A man travelling in the premium section of a plane was dealing with an entitled passenger who was manspreading into his space during a seven-and-a-half hour flight - so he came up with a clever plan to get his own back15:51, 02 Jun 2026A man has been praised for getting his own back on a fellow plane passenger who hogged the space by 'manspreading' throughout the entire flight. Inconsiderate travellers are a bugbear for many, and one man laid out his grievances after boarding a seven-and-a-half hour flight with his wife in a premium cabin, noting he is "plus sized".‌He wrote on Reddit: "I'm always so careful to make sure I'm not taking anyone else's space on a plane, even if it's uncomfortable. I'm supposed to be in a middle seat, but when I get there, there's already a man sitting in the middle spot next to his (assumed) wife, so I take the aisle. No big deal. I prefer that. My spouse was seated a couple of rows away."‌The offending passenger, a man in his 70s who stood around 5'4, was sprawling far beyond his allocated space, making for a thoroughly uncomfortable journey.‌He added: "He basically has a swimming pool of space to lounge around in. So tell me why the hell this man took my entire armrest and 3-4" of my space, had his entire body pressed against mine despite me seeing he had room between him and his wife."Most egregious of all, put his one foot like 6 inches into my leg room. Also, at one point, he motioned like he was trying to get at his seatbelt, but just kind of ended up 'pinching' at my upper thigh, but then didn't put his seatbelt on? Ew."He also had AirPods in and seemed to be pretending to sleep, plus being a woman sitting along means I don't trust how he'd react if I said something."‌To establish boundaries, he pushed back by positioning his foot on the edge of his seat when readjusting, stopping him from taking over the space.However, this backfired because he placed his foot directly against his and would knock into it every 20 seconds or so.‌He said: "I start texting my spouse and she does the coolest thing. She tells me she'll trade seats with me, and if he tries the same thing with her, she will start playing footsie with him."Here's the thing: my wife is a 6'4" bearded trans woman. She has a voice like Johnny Cash and to a 70-something creepy man, will absolutely read as male."So if this guy wants to intimidate a woman, he can do it to someone who will dish it out right back, but 5x creepier. I told her not to worry, I would put a blanket between us, no big deal.‌"So the blanket goes down, his foot immediately retreats, but then... this guy starts 'tapping' his foot to music, but he's doing it pressed up against my foot, so he's basically just rubbing my foot up and down with his foot?"I yank my foot back instinctively because I felt like I was going to puke. So I got the wife on him."Bless her heart for being willing to swap seats with me. She's an angel." Responding to his post, one user wrote: "I need to know what the other guy did when your wife sat down! I'm sure he retreated back into a cocoon!"Article continues belowAnother added: "I just fell in love with your wife." While a third commented: "He's an a***hole but middle seat gets both armrests."