Woman Refused To Switch Plane Seats To Let Mother Sit Next To Children, Internet Divided

A woman has gone viral on the internet after she refused to give up her plane seat so that a mother could sit with her children, as per a report in the Independent. Her video, posted on TikTok, has divided the internet with a section of people supporting her while others are questioning her empathy. The incident unfolded when a woman asked Tammy Nelson, CEO of the international jewellery company CONQUERing, to move seats so she could sit next to her two children on a Delta flight trip from Ohio to California in the United States. According to Ms Nelson's TikTok video, the other woman was already seated in her window seat.

"I double-checked my boarding pass thinking I may have had the wrong row," she told Newsweek. She continued telling the outlet, "When I confirmed I was looking at the correct seat, I thought she must have just mistakenly sat in the wrong seat. So I said, 'I'm sorry but it seems you're in my seat,' thinking she would realise it and move."

However, as per Ms Nelson, the woman appeared "shocked" and asked if she wanted to sit on that seat. Ms Nelson told the outlet, "I was pretty surprised at the question but replied simply saying, 'Yes, that's the seat I selected.'" The woman then stated that she was travelling with her two children who were sitting in the seats next to her window seat. "Oh well I just thought we could switch since these are my kids" she told Ms Nelson. The CEO of the jewellery brand said that she understood "as a mom" even though she didn't "love that idea". She agreed to move to the woman's seat "as long as it's a window seat."

Ms Nelson later found that it was a middle seat and had to decline her request as she gets "motion sickness during takeoff and landing if I can't see out the window". 

"I also don't get a lot of sleep. I often try to get a little sleep on planes which is easiest with a window seat. On that particular day, I only had 90 minutes of sleep the night before. And I was headed into a high-pressure work week where I would be presenting to 500 people and really needed to be at my very best so getting a little sleep on that flight was extra-important," she told Newsweek. 

She claimed that her mother became "super annoyed" and eventually sat back down. She was sitting close to her children but continued to spend "at least 15 minutes" complaining about the incident to a fellow passenger. "The person she was complaining to very nicely said she could understand why she would want to sit together but added that, when in that situation, she always planned ahead to ensure her family was together by talking with the airline in advance or talking to the gate agent," Ms Nelson said.

"As the woman kept complaining, the stranger also added that it wasn't really reasonable to ask someone to switch seats when, oftentimes, those seats were selected way in advance and, many times, the person even has paid extra for their selected seat," she continued. 

Her video amassed a lot of reaction from internet users. "People should book seats together if they want to sit together," a user said. "Nope. If it's not an upgrade it's a sacrifice," said another.

"I think you're rude. Lol like what if it was your kids? Put yourself in someone else's shoes?" a TikTok user said

"Nah, sounds like you're looking for attention. I guess it's the good mom in me that would happily make the switch for the kids' sake," another user commented.

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