Plane Passenger Says Fellow Traveler Stole Her Seat Then Gave Her a ‘Blank’ Stare When Presented with Proof

A plane passenger is calling out the bizarre behavior of her fellow passenger — a stoic seat stealer who refused to move.

The traveler says she was faced with the ordeal when she first boarded her recent flight to find that another woman was already “sitting in my seat,” according to her Reddit post shared in the Solo Female Travel subreddit. 

Once she saw the woman, she quickly stepped out of the aisle and into the row in front of her to confront the situation.

“I asked her, 'Are you sitting in 27D?'” explains the Reddit user. “She’s like, ‘yeah’ and I hold up my boarding pass saying that’s my seat. She looks at me blankly and was like, ‘okay.’

The other woman made no move to relocate, the redditer says, instead just staring at her, expressionless, even after she reiterated that it was her seat.

"At this point I’m getting annoyed and confused — and she continues to look right past me, not moving," she recalls.

The seat stealer finally made a suggestion of her own; "She said, 'Well do you just want to sit where you are and wait to see if it’s someone else’s seat?’ Like lady, no, I want to sit in my assigned seat that I chose ahead of time.”

The traveler says that the situation was finally resolved only after more passengers filed into the aircraft.

“A guy comes and takes the seat I was in, then she finally moves into the middle seat that’s hers and makes some snide comment like, ‘guess we weren’t lucky.’ What do you mean WE? Don’t sit in someone’s seat and hope they find another.”

The poster concluded, “I don’t get people. It’s one thing to sit in someone’s seat and another to catch an attitude when called out.” 

In the comments section, users offered their opinions to the OP (original poster), with many saying that she should have taken a firmer stance sooner in the situation. 

“Based solely on what you’ve written, there is room for you to be more assertive,” one person wrote.

Another added, “I personally would have said, 'I’m in that seat,' and stood there until she got up, even if it meant holding up the other passengers (which SHE was the cause of). I would not back down or make any other moves until a flight attendant came over.” 

Echoing the other comments, one user advised, “Call the flight attendant immediately. I don't put up with that petty BS.”

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PEOPLE previously spoke to travel expert, writer and advisor Nicole Campoy Jackson of Fora Travel about seat switching etiquette on a plane. 

Jackson explained that any in-flight tiffs should be handled by flight attendants as they’re trained to confront passengers about this. 

“I am always in the camp of getting a flight attendant involved for sticky in-flight situations,” Jackson said. “Tensions run high when we're traveling plus they would know, for example, if there was another aisle seat or another solution to this problem. They have more context than we, the passengers, do.”

She added, "Generally speaking, don’t board a plane expecting passengers to shift for you, especially if your seat is not as comfortable as (or more than) theirs."