A man has revealed how he was mortified when a passenger in the seat next to him complained to a flight attendant about his leg invading her space.
The 26-year-old was on a six-hour flight with budget US carrier Spirit Airlines when the woman in the window seat (he was in the middle seat) called over a cabin crew member asking if they could tell him to “keep his f***ing leg in his own f***ing seat”.
Hoping to gain insight on whether he was in the wrong for “manspreading” on a plane, he took to Reddit explaining what had happened.
“I had a middle seat between a young woman (20s) in the window seat, and a woman (30s) on the aisle,” he began.
“I’m tall and am never comfortable on planes. My knees always dig into the seat in front and it can be quite painful.
“I usually try to take a walk around the airport before flights to stretch my legs, but neglected to this time. It was Spirit Airlines so even less leg room than usual.”
He said half an hour after takeoff he found his left knee inching to the side for the “sweet relief of open space”.
“Specifically, the no man’s land in between seats, level with the shared armrest.”
But as he wasn’t paying attention to his knee, he admitted it was possible he was occupying space that “rightfully” belonged to his window seat neighbour.
After two hours in that position, things took a “shocking” turn.
The window seat woman complained to a flight attendant that the man’s leg was invading her space.
“I instantly retracted my leg in deep shame,” he said.
“I had been shocked into silence, but when the [flight attendant] left, I frantically began to apologise. But she refused to speak to me. She acted like she didn’t hear me.”
The man said the woman instead furiously started to text someone on her phone.
“Aisle Seat woman said she had some extra space on her side I could use, but then promptly went to sleep.”
He said he tried to apologise but was again ignored.
“I went from embarrassed to confused. I kept replaying it in my head, wondering why she didn’t simply ask me to move my knee instead of calling over the attendant.”
He also tried to spy on what she was texting.
“I didn’t see all of it but a significant portion was definitely about me; she wrote, ‘Men really do be too much sometimes’ with a laughing emoji.
“She ignored me the whole rest of the flight and I ignored her. I got a good but painful workout of whatever muscle it is that keeps your knees together.”
His post has since attracted more than 4600 comments with many describing him as “clueless” and “selfish” for not booking extra leg room.
“I’m a more average man at [180cm] and I always get an aisle seat or business class for the extra room,” one person wrote.
“The window lady called the attendant for her protection, but also to shame you into compliance, and rightly so, you should be ashamed of your behaviour,” wrote another.
A woman sided with the window seat passenger saying: “I’m a small woman and men on plane flights CONSTANTLY shove their knees into my personal space, even when they have enough room to sit with their legs together.”
Others told him to stop “pinching his pennies” and pay for a more spacious seat if comfort was going to be an issue. (On Spirit Airlines, you are assigned a random seat at check-in but you can opt to pay extra in order to select a seat yourself.)
“By wanting the woman to tell you if she is bothered by your invasion of her space, you make it her responsibility instead of just not doing it,” another person wrote.
“Women can feel too vulnerable to confront a tall guy (your own admission) by themselves especially when they are stuck at the window seat and cannot exit if the guy gets angry.
“She didn’t call the attendant to tell you to move, she called her to have an authority figure to help her make a point.”