19-05-2025
Seat squatter's appalling behavior after being ordered out of business class and back into economy
Air travel has become increasingly frustrating - with many passengers complaining about 'seat squatters' who steal their assigned seats and refuse to move out of them.
Stories from passengers have gone viral online, sparking a debate over when travelers should give up their seats.
Donna Casey purchased a $4,300 Hawaiian Airlines business class ticket for her trip to Honolulu, but when she boarded her flight and approached seat 3C, she discovered someone in her spot.
'I told her nicely, "I think you're in my seat," and she just stared at me,' Casey told The Boston Globe.
'I said it again, and she said, "There are plenty of seats in this section, maybe try another one." I was like, "Is she for real?"'
Casey called over the flight attendant, who asked to see their boarding passes. When the seat squatter showed hers, it revealed that her pass was for 39C.
'What was strange is that this woman never apologized and looked angry that I wanted the seat I had paid for,' Casey said
'She even took my amenities bag with her when she huffed off to the back of the plane.'
The seat squatter had a ticket for a spot in the back of the plane and fumed off from business class (pictured) with Casey's amenity bag when a flight attendant made her move
Etiquette expert Nick Leighton told the outlet he recently had to deal with a seat squatter on a flight from New York to the West Coast.
'A gentleman was in my seat, and he said, "Oh, do you prefer the aisle?" And I said, yes. And we just left it at that. It was not a negotiation,' Leighton said.
'I think he was hoping there would be more conversation. But I do prefer the aisle. That is why I booked it, and there was really no conversation to be had. I was direct and polite.'
Leighton said having good etiquette and being polite does not require you to give up your seat.
'There is a decision that has to be made. We are going to be with this person for the journey. That could be hours and hours. So the etiquette calculation is slightly different because we have to now live with the etiquette consequences,' he said.
'But etiquette does not require you to be a pushover. Etiquette does not require your boundaries to be crossed. It is possible to set boundaries and be polite at the same time.'
Jeniffer Castro, 29, was publicly berated by a furious mom after refusing to swap seats with her toddler.
She was filmed calmly ignoring the angry mother's request after she boarded the GOL Airlines domestic flight in Brazil in December.
When she boarded the plane, Castro found a toddler sitting in her window seat, and asked him to move, which caused the tot to start crying.
'A guy across the aisle said "Change with him, you sit next to the aisle and he'll have your place,"' she said. 'I said "no."'
After refusing, the boy cried for the rest of the entire 50-minute flight from Rio de Janeiro to Belo Horizonte and the mother pulled out her phone and started filming.
In the video, the annoyed mom asked her why she didn't want to change seats.
'I even asked if she had some kind of syndrome or something,' she taunted. 'If someone has a problem, some disability, we understand.
'I'm recording your face, this is disgusting. It's the 21st century and people have no empathy for children.'
Despite the criticism, Castor didn't respond to the fuming mother and only asked if she was being filmed.
On a recent episode of the Cola Mais Podcast, Castro revealed that she's now considering taking legal action after the video went viral.
One Delta seat squatter tried to trade his window seat for another to avoid being hemmed in beside a huge middle seat flier with a 'linebacker build.'
A user on Reddit shared an infuriating experience flying on the airline after they boarded to find a man sitting in their window seat they'd reserved especially, only for him to gesture that they sit in his window seat across the aisle.
The gentleman who had commandeered the user's seat motioned toward the opposite side of the plane to the window seat across the aisle and said, 'Take that one.'
As they turned to look across the plane to where the man gestured, the user noticed a 'rather large linebacker-built' man sitting in the middle seat.
Tammy Nelson, the CEO of global jewelry brand CONQUERing, refused to give up her window seat to a mom who wanted to sit next to her two kids.
Nelson, who had only 90 minutes of sleep the night before and had to prepare a presentation to 500 people when she landed, booked a window seat on purpose.
She said she arrived at her row to find the unidentified mom in the window seat. On being told the seat was reserved, the mom said she wanted to sit next to her children, who Nelson estimated were aged 11 and 15.
The mom offered to swap her seat with Nelson, but Nelson refused on discovering she was being offered a dreaded middle seat in another row.
Nelson said the mom seethed on being refused and muttered angrily about the rejection for the remainder of the flight.
