Airline passenger details nightmares of sitting between a couple during a flight

A woman has detailed her nightmare travel experience after sitting between a couple during a flight.

In a viral video shared earlier this week, TikTok user Malia Makaila (@maliamakaila) showed herself sitting between a couple, who had booked an aisle seat and a window seat, during a recent United flight.

“I’m on a flight sitting in a middle seat in economy plus between a husband and wife who bought an aisle and window seat,” Makaila wrote in the video, which has been viewed more than 140,000 times. “They just pass me chips and drinks while they chat, while the guy in front of me pushed his seat so far back that I can’t open my laptop and the wifi doesn’t work.”

Makaila also shared footage of the passenger next to her passing a blue plastic cup to his partner sitting on the opposite side. The woman then handed the blue cup back to her husband, reaching over Makaila's seat once again.

“Now they’re talking about the weather,” she added in the video. “I wonder if there’s such a thing as airplane etiquette because I don’t think they’ve learned it.”

In the comments section, other TikTok users were “furious” at the couple's lack of airplane seat etiquette during the flight. Many people agreed that the couple should have offered up one of their seats so they could sit together and Makaila wouldn't have had to sit in the middle.

“I would have asked them again if they wanted to sit together or stop passing/conversing about me,” one TikTok user commented.

When another viewer asked if she had suggested letting one of them sit in her seat, Makaila revealed that the pair gave her a “flat rejection.”

Others were outraged that passengers decided to pass drinks back and forth to Makaila's seat, where she had her laptop open and placed on the tray table.

“If something happened that could damage that laptop I would be furious,” one TikTok user wrote, while another said: “What if a drink was spilled on your laptop? Absolutely not.”

Some users also shared how they would have handled the situation in Makaila's place, with one TikToker commenting: “I would have asked them, 'I'm sorry, did you want to sit next to each other?' If not, I would have told them it's ridiculous to interact so much and be in my space. Of course not!”

“I’m a wife who buys a window seat for me and an aisle seat for my husband,” another person shared. “If the middle seat is purchased, I never have the person sit between us. I always offer them the window seat.”

This isn’t the first time a TikTok video has sparked a debate about airplane etiquette. In May, user Alex Bennett (@justalexbennett) went viral when she recalled “unusual airplane behavior” she witnessed on a recent flight. In the video, Bennett said she saw a father ask a fellow passenger to switch seats with him so he could sit with his two children. However, the father wasn’t entirely honest about which seat he would give the man.

“I witnessed the most unusual airplane behavior on the way here,” Bennett began on TikTok. She explained that she was sitting behind a man in the aisle seat when a father approached the man with his two children and asked if he could take her seat.

“He says, 'Hey, my kids have… [the] medium and window [seats] “And I've got this hallway across the hall. Would you mind switching aisles with me?” Bennett recalled.

When the man asked the father if he would trade the aisle seat he had purchased for another aisle seat in front of them, the TikToker claimed the father hesitated before giving an answer.

“The father pauses and says, ‘In the middle or in the hallway? Yes, in the hallway,’” he shared.

The man, who she said was “a big, older guy,” ended up trading aisle seats with the father so he could sit next to his children, before another woman approached the man and informed him that he was now sitting in her seat. “She said, ‘Hey, I’m the aisle seat here.’ And he said, ‘Oh, I switched with that guy. He said he was the aisle seat,’” Bennett explained.

However, at that point, the father who had asked to change seats refused to look up from his phone during the debacle. “The father was sitting in the middle seat and I think he knew,” Bennett said. However, the man “couldn’t have been nicer” and got up from his seat once again to move to the middle seat in the row.

“I totally understand a father wanting to sit with his kids, no doubt. But I think you have to say to the man, ‘I’m in the middle. I need a solid spot here because I need to sit with my kids. ’ But you can’t say you’re in the aisle and then the girl tells him that,” Bennett said.

She wrote about the viral clip, “Airplane etiquette: changing seats” and captioned the post: “Airplane etiquette is insane.”