Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs
They blocked their jet-stream.
Standing up so window-seat passengers can squeeze by to use the bathroom might seem like a common courtesy, but this isn’t always followed by fliers occupying the middle and aisle positions.
Traumatized travelers are leaking appalling stories of how obstructionist seatmates refused to budge when nature called, sparking a raging debate over proper airplane etiquette.
In a viral TikTok video with 1.6 million views, user @livinlavidaniki wrote: “I know people refuse to switch seats sometimes but has anyone ever been told they won’t move so you can’t go to the bathroom? This never happened to me but I’m curious.”
Fed-up flyers were all too eager to share their experiences with bathroom obstructionists.
“I got up to use the toilet and when I came back the guy next to me had spread his stuff over my side,” griped one flabbergasted flyer. “He was like, ‘I didn’t know you were coming back.’ Like where did he think I was going??? Skydiving???”
Another described how they crawled over their stubborn seatmate “and knocked the stuff off his tray table after waiting 20 minutes and asking several times.”
“Yes! I was in a window seat otw from London to Boston (7 hour flight) and the middle lady refused to get up, both me and the aisle guy were like ‘maam you gotta get up’,” said a third, named Jessica, said. “The flight attendant came over.”
Some travelers got creative to get their neighbors to move.
“I had somebody tell me ‘You get one time to get up.’ I made it a point to say I drank a lot of water before this flight, and got up every 30 mins,” recalled one inventive traveler, named Jenn. “I usually don’t get up but don’t tell me when I can go.”
One traveler recounted a frustrating flight from Croatia to Ireland, writing: “Our middle seat was free and it was me and a teen girl. She would scoot her legs to the side but not get up, so I tooted when I climbed over.”
The lion’s share of commenters were appalled over these seat-blockers’ alleged refusal to budge so their neighbor could heed nature’s call.
“I can’t imagine not getting up for someone who needs to use the restroom like what, even if it’s annoying to do it often it’s a human need,” spluttered one commiserator, while another declared, “As an aisle seater, it’s my moral responsibility to let you go to the bathroom.”
Surprisingly, a few sided with the lavatory obstructionists.
“Technically they can’t be compelled to move. If you bought a seat, you have the right to sit on it for the entire flight,” argued one armchair travel expert, to which another spluttered, “This is an insane take, what the hell.”
While the general consensus is that people should move to let people out, there are ways to ask a seatmate to let you exit the row, etiquette experts advise.
Being pleasant is the best approach on a flight, according to Pamela Eyring, president of The Protocol School of Washington with outlets in Washington, D.C., and Columbia, South Carolina.
“Lean over, smile, get eye contact if possible, and ask, ‘Could you please excuse me?’ Then unbuckle, then begin to stand as a non-verbal motion,” she suggested.
