It’s not always fun being the bigger person, but sometimes the universe finds a way to reward you for it.

When a mild-mannered traveler found a stranger taking his seat without asking, he let it go and ended up watching the whole situation turn in his favor anyway.

You’ll want to keep reading for this one.

Received someone else’s frequently flier gift

My new wife and I recently took a trip to Denver on a United flight. I fly often, but not as often as some other people.

When I booked the flight, the plane was fairly empty, so I booked the window and aisle seats in the premium economy section right behind first class seats, leaving the middle seat empty.

But on the actual day, things were much different.

By the time we actually flew, the flight was nearly full, so I checked the seat chart and noticed someone took the seat between us.

No biggie.

When we got on the flight, we would just offer the window or aisle seat to whoever booked the middle seat.

Then things got even more complicated.

Boarding time came, and we were in group 2, so the pre-boards and group 1 got to go before us. When it was our turn to board and we got to our seats, there was an older man sitting in the window seat.

I thought that was kind of a jerk move, to just take someone else’s seat without asking.

Obviously, this guy had flown before since he had pre-boarding status without having young kids, was not disabled, and definitely wasn’t in the military.

The traveler tried to just let it go and get on with his day.

I let it go since we were going to switch seats anyway. Soon after the flight took off, the attendant came up to me with a gift bag and congratulated me for achieving 1K status.

He quickly realized what was happening.

The gift bag wasn’t for me; it was for the guy who took the window seat without asking.

He obviously knew what he was doing and has probably done this before.

The serendipitous encounter continued.

The guy was looking out the window all through boarding and never turned his head to acknowledge us until the flight attendant came over with the gift bag.

I accepted his gift bag, and the flight attendant asked if I’d like a complimentary drink as well.

The guy was still completely clueless.

Of course, I said yes and even got a free glass of wine for my wife too. I glanced at the guy and could see the anger in his eyes.

But he didn’t say a thing. Petty win for me over this guy who took my seat that I would have given him, but instead he took it without asking.

Sounds like the universe rewarded this traveler for his patience!

What did Reddit think?

Customer service workers really bear the brunt of bad behavior.

Just being an agreeable person can get you surprisingly far.

This user wonders if there’s something deeper going on.

Sometimes taking the wrong seat is just an innocent mistake.

For once, the good guy got the last laugh!

If you liked that post, check out this one about an employee that got revenge on HR when they refused to reimburse his travel.