Flight attendant shades rival when passengers sit in wrong seats: ‘This isn’t Southwest’
She wasn’t a fan of them treating the plane like a subway in the sky.
Another day, another game of musical chairs at 30,000 feet. This time, a fed-up flight attendant at an unspecified airline grew exasperated after unruly passengers allegedly started switching seats before flyers had finished boarding.
“Why do people make this job so hard?” irritated crew member Destanie Armstrong detailed in last week’s clip, which has since been deleted but boasted over 345,500 views on TikTok.
The air hostess, who frequently shares stories from her gig, said the fiasco occurred while she was working an unspecified night flight in the Midwest.
She said the plane was “completely full,” but only half the flyers had boarded because everyone had “tight connections,” requiring the crew to wait on the delayed passengers before shutting the door.
Things went south after several opportunistic flyers decided to sit in vacant seats like it was a bus.
“This woman says, ‘Is this flight going to be full?’ I say, ‘Yeah, for the most part. There might be a couple middle seats available,'” Armstrong described. “And then she points at the empty row across and goes, ‘Oh, ’cause we want to move there.’”
The flight attendant said she informed the passenger that the seats were taken, only for the unidentified woman to tell her daughter to occupy them anyway after Armstrong had walked away.
When she confronted them over their seat-jacking, the daughter reportedly shot her a dirty look.
Shortly thereafter, the flight turned into a free-for-all as other passengers followed suit.
Armstrong said that passengers started “getting comfortable in seats that weren’t theirs,” causing flyers arriving from a late connection to ask crew members why someone was sitting in their seat.
At this point, the fed-up flight attendant ripped into the unruly flyers.
“I’m like, ‘Guys, please go sit in your own seat until boarding is finished,” Armstrong declared. “This isn’t Southwest … You can’t just sit wherever you want. You sit in your assigned seat and then after if you want to move, ask the flight attendant.”
She was referring to the budget carrier’s policy of allowing passengers to choose any available seats when they board.
The TikTok commentariat was on board with Armstrong’s tirade.
“Why do people just not follow instructions,” wondered one commenter, while another wrote, “Who tf doesn’t listen to the flight attendant?”
“They made that announcement on my flight the other day, and all I could think was, WHO IS JUST SITTING WHEREVER THEY WANT?!'” emphasized a third.
Armstrong replied, “A LOT OF PEOPLE.”
This isn’t the first time someone has tried to angle for a better sky chair on Armstrong’s flight.
In November, Armstrong described how passengers tried hitting on her in a ham-handed attempt to schmooze their way into first class.