People rally around Olympic athlete who refused to give up her plane seat to an entitled couple

People pre-book their seats on a flight for a particular reason. But even if they are willing to spend additional money to get the seat they want, they sometimes find themselves dealing with people trying to take over their seats once they enter the plane. Canadian bobsleigh Olympian Cynthia Appiah wanted to share her own story in the context of this issue, so she posted a video on TikTok detailing her experience with seat selection on planes. So far, the video has got 18.4K views and 230 comments on the social media platform. Her post is captioned, "Seat selection is your friend. I promise you."

The athlete began by mentioning how there seemed to be a lot of conversation on social media about having to give up one's assigned seat for somebody else. Appiah revealed that she had encountered a situation like this. She started the story by stating, "So, I have my own story on this. A couple of years ago, I was flying from Toronto to Calgary, which is a flight I do quite often, being a national team athlete." Since she flew so much, she acquired many points with airlines over the years.

Sometimes, she would feel like splurging and would spend those points for a better seat on the flight. "Either, you know, a premium economy seat if I can afford it. Or one of the preferred seats in economy, which is usually like the front of the section," Appiah shared. She also did not want to inconvenience anybody else and would purchase her upgrade at the time of booking. Appiah preferred to have the aisle seat so she could move about more freely during the four-hour flight from Toronto to Calgary.

During this particular incident, she had purchased a premium economy seat. Once she boarded the plane and went toward her seat, she found that somebody was already occupying her seat. There was also somebody with the person in the adjoining seat. Appiah initially thought that she had made a mistake and checked her ticket thrice to make sure there was no error. She confirmed that there was no error and went to the seat to find out that the two individuals were a couple.

She highlighted how the woman was occupying her assigned seat and when asked they replied, "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." The woman's seat was a window seat, which was not what Appiah wanted, and she told the woman that she was not willing to give up her seat since she had paid for it. The woman was not happy to hear this but didn't put up much of a fight since they knew there was nothing that they could do.

Appiah stated how people refused to do their "due diligence" and book seats that they wanted before a flight. She shared, "You can choose seat selection ahead of time. If you don't want to pay for it, then that's up to you and you deal with the consequences of not getting the seat that you want for the plane ride." People agreed with her views and shared their opinions about the issue in the comments section. @kattykennedy expressed, "Fully agree. Had a person once go complain to the flight attendant when I said I wouldn't switch." @brettthomas767 added: "I can't believe anyone has a problem with this. You are 100% spot on accurate. It's so important that you sit together? Book two seats side by side."

You can follow Cynthia Appiah (@cyndiesel) on her TikTok page to learn more about the daily life of a bobsleigh athlete. 

Editor's note: This article was originally published on April 2, 2024. It has since been updated.