Woman Ignites Major Debate After Refusing To Swap Plane Seat With Mom Traveling With Son

TikTok user Surya turned to the public for opinions after refusing to swap seats with a family.

A TikTok user and plane passenger has kicked off an online debate by sharing her decision not to give up her seat for a mom traveling with her son.

As soon as you hear about this, you can probably picture the scene: a woman sitting comfortably in her assigned seat, just starting to settle in for the flight.

Then, along comes a frazzled mom looking for help, asking if she would be willing to switch seats so she can sit next to her child.

In this case, though, the mom and her son weren’t seated together for some reason, so she asked the woman to change seats to make it work.

Sure, the mom could have taken steps earlier to make sure she and her son were seated together, but it’s not an unreasonable request, right?

But what if the child in question wasn’t a toddler or young kid at all?

In her TikTok video, Surya Garg, the passenger, asked viewers to weigh in with their opinions.

She explained that she’d generally be okay with giving up her seat if a family with young children approached her.

Surya encountered the passengers once she was already seatedGetty Stock Photo

“I remember people giving up their seats for me and my brother when I was younger so we could be next to our parents, I get it,” she said.

However, Surya then added more details about the situation: “Tonight, I not only got asked to give up my window seat, so that I could sit in a middle seat, but the quote-unquote family that asked me to do this was a mother and her son – her son had to be a minimum of like 16 or 17 years old.”

“This mans was 6’4″, talking on the phone to his girlfriend the entire time we were boarding.”

Surya claimed the son was at least 16TikTok/@surya_garg

Since Surya was already seated, she decided to politely refuse the mom’s request, explaining that she had paid extra for the seat she was in.

Apparently, the mom didn’t take this response well, as Surya described: “This woman makes the nastiest face at me I’ve ever experienced, sits down next to me in the middle seat [and] her son goes back to the middle seat he was assigned to.”

According to Surya, the mom then spent the entire flight “muttering profanities” at her, making the situation even more uncomfortable.

“Was I in the wrong here?” Surya asked her viewers.

Many people quickly jumped into the comments to give their thoughts, with a lot of them agreeing with Surya’s decision.

One viewer shared their support, writing: “You are not wrong! And I’m a mom but of littles. We always plan and pay the extra to sit together however…”

“People should just buy their seats! Not giving up my window — that I paid for — for a middle seat!,” another viewer added.

However, some people sympathized with the mom in this situation, with one commenter saying they would give up their seat “100% of the time.”

“As a parent we only have a solid 18 years before they go out on there [sic] own […],” they added.

One person also suggested there might have been other factors at play, saying: “l understand, sometimes though people have non-visible disabilities like my adult son, so in that case that would have been really helpful.”

Surya’s video has now gained over 1.5 million views, continuing to stir up plenty of conversation.