Air travellers have been alerted to a growing “seat squatting” trend. In this trend, people occupy empty seats without consulting flight attendants or waiting for boarding to complete, hoping that displaced passengers won’t complain.
Influencer Shannon Ella shared a TikTok video, viewed over 212,000 times, describing her flying ordeal where a man took her seat and refused to move, expecting her to let him have it. The video sparked numerous comments from others who’ve encountered similar situations.
One passenger recounted handing her two young children to a woman occupying her seat, prompting the squatter to find her correct seat swiftly. Flight attendant Olivia stated on TikTok: “I’m a flight attendant and once a passenger says someone is in my seat, I 100 per cent make them move to their assigned seat.”
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Online forums were flooded with similar stories, including one from a traveller who witnessed three “seat squatters” on a single flight, with one brazenly claiming a seat far from his assigned place.
The aggrieved flyer continued: “The next was a lady in 18A who was being adamant with the seat holder that she needed to be by the window and not in the middle.
“The next was a couple that was supposed to be in 24C and D and decided to camp out and plant their flag in 24A and B.”
Suggestions on how to resolve such issues did not include backing down, with some advocating for making back some money by selling them the seat, but many supported kicking “seat squatters” off the plane entirely.