Photo: TikTok
An innocent gesture almost landed her in jail!
By Taylor Haynes — Written on Jan 17, 2023
“Do you think it’s a big deal if someone is sitting in your seat on an airplane?” asks a TikToker whose wild airplane encounter is enough to scare anyone into sticking to the seat on their ticket.
“Flying on an airplane is like elementary school where you have assigned seats in the classroom. Very important,” continues the user, @not.cristinayang.
The TikToker ended up seating in the seat of a wanted criminal.
“Long time ago, I was flying for business and there was a guy in my seat,” she begins.
“I was like ‘hey, I think I have that seat.’ and we was like ‘oh yeah, you know, I actually have the window seat on the other side of the aisle.’”
Then he suggested that they could switch seats since it would be a “window for window.”
She was skeptical: “In case there’s an airplane crash and then they need to identify the bodies, my body needs to be in the proper seat”.
He made her feel like she was being silly by asking her what the “big deal” is, and suggested that she should sit down.
“This was 10 years ago, it was a fully booked flight, and there happened to be a flight attendant nearby and I asked them,” she explains,
The flight attendant assured her that it was alright that they switch seats, that it was “not a big deal.”
“Wrong. I’m not really in the mood to make a big stink. I’m also really young at that point,” said the TikTok user.
So because of these factors, she convinced herself that the seats were the same.
The plane lands, and the police arrive on board, where they almost mistake her for the person they were looking for.
“So we arrive at our destination and we get to the gate and all of a sudden the pilot gets on the loudspeaker,” said Cristina.
“He says ‘ladies and gentlemen, please remain seated. The authorities are going to meet us on board”.
“And of course, the cops came back and looked right at me. They looked at me and they were a little confused, and they said this dude’s name,” she continued.
“I was like ‘Nope, he’s over there.’”
“I don’t know what that guy did, but if the authorities are meeting you on the plane to arrest you, not great”.
“Also, I don’t wanna be arrested, no thanks.”
Many online users decided to point out the cons of switching seats with someone on a plane.
“A window seat on the other side of the plane has a completely different exposure to the sun. It makes a difference when I select a seat,” wrote one user.
Another wrote, “United has contactless payment now. I swapped with someone. They tried to charge drinks to my seat.”
“I read a malicious compliance Reddit post, a man took the guys' window seat. He ended up getting his 10k mile goody bag and complimentary drink!” wrote a third.
Taylor Haynes is a writer based in Chicago. She covers entertainment, news and human interest stories at YourTango. You can find her on Instagram here.