Mother praised for ‘win-win’ way she asked to switch seats on plane

A mother has been praised for the way she asked someone on a plane to switch seats, since the swap was a “win-win” deal for both her and the other passenger.

In a video shared to TikTok last month, Anna, @annalyncook, documented how she asked someone to switch seats on a plane so her family of four could be seated together.

“When we booked this flight, it wouldn’t let us select our seats for some reason so our family wasn’t sitting together,” she said, while in her seat on the plane. “We went to the gate and tried to get them to move us around. They couldn’t. So we’re going to ask the person who’s sitting in this seat if they want to switch with me.”

Anna filmed the empty middle seat in between her husband and child, which was the spot she wanted. She then showed what her initial seat looked like and explained that it was “much better” since it had “lots more leg room”.

She said that when the man arrived at his assigned seat next to Anna’s husband, he didn’t necessarily seem that excited to be there.

“The guy who was sitting in the seat just came. He was like looking at the seat, putting his bag up,” she explained. “You could just kind of see on his face, ‘I’m sitting here with all these kids.’”

Anna explained that once she asked the man to swap spots, he smiled and nodded his head, noting that he was “so down” to switch. She then said that the trade was a situation where “everybody wins”.

In the text over the video, she praised the passenger, writing: “So grateful for nice guys like this one.”

She further explained that she only requests to change seats when it puts someone else in a “better” spot.

“I would never ask anyone to switch seats unless I could offer them a better option. If they didn’t want to, I’d happily accept that,” Anna wrote in the caption. “Also - we ALWAYS pay extra to select our seats if we have the option. But sometimes things happen and it doesn’t work out. This guy was so nice and it was a win/win.”

As of 10 November, the video has more than 1.2m views, with TikTok users in the comments praising Anna for her perspective and rule when swapping seats.

“See, for switching seats the basic rule is, equal or better, most people will agree,” one wrote.

“Normalise when asking to switch seats, give up the better seat,” another added.

A third person responded: “And THAT is how you get people to switch seats.”

Other viewers shared their stance on switching seats, noting that they would only do so if they were the ones being offered a better spot.

“Single person here,” one wrote. “I will always switch for a better seat. never for a worse seat. probably for an equal seat.”

“I’ll only swap if they offer me one with more leg room, or an upgrade. Nothing more, nothing less,” another person commented.

The Independent has contacted Anna for comment.