A woman refused to give up her seat on a plane for
a mom who wanted to sit next to her two kids.
And it's taken TikTok by storm, everyone's very divided.
The woman in question is Tammy Nelson, she's the CEO of a jewelry brand who
shared this, here's this graphic on TikTok.
What would you do?
I got on the plane and a woman was sitting in my seat, and
when I mentioned it to her, she said, you wanna sit here?
I thought we could switch because these are my kids,
she points to the two seats next to mine.
I said, as long as it's a window seat, I'm happy to switch.
She points to the row behind us and says, mine's right there.
It's the middle seat, done, done, done.
So she asks, what would you do?
It seems like she didn't give up her seat, but we'll get to that.
She says, this is according to Newsweek, because this is newsworthy, I guess,
I double-checked my boarding pass thinking I might have had the wrong row.
When I confirmed I was looking at the correct seat,
I thought she must have just mistakenly sat in the wrong seat.
So I said, I'm sorry, but it seems like you're in my seat,
thinking she would realize and move.
But then, as I just explained, she sort of gave the whole,
can we just swap skis, there's my middle seat?
Tammy continues and says, look, I get motion sickness during takeoff and
landing if I can't see out the window.
I also don't get a lot of sleep, so I often try to sleep on planes,
which is easiest with a window seat, except if you're in that weird gap.
I hate that when it's like, no, the pillars don't line up right.
>> I hate it.
>> She says, on that particular day,
I only had 90 minutes of sleep the night before.
And I was headed to a high-pressure work week where I would be presenting to 500
people and I really needed to be at my very best.
So she goes over and over and over again.
By the way, very important before I kick it to you guys, how old were the kids?
How heartless was this woman to not give up her seat or to not agree to switch?
The kids were about 11 and 15, according to Tammy, and
the mom was within arms-reach of both of them from the middle seat in the row
behind us in a sort of slapping distance.
The mom proceeded to complain for
at least 15 minutes to the person next to her loud enough for me to hear.
But the woman actually defended me several times,
I guess the person she complained to.
It was so kind and I appreciated it so much because I was feeling really guilty.
There's some comments, but you guys, should she feel guilty for
not giving up her window seat for a middle seat?
>> Yeah, I've got some comments and they're pretty definitive.
I'm curious what you all think, but I'm also curious what you guys think, so
we're doing a poll, tyt.com/polls.
>> Be careful.
>> Was the CEO in the wrong here for
refusing to switch seats with the mother behind her?
So we'll also have a link in the description box, you can just click it.
Okay, so look, to me there's a couple of factors here.
The age of the kids is definitely relevant, the length of the flight,
definitely relevant.
>> Yeah.
>> And so if you're coming to me with this nonsense of the 11 and
the 15-year-old kid, not gonna happen brother, okay?
Sorry, or a sister, it doesn't matter.
Your 15-year-old needs to be comfortable, so I'm gonna take a middle seat for
6 hours?
Again, hell dot no dot.
Okay, no, no, no, not even close.
And I don't know why the fact that she's a CEO is in this story, what,
are we supposed to hate her because she's a CEO?
She doesn't wanna sit in the middle, who wants to sit in the middle?
Is that a thing, right?
And guys, I have personal experience with this because I just took an international
flight last year, actually, and my kids were 9 and 11.
And we wound up, it was just a mess.
And we wound up in four completely different seats in completely
different parts of the plane.
And it's an international, it's like 10, 11,
12 hours, it's a disaster of a flight, okay?
And I went and tried to switch seats so I can get close to the kids, right?
[LAUGH] As Francesca brilliantly put it, within slapping distance.
[LAUGH] Okay, we don't do that, we don't do that.
Anyways. >> No, of course not.
>> But I didn't have the temerity to ask anyone to move to a middle seat.
That no, you cannot do that, that's way outside the bounds of etiquette.
And then, look, if somebody asked me and
they had young kids and it's a short flight.
I'm in LA to Vegas to San Francisco, an hour, an hour and a half,
two hours, three hours, and the kids are really young, okay, okay, okay,
I could live with it, right?
Cross country, your kid's 15 years old, hell no, no way.
>> Okay, first of all,
it started with the expectation that, I figured I could sit here, cool.
>> Yeah.
>> You can like to sit there but the expectation,
whoever this is that you never met before and
whatever circumstances she's got don't matter, is the hardest part here.
You can ask, you can be like, I was wondering, I was hoping.
I would have stood next to the row of seats and be like, I'm just waiting for
the person or maybe I'll stand in the seat and be like, you're here,
I was seeing if you could switch with me.
