A TikTok user from San Diego, California, has ignited a debate over whether passengers in aisle seats must always get up to let others in the row use the bathroom. The user, who posts under @deetsontheeats, argued in a recent video that unless physically unable, aisle-seat occupants should stand to allow others to exit.
She recounted a flight where she asked a woman in the aisle seat to move so she could use the bathroom. The woman suggested she 'scoot past,' but the TikTok user replied, 'What, in the two inches between your leg and the seat in front of you, no I can't scoot by you. Unfortunately, I'm bigger than two inches.' She added, 'I'm not going to climb over your lap, I'm a grown woman.'
The fellow traveler eventually stood, but the content creator was annoyed by the interaction. 'It's like just gotta get up guys, you just gotta get up,' she said, acknowledging that not everyone is physically capable but insisting that in this case, the woman could have moved.
The TikTok user also weighed in on armrest etiquette, stating, 'We all agree the middle seat gets both the armrests, but just the armrests – not the arms into my seat.' Commenters largely supported her views, with one saying, 'As an aisle seat only person, getting up as often as anyone wants to for any reason comes with the territory. You can't hold the row captive.' Another shared a story of sitting in someone's lap to swing their legs through when a passenger refused to get up.
