Plane Passenger Calls Out 'Seat Stealer' for Trying to Sit in 8D, Sends Them Back to Row 35: 'Small Victories’

Mar. 15, 2025

Airplane seats (stock image).Photo:Getty

Getty

A frequent flier is recounting how they shut down a “seat stealer” on their flight.

“Always trying to take seats that are not theirs, holding up boarding or just being plain rude,” they wrote, before sharing a recent encounter with one such seat taker.

“She got all comfy in seat 8D with her mom I guess, so you would have thought it was her seat. Well lo and behold, the right seat owner comes up and of course says, excuse me, but you’re in my seat,” recalled the passenger, who was sitting in seat 8C at the time.

Airplane seats (stock image).Getty

The passenger wrote that the seat stealer then “got embarrassed as everyone started laughing at her” and the person in 8D said “no” to giving up their seat.

“So seat stealer had to get up and head to the back, glaring at me as she did so. As she glared, I told her, ‘You can glare at me all you want, but [you’re] still going back to 35B!’ ” the passenger continued, adding, “Felt good to put seat stealer in her place. Small victories matter!”

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“I am proud of you for speaking up!” one Redditor wrote. “People like you who put entitled people in their place, is what the world needs more of.”

Someone else chimed in: “Not all heroes wear capes. Thanks for doing the work you do!”

Another person, who said they work as a flight attendant, added: “I LOVE kicking seat thieves back to their spot. It’s a guilty pleasure of mine.”

One commenter argued that airline companies need to be more proactive with policies designed to prevent such behavior with seat changes.

“This is happening so frequently now that airlines should be addressing it up front,” they wrote. “Whether through public service announcements or printing it on the ticket…but the rule should be you sit in the seat that your boarding pass shows. They used to enforce that so if there was an incident they could identify people…but now in the age of flying being comparable to riding a transit bus, the rules diminish and chaos ensues.”

Another person added: “I wish airlines would quit nickel-and-diming us for things like seats — and then this wouldn’t be such a common occurrence.”

source: people.com