Hilariously, after discussing the issue last week, I was the victim of airplane manspreading on a recent transcontinental United Airlines flight.
Manspreading On An Airplane – This Time I Am The Victim!
Fares were really high last Wednesday, to the tune of $529 one-way for a Washington Dulles – Los Angeles flight on Alaska or United in economy class. Thinking outside the box, I booked a saver award ticket on United for the following morning (the 6:00 am nonstop had saver space) and then attempted to standby on the 6:00 pm flight the night before (United allows standby within 24 hours of your confirmed flight).
I did clear onto the flight…but wound up with a middle seat in Economy Plus. It was totally worthwhile considering I’d be able to get home at a decent time and see my wife and kids ahead of my trip to London the next day.
Well, upon boarding I found my seatmate had already boarded…and staked out a claim to my legroom. I had to laugh…I had just written about this issue a couple of days prior in a story that went somewhat viral.
I thought he would move once I settled in, but he did not. In his (limited) defense, his leg space was reduced due to a steel beam securing the seats in front of him, but I did not enjoy any extra room for my feet. In other words, he felt entitled to take my allocated leg room because his was reduced. He also had two bags that he had set under the seat in front of him.
I waited a couple of minutes and very overtly took the picture above, hoping he would get the message.
But he didn’t. His feet remained there.
So I dropped my bag on top of his feet.
And he still didn’t move!
So finally, I looked over at him and said, “You’re stealing my legroom. If you want it, we can trade seats, because I’d prefer the aisle in exchange for a bit less room for my feet.”
He finally got the message and moved his feet, without uttering a word.
The rest of the flight was smooth.
CONCLUSION
The manner in which foot space is allocated in economy class (and in business class) is not always equal. Sometimes a middle or window seat might have more room than an aisle seat, or vice versa. When that is it the case and you find yourself with reduced foot room, remember that you chose your seat and it is not okay to manspread into someone else’s space. I cannot believe this dude was so rude, but I’m glad that he gave in after realizing that I would not tolerate his feet in my space.
It was more of a “taking up others’ space” than a “manspread” but I’m glad you stood up for yourself, Matthew. Some people do this thinking that the other person won’t speak up, but if you’re assertive, they’ll usually back down.
I cannot believe what kind of blogger you are. You never contribute anything useful but your own complain and stupidity. Look at your head picture, the only achievement in your life is to sit on J seat by brokering cheap miles. I really despise people like you.
Thanks for your click. Greatly appreciated.
That’s the way you should reply. And not your usual sarcasm
must be a social woke who contributes to making this a loving world by asking other to comply
Absolutely nailed it buddy….I completely agree with you
Right, you Q-Anon supporters really have the moral high ground and intellect to call out other douche bags.
You people are all worthless…..
There are more of us everyday.
We will take over to kick people like you to the curb. Your day is coming.
This is why when people tell me my laptop bag has to go under the seat in front of me that I politely decline, explaining that that’s where my feet need to go.
Then your laptop bag should go in the overhead storage compartment.
And then half the plane has to gate check their bag because people like you put backpacks and other jackets in the overhead. Thanks. Put the laptop bag under the seat while the flight takes off and then remove it, put it behind your legs and stretch out.
First the lounge apartheid, and now this. Life with so much oppression must be tough
Oh come on. This is legit.
Haha.
Well, you asked, he moved. I really don’t think this is a real big deal.
All kidding aside, and if I’m being honest, the way you approached this issue was a bit too passive-aggressive, with the dropping hints and the “you’re stealing my legroom” line. Had you led with “Can you please move your leg” the dude would have probably obliged, and that would be the end of that.
What is wrong with being passive-aggressive?
You really thought I was going to switch seats with you?
I like the line about offering to switch seats with him! I wonder if that would work for armrests too 🙂
@TravelFake is going to have fun with this one.
at least your neighbor was wearing socks and shoes. i didn’t get that courtesy.
If a Man can’t keep his legs together or reasonably together for 4-5hrs on a flight? And yet can afford to fly? He can afford Business Class. Some Men are classless.
Maybe he has dodads the size of avocados.
If he had refused to move his leg, would you have called an FA? Was it worth that?
@matthew just curious why you don’t cover routes and network like you used to? A year ago you would have been the first blog to report all of this and now stuff like this is barley even mentioned.
https://www.executivetraveller.com/news/united-restarts-melbourne-los-angeles-flights
“On October 28, Allison said United will launch new services from San Francisco to Brisbane in addition to re-launching services from Houston to Sydney and Los Angeles to Melbourne. In December, Qantas will launch new services from Dallas to Melbourne. And for those who really like to see Oceania (or spend quality time on a plane), Qantas will launch New York to Sydney services via Auckland next June.”
