A couple has divided the internet after both partners refused to swap seats so that a child who was "scared" of flying could sit with her mother.
Taking to online forum Mumsnet, someone with the username @wearejustfriends recounted their recent TUI flight to Gran Canaria.
She said: "I had booked mine and my boyfriend's seats when we booked and paid £22 [$30] for both. I had the window and he had the middle. A lady sat on the end and her daughter was in front."
The lady then asked the couple if she and her young daughter could take their two seats and they could sit separately, with one taking her seat and the other her daughter's.
The original poster recalled how she "politely said no," which the mother "wasn't happy about."
Apparently, the lady told them: "What difference does it make? You're adults, my daughter is sacred of flying and is a minor."
The couple still refused to move. In hindsight, they wonder if they were in the wrong, asking fellow users on the platform: "Surely if she was that bothered she could have paid like us?"
The vast majority of those who responded to the post on the forum were in favor of the couple, with many of them agreeing that the mother could have paid extra to ensure her daughter was sat next to her on the flight.
One person said: "If someone is so scared of flying that they need to be seated with a parent/partner then you obviously pay in advance to reserve seats along with checking in online 24hrs to ensure you have the boarding card. Been doing this for almost 2 decades so it's not a new system or technology by any means.
"Asking people to switch seats on the plane is just being a CF. If it had been truly unplanned, such as a last min rebooking onto a different flight then she needed to explain that to the stewardess and have them arrange the seat change."
Another said: "This really bugs me - I have lost count of the number of times there have been parents on flights with small children who haven't paid to sit together and expect people who have to move!"
One user, however, chimed in to say they would have swapped.
They wrote: "I wouldn't have asked but I would have swapped if I had been asked."
Another said not trading seats with the "scared" child would have made them feel "guilty".
They wrote: "I wouldn't have moved either, but - like you I suspect - would have felt a bit guilty and mean even though I'd paid to choose my seats."
