‘Plane passenger from hell’ sparks debate after refusing to use headphones

When taking a flight, the etiquette of fellow passengers is one of the contributing factors that determines how good the experience will be.

But one passenger who was on a "completely full Southwest flight" has sparked a debate after complaining about the person sitting next to her, all because she refused to use headphones when watching videos on her phone.

A 32-year-old woman took to Reddit's "Am I the A**hole?" forum to share her frustration as she travelled from Dallas to Chicago.

"I was in the window seat and there was a 50+ lady sitting in the aisle seat," she began.

"The plane filled up and only middle seats were left so I was happy when this cute girl in her early 20’s wanted to sit in our middle seat.

"She had her Chanel purse, and basic b gucci sneakers on.'

Then, things took a turn when the woman whipped out her phone.

"While we were taxiing for ~40 minutes before take off, I put my air pods in and start listening to an audio book and she proceeds to pull her phone out and starts watching TikTok videos on full volume.

The poster described how she was in "somewhat disbelief by her lack of self-awareness," and thought "no way she’s going to do this for more than 5 minutes."

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However, it continued on...

"Well, 30 minutes passes by and she is still scrolling through her feed and the videos are so loud (I can hardly hear my audio book) and just ridiculous mind-numbing crap."

The woman couldn't put up with the noise any longer and decided to ask her to lower the volume.

"I am finally so annoyed that I turn to her & ask if she can please turn her volume down or put in headphones.

"She says nothing to me, but gives me the nastiest look like I am in the wrong for telling her off and proceeds to barely turn it down."

Fuming from the woman's lack of response, the original poster is "so offended" she then turns to brightness up on her phone to "very obviously text my husband about what a devil she is and basically rip her apart and make sure my texts about her are within her line of sight."

"I am sure she saw the texts, bc she avoided eye contact with me for the rest of the trip."

She then asked: 'AITA for saying something and making sure she saw my awful comments about her in response to her reaction or can someone please tell me what is going on in these people’s heads? Is it entitlement?

"Do they consider the people around them and just not care?? Help me out here!"

Since sharing the situation, people have been weighing in with their thoughts - most believed the original poster was not in the wrong and agreed that it's basic etiquette to not play videos out loud.

But the original poster was also criticised for her passive-aggressive move and was told she should have just told the flight attendant who would have sorted the problem.

One person said: "NTA. Basic etiquette requires headphones.

"Also, this may actually be in the contract of carriage, depending on which airline. Next time get an FA involved. They will shut that crap down in nothing flat typically because they hate it too."

"NTA Once you asked once, it's time to get the flight attendant involved. Let them handle it," another person wrote.

Someone else added: "ESH [Everyone sucks here]. Her for not using headphones, but you for your passive-aggressive bs. All you needed to do was ring for the flight attendant to handle it. That’s their job."

"She’s the AH because any sane person would have had enough self-awareness to be mortified and immediately complied when you asked her to wear ear phones," a fourth person commented.

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