A man has been praised online after insisting that a train passenger move from the seat he purchased ahead of time. The footage that captured his confrontation with the train passenger has since gone viral, with many applauding the man for refusing to give up his seat.
On 1 April, TikTok user @mr_boris_becker shared a video of himself on a crowded train. In the clip, the TikToker approached a woman in an aisle seat and informed her that she was sitting in the seat he paid for. “My place is 103,” he told the woman, referring to the seat number he had booked.
In response, the woman began to awkwardly laugh as she suggested he look for another place to sit. She pointed toward the empty seats at the front of the train, but the man insisted: “It’s gonna be difficult. My place is 103 and I need my place. I’m so sorry.”
The passenger said she “understands” and got up from the seat to collect her belongings. As she gathered her suitcase, another female passenger across the aisle chimed in. She appeared to chide the TikToker for asking the woman to move from the seat, but he maintained that he intended to sit in the seat he had purchased.
Since it was posted this week, the TikTok has received more than seven million views. Thousands of TikTokers took to the comments section, where they agreed that he was entitled to the seat he had purchased ahead of time.
“I’ll NEVER understand why they don’t sit in their assigned places,” commented one TikTok user.
“The audacity of her asking him to find another seat while she’s sitting in the seat that he paid for,” another pointed out.
“My anger issues could never,” joked someone else.
One person asked why the man was “apologising for wanting the seat he paid for” while another commended him for insisting on “keeping your place”.
“People will bully you out of your spot as if it’s not your spot,” they added.
Recently, influencers and social media users have sparked debates about travel etiquette with stories of their own frustrating interactions with fellow passengers on public transportation. Earlier this month, influencer Audrey Peters went viral on TikTok after sharing with her followers that she refused to swap her first class seat on a flight so that a family could sit together.
“When a family asks me to switch seats on the plane so they can sit together,” she wrote over the video, along with the caption: “No I’m not switching for a middle seat book your flights earlier babes”
Meanwhile, reality star Batsheva Haart applauded herself for staying seated after her plane had landed until it was time for her row to exit. “Sitting in my seat instead of standing up until it’s my row’s turn to deplane,” Haart wrote in a text caption on the video.