Stay tuned.
Australia was the big winner of the adjustments they made last week, with LAX-MEL, IAH-SYD, and SFO-BNE all starting or resuming on Oct 28, and by Dec 1 United will have a more flights to Australia than before the pandemic. Also good to see the commitment to LAX.
A few other notable changes though, firstly with Tokyo. LAX-HND, IAD-HND, EWR-HND will not launch this fall like originally planned, and DEN-NRT will not resume. All of these have been taken off the schedule until Jan 2023. What is interesting though, is LAX-NRT and EWR-NRT, both which were originally suppose to have a HND flight join them on Oct 28, have been upgraded, to a 78X and 77W respectively, starting Oct 28 (the start of the winter schedule).
Lastly, SFO-SIN will go double daily on Oct 28, meaning the full SIN pre pandemic schedule will have been restored.
Auckland is also resuming 3x weekly on Oct 1 and then increases to daily on Oct 28, but this has been scheduled for a few months now so this isn’t new news.
Besides that, all the other transpacific routes, such as PVG, HKG, PEK, etc. have all been cut for the foreseeable future, as I think everyone expected.
Hey Jared!? What’s going on with United and their new terminal 9 at LAX?? Is it a go, or what’s the scoop?
Good question. I haven’t heard anything official from UA, but everything that I have read says United and it’s Star partners are getting T9 at LAX.
This is from Skift:
Terminal 9 is the biggest piece of the expansion. Located east of Sepulveda Boulevard — the existing eastern border of the LAX terminal complex — the facility will include 12 gates for large aircraft as well as a new station on the airport’s under-construction automated people mover. United Airlines has its eye on the facility, which will be adjacent to its current gates in Terminals 7 and 8, for its own operations and those of its Star Alliance partners.
“We need more gates,” United CEO Scott Kirby said of LAX at the IATA Annual General Meeting in Boston on September 4. “I think [Terminal 9 will] be great for us. [But] it’s taking a long time.”
Kirby did not express any doubt that Terminal 9 would become a United and Star Alliance terminal.
@Matthew might be in the know more here, so would defer to him if he is able to get any statement from UA. I don’t believe construction has started yet, so this is still a few years out at the earliest. I think they’d like to have it done for the 2026 world cup and 2028 olympics in LA. I think the bright side for LAX here though is that the current management is committed to competing in competitive markets like LAX, and aren’t going to surrender like previous UA management. I think UA will be launching some new routes from LAX in the coming months, both domestic and international. They’re going to be in full growth modes at all hubs in the next year.
Thank You so very much for the update Jared. It’s much appreciated!! Yeah, I know, I hope they launch both the project and the routes expansion. It would be really cool. Thanks again!!
First, this is not “manspreading.”
Second, that word is a demeaning stereotype. You being a man doesn’t excuse it.
Third, unless there has been a theft, it is a steel beam. Not a steal beam. And it’s probably actually aluminum.
Oh the horror! Economy middle seat! The worst nightmare! But tip of the hat, no Angertainment! Just good sense. In a way you had prepped yourself for just this. Btw thank you for the posts about Elizabeth R.
I was under the impression that man spreading was when men sat with their knees spread far apart, not someone scootching their foot over a few inches into your space. You were within your rights to ask him to move it back to his allocated space, but I don’t see this as an especially egregious act.
I do think we all need to not only be mindful of what space we’ve paid for on a flight, but also those times when a little common sense and empathy can turn an adversarial situation around – i.e. be kind if you can.
We were on a long distant flight from our home base airport,LAS to Capetown SA which would take a day plus in travel time (including layovers). On the leg from Munich to Capetown on Lufthansa A350 I was in the second seat from the middle row of 5 and was seated next the biggest German you could imagine. He wasn’t Manspreading as much as just lopped over onto me! I tried everything but it reminded me of trying to push an elephant no go. Needless to say on the return trip my wife complained loud enough to get the economy plus seats near the business class. It’s amazing how much of a difference when you can breath unencumbered.
The best fix to this problem is always to just show how little you care about your personal space. Slap your leg right up against his. Arm on his arm on the arm rest. He will either become very friendly, or get the picture. If he acts too friendly, go into the Scientology pitch. Always works
I imagine you didn’t have much of a choice on seats. But this why I never book a flight without checking seats out on ‘seatguru.com’. There’s a couple websites out there and they make a huge difference on pointing out potential issues with seats, leg room, and seat location.
