Sinister ways passengers get a plane row to themselves

An American airline that does not assign seats has revealed the crazy lengths passengers go to in order to get a row to themselves.

Southwest Airlines shared a comical video about ways passengers can keep people away from open seats near themselves.

Who knew you could stoop so low while flying so high?

US budget carrier Southwest Airlines – which doesn’t have assigned seating on its planes – has put together a video that shares the most “discouraged but crafty” ways passengers have kept the seats next to them open throughout a flight, New York Post reports.

The first method demonstrated is “the hat trick” – but this has nothing to do with playing sport.

The man featured in the video is shown putting a hat on his hand and holding it over the empty seat in his row at a smart angle so that those passing by (and hopefully distracted by the chaos of boarding) will just keep moving on, thinking there is a person attached to the hat and the seat is taken already.

The second method induces some reverse psychology.

Southwest said some passengers will put on an overtly happy face and encourage people to sit next to them for the flight.

The psychological warfare is dubbed “the encouraging seat pat”.

Southwest Airlines shared a comical video about ways passengers can keep people away from open seats near themselves.

The third approach is almost the complete opposite of the second. It is called “the upfront decline”.

“Can I sit here?” a passenger asks, to which the man responds flatly: “Oh, no.”

Fourth, and perhaps most dastardly of them all, is “the fake break-up”.

The man conducts a phony call to his significant other and begins the hysterics that he’s been broken up with and will be an inconsolable mess for the next “two hours and 43 minutes”.

Although the video’s tongue-firmly-in-cheek advice ended there, plenty of commenters on TikTok passed along their own useful strategies as well.

“You forgot the ‘eat a giant bag of Funyuns’” trick,” one woman wrote, to which Southwest replied, “That’s just evil.” (Funyuns are an onion-flavoured snack available in the US.)

“You forgot the ‘let me unpack my whole carry on in these seats’ troupe,” another commenter said.

“I was on a flight last week and the lady in the row across from me was pretending to throw up in the puke bag during the whole boarding process,” another traveller said.

@southwestair

Don’t think we don’t notice y’all out there trying.

♬ original sound - Southwest Airlines

While Southwest poked fun at the matter, there have been plenty of recent instances where passengers took in-flight behaviour well above cruising altitude.

Earlier this month, on a Southwest flight, a man was filmed with another passenger in a headlock after he allegedly bumped into his wife on a flight from Dallas to Phoenix.

A recent dispute over seating also resulted in a man being tasered on board a Jetstar flight from Perth to Melbourne in Australia.

Last November, an unruly passenger – whose nature of disruption remains undisclosed – also grounded a Southwest flight.

When reached for comment about the new viral video, a rep for Southwest told The Post:

“This TikTok video is meant to bring humour and the over-the-top strategies shown are just to get a laugh. Our flight attendants are experts at hospitality, especially during the boarding process, and one of their favourite tips to offer is checking in 24 hours in advance for the earliest possible position.”

This article originally appeared on New York Post and was reproduced with permission