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AITA for asking for the train window seat back because my friend was looking at her phone?

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"You're not even using the window," I said when my friend refused to swap seats.

We were on a four-hour train trip. I'd booked the pair of seats and initially sat by the window. Before we left, she asked if she could have it because she wanted to watch the scenery. I said, "Sure, take the window."

For the first hour she mostly looked at her phone. I read for a while, then noticed the view and asked to swap. She said she'd like to stay where she was. That was when I made the comment.

She said she could look outside between messages, and that accepting the seat hadn't committed her to staring through the glass continuously. I told her I'd been generous and now felt as though she'd taken the better place for no reason.

She offered to swap for the last hour. I said that wasn't the part of the journey I wanted, which I realized made it sound as though she had to justify her preference while mine was obvious.

We hadn't agreed on turns. I gave up the window willingly, then decided her use of it was the wrong use. Still, I thought a small swap would have been an easy favor to return. AITA for pressing it?

Discussion

3 community replies

Asking to swap was fine. Judging whether she was using the window enough was the weaker argument. You gave her the seat without agreeing to turns, and she didn't promise a four-hour scenery vigil.

She offered the last hour, so it wasn't a complete refusal to accommodate you. You were disappointed about a particular stretch, which is understandable, but that didn't make her offer meaningless.

'I've been generous' can turn a gift of convenience into an obligation the other person only learns about afterward. If the window mattered to you too, taking turns could have been proposed before either of you settled in.

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