I think a much better term for it would be Asshatting, because 1. It’s not just men that act selfishly or callously. 2. Some of us rather enjoy being thoughtful and considerate of other (which also happens to be the best way to treat one’s self, IMHO), so don’t lump us all to the same group, please.
A least he didn’t take off his shoes too (it happened to me, and it was smelly awful).
I’m the latest victim of gender brushing!
Hey Matthew, I had something similar happen last week, ORD – SEA on UA but it was a woman, laptop, shoes, armrest, bag, her feet in front of me, etc. Does this make it Womanspreading because that seems awfully pejorative, as does the sexist reference “manspreading”? I’m being sincere.
I think the word can mean both sexes, but is what it is because it is almost always done by men. But male or female, I would not tolerate it.
The guy knew exactly what he was doing. I honestly don’t fault you at all for handling it the way you did. Was it the BEST way to handle it? No. But What some forget is that we all have territorial instincts that come out in force in cramped spaces like economy class on an airplane. When someone takes our space, many otherwise level headed people can get annoyed.
The issue judging from the photo is the dude seems he could have clearly tilted his one bag vertically (I may be wrong but that’s how it looks) which would have then given him more room and he wouldn’t have needed to eat up Matthew’s space. But let’s be real that would have taken too much thinking and someone who thinks it’s ok to invade someone else’s very, very cramped leg space isn’t the kind who’s going to do a lot of conscientious planning.
Also the guy had an aisle seat. If he didn’t bring more crap than he could store onto the plane and tried to shove it in front of him, he could have easily shifted to have leg room in the aisle. Matthew was in the middle seat. They have literally nowhere to go. Even window seats allow for some sliding to the side if a bit of space is needed.
But at least judging from the comments here you’ve discovered his name is Benjiamin.
It’s all about bluff and counter bluff. To ask politely is to deflate the space violators in most cases.
And yes, best to put your carry on “under” the seat or in the overhead.
If they refuse, my best remedy is to go to the bathroom several times during flight if I have the window seat.
If they moan & groan, mention you have an enlarged prostate!!!!!
Men run and women cry!!!!
Works every time for a silver haired man like me!!
Manspreading is a sexist word used by drqma queen, hypocritical women
Stop using it. In any case how can you be sure she was a man?
Love the “accidental” bag drop. Also, it’s “steel beam”, not “steal beam.”
And what if a person is 7 feet tall like myself and due to the spacing are left with no choice but to “manspread” as you put it? Some of us really aren’t left with much choice.
I’m sorry, but you need to buy two seats then or sit in first class. It’s not apporirate.
Most people don’t respond well to passive- aggressive behavior. Grow up and communicate like an adult.
Perhaps something along the lines of, “Excuse me but I need to use the entire space allocated for my seat – I can switch seats with you if that is preferable, but wherever I sit I will be using the floor in front of me for my legs and feet.”
It’s annoying that you want to jump to being a”victim,” so quickly. You are not a smaller size woman enduring the middle seat between two sumo wrestlers trying to fend off unwanted touching or sexual advances.
No matter who the victim is, manspreading represents colossal lack of respect.
Why didn’t you act like every other loser dressed in pajamas or shorts wearing fuzzy slippers or sandals acts these days? You should have downed 11 tiny bottles of tequilla, then stood up on your seat yelling while holding a lit lighter and telling the flight attendant you have your rights and then to top it off pull out your weiner and urinate on the offending seatmate, paying special attention to his out of bound legs and feet. That’s what I would have done if they still let me fly commercial.
I thought I handled it better…
So I wonder why I am the only one asking this. But where is the line for his vs your foot space? In this example, it looks to me that the seat in front of him had a misaligned steel beam, which makes the space between the beams wider on your seat and less on his sear. But isn’t the dividing line the extension of your arm rest??? i.e. in other words, each of you would get the roughly 17-18 inch width of your seat as allocated foot space. Just because the seat brackets in front of our is misaligned, doesn’t mean you should get foot space that is technically in front his your neighbors seat.
No,you can clearly see his feet are over the armrest (look at the seat in front of him and note his feet are to the right of the armest). You can also see that if we go by that metric, my leg space was also reduced on the right side.
Hmm, okay. But generally speaking, I have thought about that scenario many times. When I get thr misaligned seat strut, I always keep to the “smaller space” but I always thought in my head that part of the space to the side of the seat anchor, ie the part that is directly in front of the width of my seat should be mine as well. But yeah, it can get awkward since there isn’t a “divider” anymore between the feet.
Well done! If you fight for your cause than slways sensibly and courteous.