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Plane passenger stands up to 'rude' traveler who wanted to swap row 26 seat mid-flight

Home> News> Travel

Published 15:08 18 Apr 2024 GMT+1

Plane passenger stands up to 'rude' traveler who wanted to swap row 26 seat mid-flight

The woman recalled the ordeal on TikTok, with her video quickly going viral

Niamh Shackleton

Niamh Shackleton

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Featured Image Credit: TikTok/@not.cristinayang/ Alex Walker/Getty Images

Topics: Travel, TikTok, Viral

Niamh Shackleton
Niamh Shackleton

Niamh Shackleton is an experienced journalist for UNILAD, specialising in topics including mental health and showbiz, as well as anything Henry Cavill and cat related. She has previously worked for OK! Magazine, Caters and Kennedy.

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A woman refused to let another passenger take advantage of the person she was sat next to and went on to be applauded for helping her.

Sitting with your friends and family on a long haul flight is a must for many - something which many airlines will charge you for.

And one passenger on TikToker Cristina's flight tried to get another woman to move so that she could sit with her friend on a flight from Hawaii to Seattle.

Usually this wouldn't be that big of a deal, but the woman was requesting that she moved up to premium economy to be with her pal, while the other solo flyer would take her seat at the back of plane.

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A fair deal? Hardly.

Seeing this injustice unfolding in front of her, Cristina stepped in.

She explained in her now-viral TikTok video: "We’re in premium economy. We’re like in row eight with all the unlimited drinks and snacks. So the lady next to me is like, 'Oh you know we switch seats? Um, OK, right.'

"And so she starts getting up and I’m like, no!"

Noting that she was Chinese and that the lady next to her was Japanese, the pair used their Asian ethnicities to their advantage and pretended that they were travelling together.

Cristina went on: "I was like, 'Except for the fact that we are traveling together. Hello? We’re both Asian, of course, we know each other. And 26 is not premium economy... it’s like you can smell the toilet back there.

"The little Asian lady next to me is like half like standing up and… she looks over at me and I go, 'Sit down, Connie!'"

Cristina managed to help her neighbour on the flight. (TikTok / not.cristinalang)
Cristina managed to help her neighbour on the flight. (TikTok / not.cristinalang)

However, the person asking was not convinced that the pair were actually travelling together. So, Cristina employed a trick and spoke to the woman next to her in Cantonese, assuming that as the person asking was not Asian, she wouldn't know the difference.

She said: "I look over at the Asian lady next to me and I start speaking to her in Cantonese, which is totally the wrong language for her, but this lady [in 26] is not Asian, so she’s not gonna know the difference."

It seems that her companion immediately caught on. She said: "The Asian lady looks at me and she’s like yeah, and then she responds to me in Japanese. And I’m like, 'Mmhmm, that’s right.'"

She and her neighbour spoke in different Asian languages. (TikTok / not.cristinalang)
She and her neighbour spoke in different Asian languages. (TikTok / not.cristinalang)

The trick actually worked as the lady eventually returned to her seat.

Cristina finished off her video saying that if they had wanted to sit together they should have booked seats next to each other, 'not 20 rows behind'.

Fellow TikTokers were quick to praise Cristina for her heroic deed, hailing her as 'awesome'.

In a world of people like the woman in row 26, be more Cristina-like.

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