When Middle Seat Passenger Takes Over Your Window Seat…

A female traveler seated in a window seat found a man in the seat next to her reaching over her to take pictures out the window with his mobile phone. No, that was not okay. But perhaps she could have handled it better too if it really bothered her?

Personal Space: Man Stretches Over Girl In Window Seat To Take Pictures Out Aircraft Window

Video posted to TikTok shows a man seated in an aisle seat on regional jet (though for purposes of our discussion it is no different than a middle seat) reaching over the passenger in the window seat next to him to take a picture out the window.

Only option was to stare out the window

? Funny – Gold-Tiger

Maybe the guy tried to get a window seat but they were all reserved. Maybe his seat got re-assigned at the last minute. The issue, to me, is not whether he should have reserved a window seat if he wanted one, but whether he could reach over the passenger seated in the window to take his pictures.

The answer is, of course, no…not without permission.

This happened to me once on a recent flight. I was in first class with 2-2 seating and the passenger in the aisle seat clearly wanted to take pictures as we flew over downtown Los Angeles on final approach. He didn’t just invade my space, but tried to take pictures from his seat…so I invited him to lean over and get the pictures he wanted. He was very grateful.

Here’s one thing I understand but still shake my head at. Why create a video and post it on social media instead of just asking the guy to stop? As a fellow millennial, I get it. Confrontation is hard and it usually more satisfying to be passive aggressive. But the better way is just to tell him to stop…though if I am being honest I cannot say I would have handled the matter differently than she did (though at least I would have had a pecuniary motive for this blog). That’s an indictment against me…

CONCLUSION

A woman was uncomfortable that a man reached over her to take pictures out the window on a regional jet. She was right to be uncomfortable, though it probably would have been more efficient to ask him to stop instead of filming it and venting about it later. But the man should have known better…it is not okay to reach into other people’s personal space unless you have been invited to do so.

(Hat Tip: View From The Wing)