A scenario: A person, we'll call her "Ruth", is boarding a jet plane for some locale. Ruth is not old, but she does suffer from arthritis in a number of her joints, so whenever Ruth travels by air, she makes sure to purchase an aisle seat, which provides her with the greatest flexibility and ease of getting up and stretching during the flight, should the need arise.
Her fellow passengers board, including a husband who is sitting in the middle seat of Ruth's section and his wife, who is sitting in the aisle seat directly across from Ruth. The wife asks Ruth to switch places with the husband, with the husband taking the aisle seat and Ruth taking the middle seat, so the couple can 'sit together'. Ruth, citing her arthritis and the fact that she specifically paid for the aisle seat for specific reasons, refuses.
Was Ruth rude to refuse?
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7 comments:
No. The couple should be able to survive the time apart nicely, it's not that big a deal. If they're bright, though, they should be able to figure out that Ruth switching seats with the wife instead of the husband would solve the problem (and I think that refusing to switch an aisle set for another aisle seat would be rude, yes).
And what kind of a word is aisle, anyway?
no. but why didn't the wife ask Ruth to switch with her? that way the couple sits together. Also, Ruth gets the aisle seat she needs.
Absolutely not. She paid for an aisle seat and has a right to keep it. As others have already said, it would make more sense for the wife to have asked to switch seats with Ruth.
No. As Roger said, why doesn't the wife switch with Ruth?
This also brings up a bit of an issue I've occasionally seen as a solo traveler - sometimes couples or families expect that singles traveling will happily put up with greater discomfort/inconvenience/not getting what they paid for because the couple or family's convenience or comfort NATURALLY trumps that of the single traveler.
I mean, sometimes I'm happy to oblige - but if I asked for and paid for an aisle seat, sorry, no.
Nope. Polite doesn't mean doormat.
I'd say no she wasn't and I agree with other comments, why couldn't the wife switch?
She was not rude. Because of my physical ailments I book an aisle seat & will not give it up.
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