terrible. "She was a drama queen and you got all passive-aggressive preachy, showing you don't take her seriously as an adult. Not sure if you guys deserve each other or if you'd make other partners less miserable."

Several people jumped in to say that the husband is a major jerk for disregarding everyone else in first class.

"When the baby isn't in first class, and you bring it in first class while it's screaming, to teach your wife a lesson, you are an (a**hole) to that entire section of the plane."

"It really isn't a husband or wife's job to 'teach lessons' or 'punish' one another," added someone else. "It's degrading and not what an equal partnership should consist of."

Sounds like he's got a few lessons to learn from Reddit!

This article's cover image was used for illustrative purposes only.