Jess Battison
The woman who refused to give up her 1A plane seat for a teen doubled down on her decision and says she’s not a ‘terrible human being’.
Plane journeys can be pretty tense even at the best of times, maybe you end up next to a screaming baby or with a kicking child behind you or perhaps a too-chatty next-door passenger – let alone the plane seat politics.
These kind of flight etiquette stories are music to the ears of social media users, and one woman who went viral for remaining in her seat has responded to her brutal critics.
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The TikToker shared she’d been asked to move from her seat to help out some fellow flyers.
However, she stuck to her guns and revealed that she remained in her booked seat.
Sabra Zaraa wrote in the in-caption of her video: “POV: Flight agent asks me if I want to give up my 1A seat so a child sits with their family.”
She used a popular TikTok audio of a person saying: “Girl, f**k them kids and f**k you too.”
Zaraa’s sacred 1A seat is just as it sounds; the first seat in the first row and is usually in first class. It’s a pretty desirable spot among frequent fliers.
She shared more information in the caption too, explaining she remained in her seat and the family ended up ‘finding a solution’.
“That’s a no from me dawg,” she wrote. “Would you have given up your seat? Also they ended up finding a solution so no, I am not a terrible human being. Also the child was like 13.”
The woman’s video has racked up over 9.5million views on TikTok and she faced a fair bit of backlash, with users saying ‘kindness is free’.
Others did defend Zaraa though, writing: “Nobody said what she’s doing isn’t kind. She planned properly and they didn’t - so it’s not her responsibility to move.”
And the 1A seat buyer has since given some further context to those criticising her choice to not swap seats.
“To clarify," she commented, "the gate agent asked me, I asked to see the seat map, I didn't like the alternative. They were kind and found a solution right away."
Zaraa also informed the millions of views that the family in question 'never addressed' her, noting: "I think it was even the airline's rule, not them asking to sit together."
"The airline asked the parents but we do appreciate people like you," she added.