The raging debate over plane etiquette has a new participant, this time in the form of a quick-thinking passenger, who has captivated the internet by revealing how she saved another traveler from an unfair seat swap request.
Seattle-based TikTok creator @not.christinayang shared the experience on a ‘four or five-hour’ flight from Hawaii to Seattle in a recent video, which has been seen more than 2.5 million times.
According to the traveler, she was sitting in premium economy in a three-seat row when someone asked the woman who was sitting next to her to swap seats so she could sit next to her friend.
‘I’m sitting in the window seat and right next to me in the middle seat is a little Asian woman. I think she’s Japanese,’ she recalled.
A plane passenger has detailed the moment she saved another traveler from an unfair seat swap
The TikTok creator and Seattle mom, who is known online as @not.christinayang , shared the experience on a ‘four or five-hour’ flight from Hawaii to Seattle
‘She was really soft spoken and on the aisle seat there was another person.’
During the flight, the creator says that the aisle-seat passenger asks the middle-seat occupant to switch seats.
‘So the aisle seat person is traveling with another woman and her companion says, “I wanna sit next to my friend,”’ she explained.
‘And she looks at the Asian lady next to me… she says, “Let’s switch seats, I’m back in 26.”
‘Mind you we’re in premium economy. We’re like in row eight with all the unlimited drinks and snacks. So the lady next to me is like, “Oh you know we switch seats? Um, OK, right.”
‘And so she starts getting up and I’m like, “No!”’
According to the TikToker, her defiant insistence that her seat mate remain in her original place on the plane prompted the eager seat swap requester to offer up a reason for why she should want to move.
‘And so the lady is like, “Oh, but it’s a window seat, it’s so much better than a middle that she has,”‘ she recalled.
‘I was like, “Except for the fact that we are traveling together. Hello? We’re both Asian, of course, we know each other. And 26 is not premium economy… it’s like you can smell the toilet back there. No!”
‘So the little Asian lady next to me is like half like standing up and… she looks over at me and I go, “Sit down, Connie!”
‘Okay, I don’t know what her name is, I just called her Connie for some reason and she sat down. I guess I was meaner than the other lady.’
The creator said this incident happened while she was sitting in premium economy, when ‘you’d get like unlimited drinks and snacks’
The creator then continues, saying the ‘lady in 26’ is ‘kind of mad’ that she won’t be able to sit next to her friend.
‘She was like, “No, you guys aren’t traveling together, you just made that up,”’ she said.
‘And I look over at the Asian lady next to me and I start speaking to her in Cantonese, which is totally the wrong language for her, but this lady [in 26] is not Asian, so she’s not gonna know the difference.
‘The Asian lady looks at me and she’s like yeah, and then she responds to me in Japanese. And I’m like, “Mmhmm, that’s right.”
‘I look up at the lady who’s still standing there and I go, “Well we’re gonna continue to talk about you in our language. So why don’t you go back to row 26, where you belong, OK? Because if you wanted to sit next to your friend you should have booked a ticket next to her, not 20 rows behind.”’
The TikTok video has attracted thousands of comments, with some slamming the passenger who wanted the seat swap and others finding humor in the scenario.
The TikTok video has attracted thousands of comments, with some slamming the passenger who wanted the seat swap and others finding humor in the scenario
‘”Let’s switch.” Not even, “Would you mind switching with me?” Some ppl are so entitled,’ one person said.
A mother has revealed the ‘right way’ to ask a fellow plane passenger to switch seats – amid the ongoing furious debate over airplane etiquette
‘Or her friend could have moved back to sit with her. You don’t ask someone to downgrade for your convenience,’ another added.
A third person wrote: ‘I’m sure someone from row 26 would have taken the free upgrade if it was that important.’
‘You’re a hero,’ someone else simply put.
‘Connie understood the assignment,’ a TikTok user said.
‘May your coffee always be hot, green lights on your drives, and close parking spots in the parking lot,’ another wrote.
This recent video is the latest in a long line of incidents that have sparked debate online about airplane etiquette.
In November, a mother has revealed the ‘right way’ to ask a fellow plane passenger to switch seats.
Previously, a man went viral on Reddit after he revealed that he had refused to give up his extra-legroom chair on a 10-hour flight to a mother who wanted to swap so that she and her young son could sit next to her husband.
Mom-of-two Anna Lyn Cook said on TikTok that she thought her family would have to split up on their recent KLM flight – because there weren’t four seats next to each other available
Upon entering the aircraft, she said she decided to approach someone who was sitting in the seat next to her family members and ask him if he’d be willing to take her seat instead
His actions launched a major argument about whether he was wrong for not making the change, and TikToker Anna Lyn Cook revealed that she was put into a similar situation, but insisted she had discovered the proper way to ask someone to shift seats.
Mom-of-two Anna, who is based in the US, explained in a recent video posted to TikTok that she thought her family would have to split up on their recent KLM flight – because there weren’t four seats next to each other available when she went to pick them.
However, upon entering the aircraft, she decided to approach someone who was sitting in the seat next to her family members and ask him if he’d be willing to take her seat instead.
Anna explained that her seat was ‘much better’ than his since it had ‘lots more legroom,’ adding that she would ‘never ask anyone to switch unless she could offer them a better option.’
She described the seat she wanted as ‘pretty tight,’ while she said hers was a lot more spacious.
A Reddit user named Emily Kauai left many people on the web divided after she shared a photo of herself completely squished in her seat because the man sitting next to her spread his legs
The mom added that the stranger appeared to be unhappy that he had to sit next to her two young children, so he was more than happy to make the switch with her.
Days after this video became a talking point, the debate was taken to a new level after an irate passenger launched a new discussion about whether or not it’s OK to spread out on a flight.
A Reddit user named Emily Kauai, from Florida, left many people on the web divided after she shared a photo of herself completely squished in her seat because the man sitting next to her had opened up his legs so wide that they spilled into her area.
In the picture, which was posted to the app earlier this month under the thread Well That Sucks, the unidentified man could be seen sitting with his limbs spread apart on a recent Southwest Airlines flight.
His left leg went far beyond his seat space and into Emily’s, leaving her to sit with her legs pressed close together – and her post sparked a huge argument about whether or not his actions were acceptable.
‘This was how my entire four hour flight went today,’ she captioned the post. ‘I am a five-foot-eight-inch female.’
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