We've all been in the awkward moment on public transport when you've booked a seat only to find someone else sat in it once you arrive. Now you're faced with the challenge of asking them to - kindly, of course - get up and move from your chair.
One Olympic star recalled the time she was faced with such a confrontation on board a flight from Toronto to Calgary only to be 'bullied' into swapping her seat with another passenger. Cynthia Appiah, a Canadian bobsledder, explained on her TikTok page: "It seems like there's a lot of conversations...on TikTok about plane seats and whether you should have to give up your seat if someone asks you so I have my own story on this."
She went on: "A couple of years ago I was flying from Toronto-Calgary which is a flight I do often being a National team athlete where our team's based out of Calgary, I'm from Toronto I fly between those two cities quite often. And over the years I've you know gotten so many points through flying with one particular airline in Canada that whenever I'm feeling extra bougie I'll either pay for an upgrade either at the gate or at the time of booking and just purchase a better seat."
Cynthia said she always booked an aisle seat so that she doesn't have to bother other passengers if she needs to go to the bathroom and also because she also likes to "stand every so often" as it's a four-hour flight. On this particular flight - where she'd bought a premium economy ticket - she noted that the seat configuration was, "two, three, two, so there's like someone beside me and then I'm on the aisle."
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After she'd boarded the plane she saw there was someone in her seat along with someone else besides the person in her seat. Cynthia went on: "I thought I had made a mistake so I triple-checked to make sure that my seat number that I was seeing on my phone was actually reflecting where I needed to be and yes indeed that person was in my seat... I go up to her and I'm like hey you're in my seat she goes yeah I know I am but I was wondering if you wouldn't mind switching with my seat just behind me so I can sit with my boyfriend during this flight.
"Now mind you her seat although premium economy was a window seat, not an aisle seat and I was like ahh nope. I told her nope I paid for this seat I would rather stick with my seat I bought the aisle for this reason. Actually, I didn't give a reason I was just like I bought the aisle...I'm not moving."
The woman became, "all upset but she knew there wasn't much of a fight," as it was Cynthia's seat to begin with and had proof that she'd booked it. The Olympian hoped that her story stressed how, "in this day and age of online ticket booking people still do not do their due diligence to book the seats that they want and hope that they can kindly ask, but really bully, people into giving up their seats."
The viral video was liked almost 2,000 times and one person responded: "I completely agree with you! I prefer an aisle seat, particularly on long flights. If you pay for an upgrade, you should not be asked to move." While another griped: "The gall of people sitting on someone else’s assigned seat and then ask." One user was left stunned by the woman's request: "Wait, people are actually expecting people to give up their paid seats?!?! Bananas! Absolutely not."
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