CEO praised for refusing to give up airplane seat for mum with kids

‘She just expected me to flex my plans to suit her needs. There seems to be a growing trend of this entitlement in society and I think people are just sick of it,’ said Tammy Nelson, CEO of global jewellery brand CONQUERing.

Tammy went viral on TikTok after sharing her reasons for not swapping airplane seats with a mother so she could sit next to her children – but everyone is firmly in the CEO’s camp.

She was flying on a Delta Airlines flight to San Jose, California from Cincinnati, Ohio and when boarding Tammy could see a woman already sitting in her window seat.

She said on TikTok: ‘I got on the plan 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 at the two seats next to mine.

‘I said “as long as it’s a window seat, I’m happy to switch“. She points to the row behind us and says, “mine is right there”. It’s the middle seat.’

Tammy also added that the reason she didn’t want to switch to a middle seat was because she desperately needed rest.

She wrote: ‘Having had only 90 minutes of sleep the night before and knowing I had to give a presentation to 500 people, I desperately needed some sleep, so I did not agree to switch seats.’

And before you get in a huff, it wasn’t like the children were young either.

Tammy said: ‘Before anyone comes after me… the kids looked like they were about 11 and 15 years old.

‘And the mum was in arms-reach of both of them from the middle seat in the row behind us.

‘The mum proceeded to complain for at least 15 minutes to the person next to her loud enough for me to hear.

‘But the woman actually defended me – several times. It was so kind and I appreciated it so much because I was feeling really guilty.’

The TikTok has amassed a whopping 1.7 million views with everyone staunchly defending Tammy in the comments.

One user commented: ‘It’s your seat. It’s okay you wanted to keep it!’

Another said: ‘Don’t feel guilty for standing up for your needs! And you weren’t taking something that wasn’t yours…. It was rightfully your seat! Be strong.’

Other TikTokers agreed saying ‘I would not move! I don’t care if it’s a kid or an old person, we’re all responsible for planning accordingly’ and ‘Not giving up my window seat for a middle seat, nope, no way!’.

Tammy also spoke out in the comments saying she was grateful to the stranger who defended her, adding: ‘She was so nice! A complete stranger. I really appreciated her vote of confidence that my decision wasn’t terrible.’

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