There aren’t many airline policies more controversial than Southwest’s approach to boarding. Instead of having an assigned seat, passengers line up in the order that they checked in and then race to grab the aisle and window seats before they’re all taken. The people who like it really like it, and the people who don’t hate it so much that many refuse to ever fly Southwest. As it turns out, though, there actually are limits to the “sit wherever you want” policy.
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View From the Wing reports that Benét Wilson boarded a Southwest flight this week and grabbed one of the coveted aisle seats. Since she’s a frequent flyer, she has Southwest’s Rapid Rewards A-List status that allows her to board earlier than other passengers, so getting an aisle seat was essentially guaranteed. Everything continued like normal until a man wanted the window seat.
Like a normal person, Wilson reportedly got up to let him by so he didn’t have to climb over her to get to his seat. Another passenger apparently saw that as his big opportunity, and grabbed the aisle seat before she could sit back down. You might believe this was some sort of accident or misunderstanding, but no. He also had the audacity to move her bag, so he very clearly knew what he was doing.
Just to be clear here, the person who took her seat wasn’t the window seat guy. This was an entirely different person who thought he could snipe an aisle seat on what he thought was a technicality and get away with it. When Window Seat Guy told the asshole that she was already sitting in that seat, his response was reportedly just, “Tough luck.”
The good news is, when Window Seat Guy called over a flight attendant, she didn’t buy his “but that lady moved” excuse and kicked him out after threatening to call the pilot. You know, because that is not normal behavior. At all. He’s lucky he didn’t get kicked off the flight because as far as we’re concerned, he deserved it.