This happened today, and I’m still replaying it in my head. On my six-hour flight, I had booked an aisle seat because of my chronic back pain. But when I got to my row, a pregnant woman was already sitting there.
I showed her my ticket, expecting her to move. Instead, she sighed and admitted she had swapped seats with someone for more space. I explained that I needed the seat for medical reasons, but she just stared at me like I was being unreasonable. Her husband quickly jumped in, scolding me for not showing compassion. Other passengers started glaring.
A flight attendant checked our tickets and told her she had to return to her assigned seat. She moved reluctantly, whispering something to her husband, who shook his head in disappointment.
The flight went on, but about three hours in, everything changed. The woman-she suddenly clutched her stomach in pain. A doctor on board rushed to help. She was going into early labor. As they assisted her, I sat there, frozen. I hadn’t technically done anything wrong, but had I made things worse?