An American Airlines passenger endured a classic flight nightmare after the woman in the seat next to him got way too comfortable. In a viral Threads post, he revealed a photo of a pair of bare feet right next to his cramped legs after his neighbor took her shoes and socks off midair.
The OP learned a few things from the attention, including how divided people are on feet.
A seat swap gone wrong
On Saturday, American Airlines customer Jeff Olson (@jeffolson12) posted on Threads about his harrowing Friday flight. It seems that Olson, like many, is not a fan of other people’s feet.
“Yesterday on an @americanair flight from Chicago to Los Angeles, my seatmate took off her shoes and socks and then put her bare feet on the seat next to me,” he said. “Nearly an inch away from me.”
“I’m not big on confrontation, but I seriously had to ask myself why some people think this is okay.”
The photo is angled in such a way that it looks like the bottom of one of her feet could actually be touching him. Thankfully, he didn’t spend the whole flight like this, but was still horrified by what happened.
“I gave her a look and about 10 minutes later she put her feet back on the floor, but still… absolutely wild behavior… straight to jail!!”
“What would you have done???” he asked.
Speaking with Newsweek, Olson revealed that he could have avoided the situation if he had refused to switch seats when asked. Sometimes good deeds do not go unpunished.
“I assumed the change was so a family could sit together,” he said.
He also added that the woman moved her feet away slightly right after he gave her the look, so she probably knew she was causing him discomfort.
“Straight to jail for you too!”
A lot of people responded to Olson’s question by saying they would have told her off or even called a flight attendant. It got to the point that he added a follow-up post explaining why he didn’t make a fuss.
This included the fact that “this was the beginning of the FULL flight and i was still going to have to sit next to her for the next 4+ hours.”
As for calling a flight attendant, he asked what this would accomplish other than to “delay the flight and cause a scene.”
He also had a response for those taking the side of his barefoot neighbor—”straight to jail for you too!”
In the comments, other Threads users shared similar trials.
“A couple of years on southwest I was in the Emergency row and this is what was in front of me,” wrote @srismf over a photo of bare feet crossing the seat barrier.
“Several years ago, I decided to upgrade my seat to first class on a trip from Seattle to Atlanta and this was my experience,” said @veronica.harris.393 with two photos of airborne feet.
The next day, Olson shared another unwanted lesson from his original post—”there are MANY men who have a creepy foot fetish.”
The Daily Dot has reached out to @jeffolson12 for comment via Threads.
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