A CEO who refused to switch seats with a mother so she could sit next to her children on an airplane has been applauded by social media users.
Last month, Tammy Nelson - the CEO of global jewelry brand CONQUERing - shared a TikTok explaining what happened on a flight from Cincinnati to San Jose, California.
"What would you do," Nelson wrote in the overlay text. "I got on the plane and a woman was sitting in my seat and when I mentioned it to her, she said, 'Oh, you want to sit here? I thought we could switch because these are my kids' (she points to the two seats next to mine)."
In the caption, the CEO added that she did not agree with abandoning her seat because she "only had 90 minutes of sleep" and had to give a presentation in front of "500" people once she got off the flight.
Watch Nelson's TikTok below:She also revealed that she would have been happy to swap places had the woman also had a window seat - meaning she could rest her head on it and sleep - but says the mother pointed to a middle seat she had vacated. This would have meant Nelson would be sat between two other passengers with no comfortable way of having a nap.
The woman's video amassed 4.1 million likes on the social media platform, and the comments section was filled with many users praising her for standing her ground.
"The amount of families who aren’t paying to select their seats together is mind-blowing!", one person wrote, emphasizing: "You were 100% right to not give up your seat."
Another user said: "That was ballsy of the mom to offer a middle seat. Don’t feel guilty!", while a third penned: "I would’ve defended you too! You deserve the seat you paid for and were assigned to."
A fourth added: "I am extremely bothered by the fact that she automatically sat in your seat and was like oh, I thought we’d switch….. what?!"
Nelson spoke with Good Morning America about the incident and shared that she would've happily swapped seats with the woman if she had a window seat, as that is what she had booked on the flight.
"I always pick a window seat because I get motion sickness during takeoff and landing if I can't look out the window," Nelson said. "And then the second reason is, I don't get a lot of sleep, so I usually like to be able to sleep on the plane, and being in the window seat obviously gives you that easiest opportunity to do that."
After she declined to move seats on the plane, the mom-of-two went back to her designated area - which was the row behind Nelson and the two children who were approximately 11 and 15 years old.
"She was not happy. It wasn’t like a fight but she kind of begrudgingly picked her stuff up and huffed and puffed and went back to her seat," the CEO recalled. "Then she continued to complain loudly to the person next to her."
The TikToker revealed that the two children who were seated next to her seemed to be fine throughout the flight and added that she chose to post about her experience on social media because she thought it could be relatable for other viewers. She also said that wanted to give her followers a behind-the-scenes look at her life as a CEO.
As aforementioned, Nelson said that on this particular flight, she was traveling to San Jose for a presentation - for which she felt she needed to prepare.
"I had 90 minutes of sleep the night before I had this big presentation that I needed to give once I arrived at my destination," she said. "I told myself, 'You have to take care of yourself. You need sleep on this flight. You picked the seat in advance. Stick with the seat.'"
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