A heated seat-swap showdown mid-boarding has gone viral, after an American Airlines passenger confronted a family for giving his $300 aisle seat to their child — without asking first.
The passenger, later identified as Osaac Summer, was filmed scolding the parents after discovering a young child sitting in the seat he had paid for, the Daily Mail reports.
In footage uploaded to TikTok by user @lalawright2 on July 6, Summer can be heard telling the family bluntly: “Stay in your lane and in your seat.
"I don’t care about your daughter, your child, and none of that. I paid for this one.”
“That wasn’t me crashing out”
The 6'2" flyer posted his own follow-up video five days later, clarifying what really happened on board. Speaking on TikTok (@osaacsummer), Summer said he had intentionally booked the aisle seat to fly comfortably and insisted he never planned to cause drama.
“If you know me, then you know that that wasn’t me going off,” he said. “That wasn’t me crashing out at anything like that.”
Summer claimed the family had taken his seat without so much as a heads-up. He was offered a middle or window seat instead — neither of which he wanted.
“I really don’t want to take the seat from you and your child,” he said he told the mother. “But next time, it would be the best thing to ask before taking a seat.”
Flight attendant clash
According to Summer, things escalated when a flight attendant appeared to side with the family, allegedly telling him he was “being a problem.” That comment, he said, pushed him to the edge.
“I turned around and said, ‘Ma’am look, since you said all that, just come get my seat because that was unnecessary. That was rude.’”
Summer also alleged the flight crew had said the mother was entitled to the seat since she boarded first — despite the fact that seats on most commercial flights are pre-assigned and paid for in advance.
Eventually, another passenger stepped in to swap seats, letting the child stay put while Summer got his original aisle seat back.
“Moral of the story: just give people their seats back,” he said in the conclusion of his six-minute TikTok response. “And flight attendants, just do ya job—because if that was somebody in first class, y’all wouldn’t have even let them sit down.”
VT has reached out to American Airlines to comment.
The internet responds: “I’d be more mad”
The incident quickly blew up online, with Summer’s TikTok racking up over 2.4 million likes. Thousands of viewers rallied to his defense in the comments, many blasting what they saw as growing entitlement from traveling parents.
“I’m sick of parents feeling entitled on planes. BOOK YOUR CHILD IN THE SEAT NEXT TO YOU,” one viewer wrote.
Another added: “He was more respectful than I would have been. It’s the audacity of them taking it without asking…”
A third said: “Imagine how many people suffer from social anxiety and can’t stand up for themselves the way he did — and just keep getting taken advantage of.”
Some even shared their own horror stories: “Recently had someone rearrange my entire row to accommodate him and his girlfriend. I let them plan it out, then refused to move.”
Rising tension in the skies
Summer’s confrontation is the latest in a growing trend of viral inflight showdowns over seat-swapping.
In late 2024, Brazilian woman Jeniffer Castro went so far as to sue GOL Airlines and the passenger who filmed her after she refused to give her seat to a crying child. She claimed the viral clip caused “consequences that affected both my personal and professional life.”
Earlier in 2023, another woman was widely praised for standing her ground and refusing to give up her first-class seat to a child.
Even flight crews are weighing in. US-based flight attendant Leanna Coy recently posted a viral TikTok titled “Why you shouldn’t switch seats on the plane.” In it, she urged travelers to plan ahead and not expect others to accommodate poor preparation: “Your lack of planning should not constitute me having to move.”
As for Summer, the incident left him more exhausted than anything else. “It’s 12 o’clock a.m. We just want to sit down and get on a plane and go. That’s it.”
Only one flight attendant, he said, ever came to check on him.