A WOMAN has told she refused to give up her seat to a stranger who demanded to be sat next to her husband on a long-haul flight.
Taking to TikTok to share her story, the passenger explained how he was expected to give up her seat at the front of the plane, in exchange for one at the back on the aircraft on a flight from Los Angeles to Sydney.
"In 2012, I'm flying on an overnighter from LAX to Sydney. I'm sitting on an aisle seat somewhere towards the front of the plane, which was purposefully chosen," the passenger explained in her video.
"One because I was flying by myself – super anxious. And two, that anxiety turns into a bubbling bowel situation.
"I'm getting myself set up in the aisle seat, so I can sleep for most of the flight, and then a lady in her 50s comes up to me and – I didn't know she was talking to me – she practically had to shout 'excuse me' for me to open my eyes and look up.
"I was having none of it because I had just had such a s****y time connecting from LaGuardia to LAX in the first place, so I was in no mood – and it was really late at night by this point.
"She goes on to ask if I would swap seats with her at the back of the plane because she and her husband were pushed from a previous flight and they wanted to sit together."
Admitting she usually is a Yes person, the woman said she stayed strong because she had specifically chosen the seat when she purchased her flight.
"[The woman] then goes onto lecture me about how inconsiderate it is that I don't swap with her when it wasn't their fault to begin with and they were bumped from a previous flight.
"At this point, I stare at her as she's berating me like she's my mum, and I basically just turn away and go back to sleep."
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The altercation didn't stop there.
"A few minutes passed and her husband huffily pushes past me to leave because his wife has convinced somebody else from the back of the plane next to her to swap with him at the front next to me."
The TikToker realised that the stranger had managed to convince someone else to swap seats when the woman loudly exclaimed: "Thank you so much! You know what? If it was me, I would have swapped, but thank you being so kind."
The TikToker, who has 13.100 followers and 1.2 million likes, said she had stared story to remind people they shouldn't be bullied into something they aren't comfortable doing.
"The lesson here is you can ask people if they can swap with you, but they don't have to say yes. It doesn't make them a bad person because it has somehow inconvenienced you," she added.
Viewers were quick to comment on her video, with a crew member saying: "as a flight attendant I see this all the time, and always tell the person 'you don't have to'".
"That end bit is exactly it. You can ask, but can’t control the outcome. Proud of you for staying strong in your no when it was hard at that stage," a user said.
Several users suggested trading seats "with entitled people" for a price.
One said: "Don't worry, once a lady asked if my husband and I could seat separate so she could seat with her husband. I said we would for $700. She said no."
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Another viewer took a more pragmatic approach: "If you have trouble saying no, just say I want to sit in my assigned seat so I can be identified in case we crash. Shuts them up real quick."
Other viewers, meanwhile, said they would swap seats if they knew it was a family and a parent was separated from his children.
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