A man was forced to speak up when his seatmate on an overnight flight began doing something inconsiderate in the middle of their journey – and he refused to stop
Travelling is often exhausting at the best of times, and it can be made even worse if you find yourself sitting on a plane next to someone who does something that makes your journey unbearable. No one wants to be cramped next to someone they don’t know for hours on end, but most of the time, everyone just minds their own business and copes until the flight lands.
One man, however, found that he couldn’t do that on his recent flight back home. The man shared a video on TikTok in which he explained he was on an overnight flight after spending an exhausting seven hours in the airport trying to get home, as his flight was delayed by two hours. When he boarded the plane, he found the passenger next to him engaging in “disrespectful” behaviour.
While most people spend their time in the air reading, sleeping, or watching in-flight entertainment, the man’s seatmate decided to watch YouTube videos on his phone – without headphones on.
Frustrated, the man confronted his fellow passenger and demanded that he turn the volume down so that the people around him could get some rest.
In his video, he said: “I’ve already been in the airport for seven hours today. I just want to get home, and I don’t want to be dealing with this. You need to be respectful. This is ridiculous.
“This is a flight, I can hear, and I’m right next to you. So I’m asking you to just please turn it down. That’s it.
“This has nothing to do with respect. We can all hear you. Everyone can hear. It’s completely quiet in here. Everyone can hear us talking right now.”
The man then put his head in his hands in frustration, and the video ended. Commenters on the clip sympathised with the man’s plight, with many saying they have had to deal with similar situations in the past.
Several people also offered suggestions on how to deal with the passenger if he didn’t stop playing his videos out loud, including offering a “running commentary” on everything he was watching.
One person said: “What is with this epidemic of people not using headphones? It’s bizarre.”
Another added: “Our flight attendant made sure to make an announcement saying if you’re playing videos without headphones, she would give you a warning and then take it from you. I was like, thank you!”
A third wrote: “What gets me is, why do they do it? Did they forget their headphones? Do they think no one else can hear? Do they think no one else minds listening to them? Do they just not care if they’re bothering people? I just. Don’t. Understand.”
Plane seat drama is not uncommon, especially as everyone’s tensions are normally so high, as they just want to get off the plane as quickly as possible.
One woman recently had a run-in with an entitled plane passenger who wouldn’t let her use one of the features on her seat, which meant she got barely any sleep on her overnight flight.