The new trend has not gone down well with many travellers
People who travel internationally are up in arms over a new trend known as “seat squatting”. The craze sees passengers take seats that have not been assigned to them, often ignoring cabin crew, and not waiting until boarding has finished.
Shannon Ella, a content creator, vented her frustration in a viral rant on TikTok, after another passenger took her seat and outright refused to move. She asked her audience: “Is that a thing that people are doing on planes now? They just sit in your seat and just go like, ‘No, it’s mine, I sat there first so minesies?'”
It doesn’t seem to have been an isolated incident either, with numerous TikTokers recounting similar tales of seat poaching. In one instance, a mum was travelling with her two young children and faced a squatter in their seats.
Without hesitation, she handed over the kids to the person – and they quickly moved. Thankfully, cabin crews have stepped in to rectify these situations.
Olivia, a flight attendant, said: “I’m a flight attendant and once a passenger says someone is in my seat, I 100 percent make them move to their assigned seat.” Reddit forums are full of tales of “seat squatters” causing chaos on flights.
One user said they had witnessed three separate incidents, saying: “First was a guy that was supposed to be in 28C who was all the way up in 12B and was trying to argue it was his seat,” and “The next was a lady in 18A who was being adamant with the seat holder that she needed to be by the window and not in the middle”, reports Wales Online.
They continued: “The next was a couple that was supposed to be in 24C and D and decided to camp out and plant their flag in 24A and B.”
