In a long post shared to Reddit, the unnamed woman explained there were only 75 passengers on the plane and because it was barely full, they needed to spread out for even weight distribution.

The woman, who chose not to name the airline, sat in an empty row but was left shocked at what happened next.

“Almost literally the last second, a man (50-ish) walks on and states, ‘I’ll sit next to you,’ not even asking. So that gave me a red flag about him,” she began the post.

‘I say, ‘My husband is going to sit here.’ The truth is I am travelling alone, but as a young woman I avoid telling people that.

“He states, ‘Then I’ll sit at the window.’ So I say, ‘The flight is only half full – there’s tons of room,’ and he just stands there.”

To avoid confrontation, she moved to the aisle seat, but the passenger continued to ask questions about her husband.

“‘So where’s your husband?’ I ignore him. He asks again, ‘Should we have the flight attendants hold the flight for your husband?’ with literal air quotes and I ignore him again. “And he says, ‘So you’re just lying to me then? You’re probably a Democrat,’ and I can’t stand it anymore unfortunately and get loud saying, ‘Can you shut the truck up? Like who cares – I don’t owe you anything.’”

She claimed the man would not stop calling her a liar, before telling him her husband is deployed in the Middle East, which she said is the truth.

The confrontation caught the attention of a flight attendant who told the woman she had to move seats.

“I look at her dumbfounded because I was there first and I didn’t cause the problem he did,” she explained.

“So she says one of you needs to move or you’re both off the flight. So I just grab my bag and move.”

The woman said she was “visibly shaken” as she moved to the back of the plane, and two other flight attendants asked what had happened. She added when she told them, they seemed “genuinely sorry”.

“They said they wanted to take care of me and prevent anything further from happening.

“Because of this I don’t think it fair to blame everyone on the plane.”

She said it is also the reason she didn’t want to disclose the airline.

Her post has attracted hundreds of comments shocked by the man’s behaviour.

“What kind of maniac sits right next to a stranger when there is room to put an empty seat between you? Total creep,” one person wrote.

Another said; “So much ick for a man who on purpose sits next to a woman when there’s a ton of room to spread out.”

A third wrote: “Guarantee this dude thought he was entitled to your company and conversation through the entire flight as well. I’m so sick of having to be polite to entitled men just so they won’t fly off the handle.”

Others shared similar stories with one woman explaining a man also sat next to her in an almost empty movie theatre.

“Guess what happened next? I’m sure you can figure it out. I had to get up and find security.”

Meanwhile, others put the blame on the flight attendants.

“That’s not your fault. Everything about this is his fault. Though I feel the air attendants had a very bad way of handling it,” one person wrote.

“The flight attendant should have made this AH man move. Surely they should be used to sleazy types taking advantage of women on flights,” said another.