A woman reportedly cried for three hours during a 10-hour flight after another passenger refused to give up her aisle seat so she could sit next to her husband.
According to The Indian Express, the incident went viral after travel creative director Tomiko Harvey shared her experience in an Instagram video.
Harvey was travelling home from Kazakhstan on Turkish Airlines, taking a connecting flight from Istanbul to Washington, DC, in the United States.
She said a woman asked her to swap seats, moving from her aisle seat to a middle seat so the couple could sit together throughout the 10-hour journey.
However, Harvey declined the request, after which the woman allegedly began crying.
“She cried for three hours. I eventually asked her if someone had died, because who cries for three hours?” Harvey said.
The woman reportedly replied that nobody had died, explaining that she simply missed her husband and wondered whose shoulder she could lean on.
Ironically, the woman’s husband was seated just two rows ahead of her in a middle seat. He was reportedly asleep with his headphones on for much of the flight.
Harvey said the woman asked her several times to switch seats, but she stood by her decision.
After the plane landed, Harvey sarcastically praised the woman for making it through the 10-hour flight without sitting beside her husband.
The story sparked mixed reactions on social media, with some users defending Harvey’s right to keep the seat she had selected or paid for.
Others criticised her response, arguing that she had been dismissive of the woman’s emotions.
Harvey maintained that couples who want to sit together should book adjacent seats in advance or pay for seat selection.
