American Airlines passenger puts “seat stealer” in the air – and 27 rows back: “Felt good”

It felt almost as good as sitting next to an empty middle seat.

An American Airlines frequent flyer has recounted the moment she witnessed a seat thief get her punishment as she was thrown back nearly 27 rows to her assigned seat – much to the delight of other passengers.

A Reddit user who said he flies for work almost every week shared a list of things his fellow fliers do that annoy him on the r/americanairlines subreddit.

“They constantly try to take seats that aren’t theirs, delay boarding, or are just plain rude,” they began their now-viral rant.

The poster showed a woman who had purchased seat 35B settling into seat 8C next to her mother. A few minutes later, the actual owner of the seat arrived and discovered that the woman was in the wrong place.

According to the post, the seat thief tried to convince the real 8C passenger to swap seats.

“The seat stealer then says, ‘Can you just go to my seat since I want to sit next to my mother?’ The person (whose seat) was asked what seat it was and the seat thief says 35B,” the Redditor wrote.

“I don’t know what came over me, but I blurted out, “Are you serious?!” Going from 8D to 35B? “You’re crazy,” they added.

The outburst caused other passengers to laugh at the alleged seat stealer, who became nervous and fled back to her rightful seat after the real 8D passenger told her “no” again.

“So the seat thief had to get up and walk to the back while glaring at me. As she glared at me, I told her, “You can stare at me all you want, but (you’re) a – still go back to 35B!,” the Redditor wrote.

“It felt good to put seat stealers in their place. Small victories count!”

The unknown passenger and seat defender was quickly praised in the comments on the thread.

“I LOVE putting seat stealers back in their place. It’s a secret pleasure of mine,” revealed a flight attendant from another airline.

“Maybe mom will book places together next time, even if it costs more. Some people are so entitled!” one user commented.

“Did everyone clap? I would have clapped,” another added.

“This strangely happened to me on a United flight and the woman who tried to steal my seat had had noticeably bad plastic surgery. There must be some connection,” another commented.

Some users wondered why the alleged mother of the seat theft hadn’t bought a ticket with her daughter – or why the thief hadn’t tried to buy a seat higher up in the first place.

“If she really wanted to sit next to her mother, she would ask the man in 35C if he wanted to sit in row 8,” one user suggested.