Fury as Passenger Reserves Plane Seats With Unusual Method—'Took Advantage'

A passenger has shared his frustration after watching an unusual seat-saving method on an airplane.

Traveling from Washington D.C. to Dallas, Tyler from Arkansas was stunned when he turned around to see nearby seats saved before take-off, with bags of donuts placed on them.

On the morning of Friday, December 15, Tyler captured a photo and posted it on Reddit, initially saying a woman was saving seats with bags of donuts. However, he later said that the actual seat-saver was a man seated across the aisle, traveling with a woman and two children who boarded much later.

"Turns out, it wasn't that lady who was saving the seats. It was actually the guy across the aisle [directly behind me]," Tyler told Newsweek. "He was the man, presumably the dad, traveling with the woman who took the seat and the two children."

When Tyler noticed the goings on during boarding of the Southwest Airlines flight, he was prompted to share the incident on his Reddit account. It now has almost 30,000 upvotes and thousands of comments from people who were equally outraged.

"If I had upgraded my boarding position, only to have to sit in a middle seat while someone with a very late boarding position took an ideal seat closer to the front of the plane, I would want my money back," said Tyler.

A Southwest Airlines spokesperson told Newsweek: "All Southwest flights are open seating, and we don't have a specific policy for or against saving seats but encourage customers to be courteous and mindful of others when boarding."

In the comments on the post, people shared their reactions to the sweet-treat seating solution: "Open seating is dumb," posted one commenter, while another wrote: "So what? Just sit. If it's open seating, that means you take the next seat available."

"People are so averse to conflict these days," added another Reddit user. "Some behaviors are being normalized due to nobody simply saying no."

"The plane was fairly full by the time the woman and two children sat down," Tyler said. "It got rather awkward when the entire aisle was occupied by people standing, slowly working towards the rear rows, while the flight attendant was announcing over the intercom that 'only middle seats remained.'"

After his experience on the plane, Tyler said that he thought there could be a better system for airlines with open seating.

"They could even go a step further, where a handful of rows towards the back of the plane are 'savable' and must be seated last by solo travelers," Tyler said.

Adding to the controversy, Tyler reported disruptive behavior from the family who eventually claimed the saved seats, including loud YouTube videos played by two children. "This was the straw that broke the camel's back, and I truly do not believe anything other than the man intentionally took advantage of his boarding position to save seats," Tyler said.