You can't even start there, I got to be honest,
I wouldn't even have asked because we know the answer.
There's a reason why that people don't choose the middle seat,
it's like people know this, come on, calm down.
But again, I'm glad you made the CEO comment because yeah, sure, every time
you may see or read that there's a CEO involved, you go, we're starting off bad,
which maybe you have a pretty good indication that you are, who knows?
But that doesn't have anything to do with an airplane seat, she still has to work,
she still slept only 90 minutes,
whatever circumstances those were don't matter to you.
By the way, you've got an 11 and a 15 year old, again, this is according to the CEO,
that those kids are at that age, so we're going off of that.
There's other options here, you've got a middle seat that's behind your two
children and this one wants to sit in the window seat.
You know what you could do?
Put your 15-year-old in the middle seat behind, and
then you sit with your 11-year-old.
>> Yes.
>> Cool, right?
It kinda works, and then this lady has her seat, she naps, she snores.
Your 15-year-old is fine, actually, your 15-year-old might be
happier not to sit next to you if it's the typical 15-year-old that it just might be.
But this expectation is the hardest part here.
Just maybe have some different approach and
you might actually put enough sugar on this question that the person might go,
this person's actually trying to look out for both of us.
Rather than the expectation that I just automatically
give up my seat simply because of that fact.
Now, I also understand,
cuz some people that were mad at this lady who expected the seat to be given up,
they were like, well, you should plan better, have all three together.
Sometimes that is tough, and sometimes maybe people don't have the extra money to
then pay for those upgrades for these seats all next to each other.
Fine, I know that's a personal problem and it's not yours,
but I think that's a pushback on the people that have this expectation this
woman with her two kids just should have planned better,
maybe should have had the money to make that happen.
Maybe she didn't, but only thing left you have is to kind of ask rather than expect,
I think we got to start off on the wrong foot.
>> Yeah, I think that's really real, and I also think that your problem-solving
of having the kids sit in the middle row is brilliant in the middle seat.
The comments were mixed, some people said, yeah, you should book
seats together next time, but obviously the CEO nabbed that window seat.
You know she did cuz she's got business, she's got the points,
she has an assistant do it for her.
But then other people are saying, put yourself in the mom's shoes.
So in that sense, here's what I will say,
I think it's a nice thing to do even if it sucks.
And if the lady is already there and I'm gonna make
everybody get up and so I can go into the window seat.
And the whole thing, to me, that is.
And the fact that she felt guilty the whole time anyway after refusing to do it,
I'm like, no, I can't sleep at that point.
You know what, I'll just take the middle seat and feel really good and be like,
karma, karma, karma.
But here's another idea, buy her a drink or something.
Be like, hey, lemme get you a cocktail.
They have great cocktails on American have you heard?
[LAUGH] Something to ask.
Full disclosure, here's what I do when I wanna sit with my partner but
we also want the middle seat free.
What you do is you book either side, you book the window and the aisle,
not together and then you hope that no one takes the middle seat.
But if there is someone, they'll gladly switch with you for the aisle or
the window, and then one of you is stuck in the middle.
But you did have that 50-50 chance or maybe even better of getting a free middle
seat, then you don't even have to touch your partner when you're flying.
>> Francesca, I'm not sure if enough people have enough strategy when
they're choosing seats, because I do it all the time, I overthink everything.
>> That's the strategy.
>> Yeah, also, by the way, there's that positioning on the plane you should do it.
If you're gonna choose the aisle and the window hoping that no one chooses that
middle, people are more likely to choose the middle if it's closer to the front.
So go as far back as possible and aisle and window.
Because people, if there's a hierarchy, they're like, shoot,
there's only middle seats left.
Okay, let me try and at least have one good thing here, closer to the front.
If it's middle and back two strikes, two strikes.
So it's a better chance.
I've set my ass all the way to the back against that wall before and be like,
nobody's gonna sit back here.
>> No.
>> I'd rather not have as much of a recline rather than to then have to maybe
sit with someone in the middle.
>> You could put your legs down.
Absolutely, and by the way, that lean against the window,
there's nothing like it.
By the way, aisle seats are way overrated, 100% overrated.
It'd be like, I got to get up and use the bathroom.
No, no, no, no, how about you go ahead and pee before you get in on the plane?
And hopefully you can last for the length of the flight.
But sitting in the aisle seat,
you know what you have to do then in the aisle seat?
You definitely can't sleep because guess who has to get up and use the bathroom?
Window seat, middle seat, window seat, middle seat.
