Woman Sparks Controversy after Refusing to Surrender Window Seat to Mom & Her 2 Kids

• Tammy Nelson faced an unpleasant encounter with a mom of two during a recent flight. "What would you do?" she asked in a post after sharing her story. A woman boarded a flight but saw another woman sitting in her seat. Upon confrontation, the other lady asked her to switch seats because she wanted to sit with her children.
• The woman took to TikTok to explain why she refused to exchange seats with the mother, sparking a debate in the comments section of her post.
• An expert advised what to do when someone asks to switch seats after boarding the plane.

Whether going on a vacation or a business trip, everyone looks forward to a relaxing in-flight experience when boarding a flight, hoping to have a peaceful and hassle-free journey. Tammy Nelson, a TikTok user with over 270,000 followers, thought the same when she boarded a flight.

However, the woman experienced something unexpected that she opened up about in one of her TikTok posts, which has since garnered over 2.8 million views. Her 6-second-long video went viral, and netizens posted their thoughts about it in the comments section.

Nelson had booked a window seat for her flight, but when she reached the row written on her ticket, she saw another woman sitting in her chair. When Nelson told the woman she was sitting in the wrong seat, the unknown woman replied while pointing toward the two seats next to her:

"Oh, you want to sit here? I thought we could switch because these are my kids."

Upon learning that the mother wanted to switch seats to be close to her children, Nelson agreed, saying she would do it if it were a window seat. Nelson recalled, "She points to the row behind us and says, 'Mine is right there.' (It's the middle seat.)"

Looking at the mother's seat, Nelson refused to exchange her seat because she didn't sleep enough the night before and wanted to rest during the trip. Moreover, she had to "give a presentation to 500 people" upon reaching her destination, so she chose her comfortable window seat instead of the middle one.

In her defense, Nelson told her TikTok followers that the children were around 11 and 15, explaining that their mother would easily communicate with them while sitting in the row behind. However, the other woman wasn't happy with Nelson's decision.

"The mom proceeded to complain for at least 15 minutes to the person next to her loud enough for me to hear," Nelson wrote in the caption of her TikTok post. She added that she overheard the other woman supporting her while the mother felt she should have switched seats.

Feeling guilty about her decision, Nelson posted on TikTok to ask her followers what they would have done if they had such an encounter during a flight. "What would you do?" she asked in her video.

How Did Her Followers React?

Nelson's TikTok video sparked a debate among netizens in the comments section. The post has received over 6,000 comments, most representing the opinions of people who watched Nelson's video.

Most commenters sided with Nelson, telling her she did the right thing by not switching seats. "It's your seat. It's okay you wanted to keep it," one TikTok user said. Meanwhile, another netizen shared what they did in similar situations:

"I've offered my seat on many occasions when I realized families were split up. HOWEVER, I'd draw the line at someone trying to shame me into it."

The mother asked Nelson to leave her window seat and sit in the middle chair, which many TikTok users thought was a downgrade. They believed it wasn't right for the mother to ask Nelson for the window seat. One even stated she would only take the middle seat for her kid and not a stranger.

One netizen advised Nelson to ask such people for $1000 to exchange seats or tell them to "go pay for a better seat next time." At the same time, another stated that she has accepted to pay more so she could sit with her kids while on a trip and does not expect anyone to give up their seats for her. The comments under Nelson's post proved she was right about refusing to switch seats with the mother.

What Does the Expert Think about the Situation?

It's not rare for people to witness other passengers requesting them to switch seats after boarding the airplane, but is that the right thing to do? Jacqueline Whitmore, a former flight attendant and an expert on the topic, spoke about it.

According to Whitmore, people who want to switch seats should do it before boarding the plane. She advised such people to talk to the airline staff present at the gates because requesting a change after entering the airplane "puts people in an awkward position."

However, if someone thinks about changing their seat after boarding the plane, Whitmore advised them to speak to one of the flight attendants instead of approaching the passenger directly. As a former airline employee, she knows that flight attendants can ask people to change seats. However, there is something people need to consider.

According to Whitemore, asking people to leave their window or aisle seats for a middle seat or asking them to leave their expensive "Comfort Plus seat" to "sit in the lesser seats" at the back is unfair as the trades have to be equal. She said:

"People pay for certain seats, and people choose certain seats for a reason."

The expert believes it's okay for people to request switching equal seats, but asking passengers to give up the seat they booked by putting in extra effort is not right. She remarked that a passenger's failure to plan appropriately should not become someone else's emergency.

Click here to read another story about an incident where an angry man slammed a baby screaming in an airplane and was causing a scene before a flight attendant stepped in.

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