Man intimidates girl into taking the middle seat on Salt Lake City-to-New York flight. Then he talks to son in window the whole time

While not written in stone, there are some things air passengers would consider “airplane etiquette.” Things like not playing music or videos without headphones, not reclining your seat all the way without checking first, and more.

One woman on TikTok says there are passengers who go above and beyond to break them, as shown by something that happened to her two years prior.

Woman shares ‘traumatizing' airplane experience

TikTok creator Miami (@miamikunis11) had seen a video of someone discussing flying or airplane etiquette on TikTok, of which there are many. It made her think of an example she called “traumatizing.”

Her video got over 13,500 views.

“It's like, two years ago, but it's ingrained in my memory forever,” she says. “I'm alone from Salt Lake City, Utah, to Newark, New Jersey.”

Miami says her dad booked the ticket, and she specifically asked him for a window seat. When she got there, however, someone else was already sitting in it.

“I get on the plane, and I go to my window seat, and there's this, teenage boy in my seat,” she says. “And I'm like, ‘Hi, sorry, I think you're in my seat.'”

His father was in the aisle seat, leaving the middle open between them.

“The dad speaks up, and he's like, ‘I told him he can sit there,'” Miami recalls. “I'm like, OK, but… this is a seat that I purchased.”

She says the father then got louder.

“He's like, ‘You're gonna make him get up and move? He already has his stuff under the seat. He's already comfortable in the seat. Can we just move around?'” she says.

Miami says she was tired, anxious, and didn't want to cause a scene, so she agreed.

She thought the father would move into the middle so she could take his aisle seat.

That didn't happen.

“I'm like, ‘OK… I'll sit in the aisle,'” she says. “And he's like, ‘No, but I'm already situated in the aisle.'”

The father then told her to take the middle.

“He's like, ‘Can you just sit in the middle?' And he says it loudly,” Miami recounts. “So I just sit in the middle. And then I'm like, ‘Oh my god, why did I just agree to do that?'”

The father and son talked across her

Miami says the flight went fine for about 30 minutes.

Then the father and son started talking across her and passing things back and forth.

“The dad had bought, a hamburger at the airport and passed an entire hamburger over my head to his son,” she says. “They're never saying, ‘Excuse me,' ‘Sorry,' any of that.”

They kept doing it throughout the flight.

“Just… passing food around and talking the entire time,” she says. “It's like, why would you just not sit together? I'm so confused.”

About an hour before landing, another problem came up. Miami says a child sitting behind her got sick.

She has emetophobia, an intense fear of vomiting, and says the incident made her panic.

“I freak out, and I'm like, ‘Excuse me,' 'cause I'm gonna go to the bathroom so I can, calm myself,” she says.

She says the father wasn't happy about having to move.

“The dad's like, ‘Oh my god,'” she says. “He's upset that I have to get over him to get to the bathroom.”

As she got up, Miami says she heard another comment.

“The dad's like, ‘She's so annoying,'” she says. “I've literally bent over backwards in between you two, which is so weird to begin with.”

A flight attendant finally moved her

Miami decided to explain the situation to a flight attendant.

“I was supposed to have the window and then the aisle, and I'm in the middle of these two family members, and it's just really uncomfortable,” she recalls telling him.

She also explained what happened with the passenger behind her and that she was struggling with her phobia.

The flight attendant helped her.

“He was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry,'” Miami says. “I'll always remember him. He was great.”

Miami says the crew first let her sit near the front where flight attendants sit.

Then they found her another seat for landing.

“For landing, they put me in first class,” she says. “And I was like, OK, thank you.”

She ended the story with one request.

“Please do bring back airplane etiquette,” she says. “You really shouldn't be asking for someone else's seat that they paid for in the first place.”

If someone does ask, Miami says they should at least think about the person they're asking to move.

“Don't put a stranger in between two family members,” she says. “Especially if you're gonna be passing things to each other and talking the whole time. It's just very awkward. Don't do that.”

Viewers were angry for her

In the comments, viewers said Miami had been too accommodating to the father and son.

“I would've wacked that hamburger away… but I'm sorry you were bullied into changing seats. Dont be afraid to speak up and call for help from a flight attendant,” one commenter wrote.

“You are too nice because I would make a scene,” another said.

“I'm actually angry listening to this. you're better than me,” a third wrote.

Miami later added more context in the comments.

“I'd like to add – he didn't really ‘ask' if we could all switch he just told me he decided that I now have to sit in the middle. Mind you this was a man I had never met before,” she wrote.

How to stand up for yourself during airplane seat swap requests

If someone asks you to swap seats, you don't have to agree. Both flight attendants and airlines like Delta have previously said that seat swaps should be mutually agreed upon by passengers.

If someone has taken your assigned seat and refuses to move, get a flight attendant and explain the situation. If the passenger refuses to comply and causes a scene, that may be grounds for removing them from the flight altogether.

@miamikunis11

Subplot News has reached out to Miami via TikTok messages for comment.

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