>> I don't care.
>> I gotta stretch my legs, you gotta get your ass up every time.
Aisle seats are way overrated.
>> No, aisle forever.
>> [LAUGH]. >> Cenk, you feel me, you were nodding.
>> Yeah, all right,
look, first of all, let's admit that you guys are strategic geniuses about planes.
I have not put any kind of thought, like this level of thought.
>> I love flying.
[LAUGH] >> Yeah, and by the way, and
I take planes probably way more than both of you guys combined.
Next time I'm calling you guys to do the strategy for me as Bush would say.
No, everybody's different, I'm with Francesca, I need aisle.
I got to get up and I hate bothering people.
But like Ben Mankiewicz says that he would rather be hospitalized than go to
the bathroom on a plane.
>> [LAUGH] True, too.
>> Okay, so I think everybody's different.
But Jayar hit it, it's how you ask.
And if you're asking somebody to switch to a middle seat for not a good reason,
you shouldn't even ask in the first place, it's super rude to even ask it.
But then when you have this sense of entitlement,
the only reason why you would even bring in the CEO thing is because of
the assumption that that person might feel entitled.
But in this case, it's the absolute reverse,
the lady is sitting in her seat and feels entitled to it.
No, no, no, no, it doesn't matter what the title is then, no,
you're the one acting entitled.
And by the way, of course I'm biased because I'm the CEO of TYT, so
this is a lot of nonsense here.
But anyways,
I'll give you a perfect example of what all of this conversation has been about.
So, in that same international flight, I finally find a seat next for
my nine-year-old daughter that's kinda close to one of the parents, etc.
And then the last seat is a disastrous middle seat near the back of the plane,
and the two guys in the sides are gigantic, right?
So if I go in there, we're gonna be three guys in little jackets and whatever.
Okay. [LAUGH]
>> Guys in a little coat.
>> Yeah.
[LAUGH] >> [LAUGH]
>> So I look at Pro,
my 11-year-old son, and I'm like, sorry, brother, you're batter up.
[LAUGH] >> [LAUGH]
>> Yeah, yeah, yeah.
>> Character building.
[LAUGH] >> [LAUGH] Yeah,
character building and stuff.
I'm here, and you know what you do like Jayar said, you do trades, right?
That's what humans do.
And in this case, it's even with my own son, I'm like,
buy any of the movies you like, okay?
But off you go to the middle seat.
>> Yeah.
>> [LAUGH] >> And a drink, buy him a cocktail.
>> [LAUGH] >> Why don't you be a good dad?
>> And by the way, Franny, you're also right about the empty middle seat.
If I've got an empty middle seat next to me, it's like I won the lottery.
>> Yeah, right?
>> Yeah. >> I'm like, yes, yes.
I'm looking at the door the whole time, can you please close the doors,
close the doors, close the doors?
>> Go, go, go.
>> And when they're, all right,
flight attendants do the whatever thing that they say.
And then they say like, a and b or
some code that they have that means the doors are closed, I'm like, yes.
>> Yeah, if you look at the guys that are still filing onto the airplane looking for
their seat, and there's, say, five middle seats left and
there's three people walking on.
The people in those seats with the middle seat available are watching.
>> 100%.
>> Every time they sit down, like, okay.
>> Totally, totally.
>> Was one left?
>> Jayar has never said anything more true, okay?
[LAUGH] >> If you're that guy walking,
people look at you so upset, lie, you son of a bitch, you better not.
>> No, because, seriously, all I care about is the width of the seat.
So when I was a cable news host and they had me flying business class, first class,
etc., they're like, warm nuts, I'm like, I don't give a damn about the nuts, okay?
I just need a wide seat, okay?
And so I feel like when there's no one in the middle, that I literally saved
thousands of dollars, because, to me, I just got a first-class seat.
I don't care about the food, I don't care about anything, I could fit.
So that's worth thousands of dollars.
And here comes a lady like- >> Do you think there's anyone out there
who likes the middle?
There's got to be someone out there who's like-
>> There's got to be.
>> Nah, I love the middle, I can have a conversation with this person who doesn't
wanna talk to me and this person who doesn't wanna talk to me.
>> [LAUGH] >> But can we agree, if you're in
the middle, you get both armrests, don't come at me, you get both of them.
>> Yes.
>> [LAUGH] >> The middle armrests are yours?
>> Yes, I agree.
>> Okay, we could go on.
>> Yeah, I don't know that you wanna sit next to someone who wants the middle seat.
There aren't a lot of good reasons for wanting the middle seat.
[LAUGH]