A user on TikTok has sparked discussion after sharing a story of travel planning gone awry.
In a video with over 752,000 views, TikTok user Kiran (@venttokiran) shows herself sitting on a seat in an airplane. The camera pans over to some other passengers, then returns to Kiran in her seat.
“My man and I bought seats together but a mom asked the flight Attendant to switch our seats so she could be closer to her kid so the flight attendant Switched us without asking,” she writes in the text overlaying the video. “So Now we’re sitting apart Because they refused to speak To us When we asked what happened.”
In a follow-up video, Kiran says there was already one parent seated with the children and that her seat was taken by “another parent that wanted to be near the rest of their family.”
Kiran says she’s “not mad at the parent.”
“It’s not their fault. I get it, you want to sit with your family, sure,” she explains. “The issue is with nobody asking me if I wanted to or not, and I paid for that seat. I paid to be seated with my fiancé!”
In the caption of the original video, Kiran states, “Unpopular opinion: if you want to be seated together you should buy seats together.”
As one user noted, however, this issue may not be the airline’s fault.
“Dept of transportation fines the airlines if a child is not close or sitting by parent,” detailed a commenter. “Take it up w/ the US gov not the f/a.”
While whether an airline will be fined is unclear, it is true that the Department of Transportation has recently put in place efforts to ensure parents are seated with their children.
“A parent who purchases airline tickets for a family should receive a guarantee from the airline that it will seat the parent and child together without fees or a last-minute scramble at the gate or having to ask other passengers to give up their seat to allow the parent and child to sit together,” reads a post on the Department of Transportation’s website.
That said, several users agreed with Kiran’s assessment.
“I absolutely refuse to move seats. It’s 2023, y’all know how this works. If you want a seat so bad, then book it,” declared a user.
“Waiting for the day they do this to me so I can look them in the eye and say ‘no,’” added another.
@venttokiran Unpopular opinion: if you want to be seated together you should buy seats together #travel #couple #vacation #flightattendant #flightattendants #airplane #plane #unpopularopinion #hottake #fly ♬ Surround Sound – JID
Others told similar travel stories.
“A lady and her ~ADULT~ son asked a flight attendant to convince my husband and I to give up our seats after we had said no to them,” said a commenter. “Her son then proceeded to turn around and periodically mean mug us throughout the flight after telling us that he hopes we’re happy for separating a family… like what!?!”
“Happened to me too. Complained to the airline and gave us a $200 credit,” offered a second.
“This happened to me too, except I got separated from my one year old in first class,” shared a third. “I told the person she got placed next to that she was welcomed to take care of her for the flight… you betcha they acommodated us quickly.”
The Daily Dot reached out to Kiran via email.
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Source: https://www.dailydot.com/news/passenger-forced-to-switch-seats-after-paying/