I was bullied on a flight for 'ruining' a couple's scheme to get more room

"She was disappointed it didn't work and decided to take it out on me like a toddler having a tantrum." 

If you consume the internet like water, you've likely seen the viral TikTok hack that could help you score extra room on a flight. 

The tip involves booking an aisle and a window seat in the hopes no one books the seat in the middle, but some solo travellers don't seem to care about sitting between two strangers and book the spare seat anyway.

However, if this doesn't happen, you've just secured a whole row for yourself and your travel buddy—entirely for free! 

Poor man's business class!

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Image: TikTok

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"Immediately rude"

A young woman recently found herself unintentionally in the middle of a couple that attempted to pull off this trick, and according to her Reddit post, they weren't too stoked about it. 

"I always pay extra and pick my seat in advance when I travel," she wrote to the Entitled People thread.

However, due to a medical emergency on another plane, extra people from that flight were placed on her flight, so she got given another seat to accommodate the extra passengers. 

"When I got to my row, a man and woman were chatting and sharing a snack. It was obvious they were together. I mentioned to the man that I was in the middle, and he got up to let me in," she explained. 

"I asked them if they would prefer to sit together... I said I'm totally okay with that... they can pick the seats. But the woman immediately reacted rudely to this. She said something like, 'You're not supposed to be sitting here anyway'. I explained the situation (I'm pretty sure everyone on the plane was aware of this, though, as there had been announcements and rearranging happening).

"I offered to show her my new ticket, too. She flicked her hand at my ticket and made a disgusted sound. I asked again if they wanted to sit together, to which she didn't reply. Her partner said, 'It's okay,' and seemed kinder between the two. I sat down. He made some small talk about how the plane must be so full blah blah."

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The woman then interrupted their conversation shortly after and said, "Did you use one of those third-party websites to book your flight? It's so frustrating when people cheap out to inconvenience others."

But the OP told her she booked directly, and due to the situation, she could no longer sit in her other chosen seat. 

"I was so done with her attitude, I put my headphones on and attempted to do my own thing," the woman said. "But this woman, for the remaining four-ish hours, kept reaching over me and tapping her partner and trying to talk to him in a way that was super intrusive to me being stuck between them.

"I could tell even her partner was trying to engage her less so that she would hopefully stop, but she didn't and the whole time, she acted as if I was the problem in this scenario."

"I think they tried to pull that tactic where they don't sit together on purpose, leaving the middle seat empty, hoping no one will sit between them. But on full flights (which most are), it doesn't work. And even so, it's not the other person's fault."

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"Like a toddler having a tantrum"

Over 600 people weighed in on the woman's story, condemning the woman for her "monster" behaviour.

"You nailed it in your last paragraph. She was disappointed and decided to take it out on you," the top comment read.

"Like a toddler having a tantrum," someone else noted.

And this woman shared: "As someone who absolutely has tried that same tactic, I am so sorry the other person was a bitch. Whenever my partner and I do it, we always let the person joining know and ask if they'd like the window seat (so we sit together)."

"Sounds exactly like the middle seat thing. I really don't understand why they preferred to inconvenience themselves (and you) and didn't just swap with you. Weird hill to die on," a different Redditor commented. 

And someone else added: "They didn't want to swap because they wanted to show OP that her showing up ruined their intent to have the whole row for their personal comfort."

Originally published as I was bullied on a flight for 'ruining' a couple's scheme to get more room