Olympic athlete applauded after refusing to move plane seats for 'entitled' couple

How would you respond if an ‘entitled’ couple asked you to move from the designated seat you'd paid extra for on a plane? Most people, we’d like to think, would tell them where to go.

That’s exactly the situation Olympic athlete Cynthia Appiah found herself in during one journey which was memorable for the wrong reasons after she became the victim of ‘nice bullying’.

Appiah competes for the Canadian bobsled team and she shared the story in a TikTok video which had the caption: "Seat selection is your friend I promise you.”

Speaking in the video, Appiah said: "It seems like there's a lot of conversations...on TikTok about plane seats and whether you should have to give up your seat if someone asks you, so I have my own story on this."

Recalling the time she was asked to move, she said: "A couple of years ago I was flying from Toronto-Calgary which is a flight I do often being a National team athlete where our team's based out of Calgary, I'm from Toronto I fly between those two cities quite often.”

Explaining how she’d purchased a better seat, she said: “Over the years I've gotten so many points through flying with one particular airline in Canada that whenever I'm feeling extra bougie I'll either pay for an upgrade either at the gate or at the time of booking and just purchase a better seat."

Appiah added: "I always make sure that I purchase and book an aisle seat at the time of booking the ticket."

Discussion the awkward interaction with the ‘entitled’ couple, she said: "I had purchased a ticket in premium economy and I had picked an aisle seat. It was one of those configurations where the seats are like two, three, two, so there's like someone beside me and then I'm on the aisle. When I boarded and I was going towards my seat there was already somebody in my seat, plus someone else besides the person that was in my seat."

The athlete added: "I thought I had made a mistake so I triple-checked to make sure that my seat number that I was seeing on my phone was actually reflecting where I needed to be and yes indeed that person was in my seat.”

She went on: “I go up to her and I'm like hey you're in my seat she goes yeah I know I am but I was wondering if you wouldn't mind switching with my seat just behind me so I can sit with my boyfriend during this flight.

"Now mind you her seat although premium economy was a window seat, not an aisle seat and I was like ahh nope. I told her nope I paid for this seat I would rather stick with my seat I bought the aisle for this reason. Actually, I didn't give a reason I was just like I bought the aisle...I'm not moving."

She finished by saying: "In this day and age of online ticket booking people still do not do their due diligence to book the seats that they want and hope that they can kindly ask, but really bully, people into giving up their seats."

The story sparked a big reaction in the comments section – and judging by the reaction this is clearly a pretty common experience on flights.

“I aint never giving up my paid for planned for seat, period,” one viewer wrote.

“The gall of people sitting on someone else’s assigned seat and then ask,” another said.

One more said: “I don’t mind people asking, you never know why someone might have booked last minute. But they MUST be kind and prepared for a ‘no’.”

Another said: “I think it's because they don't want to pay for picking the seat they want but still feel entitled to yours.”

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