A man has been backed for refusing to give up his pre-booked plane seat so an elderly disabled woman could travel in comfort.

He shared on Reddit how he and his partner, both in their 30s, were travelling on a four-hour flight and had booked seats 1B and 1C in advance because she gets claustrophobic on planes.

The man said: “We always get on the plane last so there’s less hanging around waiting for the doors to shut. When we boarded, an older couple were sat in seats 1A and 1B. They were given 1A and 1D, and offered us 1C and 1D. We politely refused this offer, and explained that we’d booked 1B and 1C as we wished to sit together.”

The situation escalated when a flight attendant tried to guilt them into moving for the couple, mentioning one of them was disabled. But our man wasn’t having any of it and turned her down flat. He continued: “The flight attendant rolls her eyes, and the woman in 1B reluctantly moves.”

Now, he’s been mulling over the incident and took to social media to see if he was out of order. Social media users backed him up, with one saying: “You and your partner booked those seats in advance; they are yours. If the elderly couple needed special accommodations they should’ve figured that out in advance while booking. Your partner’s anxiety also is something that needed accommodation – in this case, sitting with her to help keep her calm probably made the experience much less terrifying for her.”

Another user commented: “You booked specific seats and you were 100% entitled to use them. I wish flight attendants would quit asking people directly if they are willing to switch seats and instead ask if anyone would be willing to switch seats so others can sit together. When asked directly and you decline, it just gets awkward.”

A third user shared: “I was on a flight in August where the people behind us were kinda switching seats, there was an extra one in the back, long story, but the flight attendant was not allowed to ask. She kinda just kept saying “it’s up to ___ , she paid for this seat” whatever. Afterwards, she came back to the people behind and explained she’s not allowed to ask anymore and that’s why she was kinda saying the same thing over and over. This was a United flight so maybe different airlines have different rules.”