Travel
She didn’t appreciate her neighbor’s in-flight window shopping trip.
A passenger experienced every window seater’s worst nightmare after her neighbor invaded her space so he could take photos of outside the airplane.
A video of the egregious in-flight encroachment has amassed over 4.5 million views on TikTok.
“Do people not know personal space? And that you can choose a window seat?” griped user @sterlingsavannah in the on-screen text to the clip, which was surreptitiously taken from a phone on her lap.
Accompanying footage shows her sitting uncomfortably by the window as an older gentleman in the middle seat repeatedly reaches past her face so he can snap photos of the view outside with his phone.
As she apparently didn’t want to confront the space invader, the flyer said that her “only option was to stare out the window.”
The TikTok commentariat sympathized with her plight, although many wondered why she didn’t broach the issue with him.
“It’s very important to be able to advocate for ourselves when someone is making us uncomfortable,” declared one viewer.
Another advised, “That’s when you ask, ‘Can I take the photo for you instead of you reaching into my personal space?’”
“Another option is to look him in the eyes and let him know he is making you uncomfortable. Try it. It’s liberating to stand up for yourself,” wrote a third.
Others suggested that she simply shut the window shade.
Unfortunately, handling space invaders can be trickier than armchair travel experts make it out to be, especially given the seemingly increasing number of cretins in the friendly skies.
The travel experts at the flight blog “A View From The Wing” suggest trying to “start a polite” conversation with the person before listing your concern (figuratively adding a spoonful of sugar to make the medicine go down easier).
Or, if a passenger is shy — as appeared to be the case with the aforementioned flyer — they should scan their section for an empty seat, per the blog.
If one is available, the passenger should then discreetly ask the flight attendant if they can move.
Enlisting a flight attendant to reprimand the personal bubble popper, on the other hand, should be a last resort, AVFTW states.
“A flight attendant isn’t going to stay by your seat through the flight to monitor your seatmate’s behavior,” they write. “But if the person is clearly abusive, getting it on record with the crew can be a prophylactic measure.”
Unfortunately, flights have become a veritable festival of space invasions of late.
Earlier this month, a female passenger filmed the moment that a “manspreader” epically encroached on her space by separating his legs so that one of them stretched across the aisle into her seat area.
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