A flight attendant went viral on TikTok after sharing a storytime about difficult customers she dealt with during a recent shift.
Destanie (@destanieaaa) posted the nearly three-minute clip to her TikTok late last week. As of Sunday morning, her post had amassed over 292,100 views.
The flight attendant began her story by sharing that the flight she worked on was “completely full.” Due to a number of tight connections, however, she said there was a brief period when only about half of the passengers had successfully boarded.
“So, we are waiting on the tight connections before we shut the aircraft door,” Destanie said. She added that her flight had roughly “15 minutes left of boarding.”
And that’s when problems started to emerge.
Destanie said a woman and her daughter “grabbed” her to ask whether the flight would be full. After informing the pair that it would be, Destanie said the two asked to sit in an empty row across from them.
Destanie said that she told them no. But the pair wouldn’t relent.
“I walk away, and then she tells her daughter to move [to the empty row],” Destanie said. The flight attendant clarified, too, that this duo wasn’t the only pair trying to switch seats because they assumed the plane wouldn’t be full.
“Everyone [was] getting comfortable in seats that were not theirs,” she said.
In an attempt to rectify the situation, Destanie said she asked the mom and daughter to move back to their assigned seats. The flight attendant also said she promised them that they could move if the people meant to sit there missed their connecting flight.
Since a number of people were skirting the rules, however, Destanie said she ended up asking a co-worker to make an announcement encouraging people to sit in their assigned seats. This led the flight attendant to express frustration at the audacity of some of the passengers.
“I’m like, guys, please go sit in your own seats until boarding is finished,” Destanie said. “This isn’t Southwest. You can’t just sit wherever you want.”
She ended her video with a rhetorical question to viewers: “Why do people make this job so hard?”
@destanieaaa Meanwhile we’re not being paid for any of this lol
♬ Yacht Club – MusicBox
In the comments, too, viewers expressed disbelief at the passengers’ actions.
“Who tf doesn’t listen to the flight attendant?” one person questioned.
“Why do people just not follow instructions,” another asked.
“It’s wild to not sit in your seat when you board,” a third person wrote. “Like, check the seating chart while you’re waiting to board if you want to know if the seats will be free.”
According to USA Today, there are dangers associated with leaving your assigned seat. On smaller planes in particular, it said, a seat switch can affect the safety of the aircraft. That’s because, before each flight, the crew ensures the plane is properly balanced. Moving seats could shift the plane’s balance in the wrong direction, making it harder to land. The piece also noted that moving seats can be “disruptive” and lead to an “unnecessary face-off between passengers.”
The Daily Dot has reached out to Destanie via TikTok comment.
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