Woman allegedly asks to switch seats so she can sit with her husband on a flight. Then she spends the entire trip crying

A travel blogger has gone viral after sharing an unusual encounter on a 10-hour flight. According to Tomiko Harvey, a fellow passenger asked her to give up her aisle seat so she could sit closer to her husband. The flight apparently turned into an emotional nightmare for Harvey.

Harvey shared the experience in a video posted on Instagram, claiming the woman cried for three hours after she was unable to convince her to give up her seat. The blogger later described the situation as “the ultimate white tears,” expressing disbelief that the passenger became so upset over being separated from her husband for the journey.

According to Harvey, the woman was not sitting particularly far away from her husband. He was reportedly just two rows ahead of her, seated in a middle seat with his headphones on and sleeping peacefully.

She missed her husband

Harvey recalled eventually asking the woman whether someone had died, given how long she had been crying. The passenger reportedly told her that “she just missed her husband and whose shoulder would she lay her head on.”

When the flight finally landed, the blogger said she congratulated the passenger for “surviving without your husband for 10 hours,” adding a pointed “good job” to her remark. Harvey also joked that the encounter had made her reconsider her own marriage. She mentioned that she “clearly [does] not love her husband enough,” suggesting that she would not react the same way if the couple had to sit apart during a flight.

The blogger subsequently asked her followers whether they agreed with her reaction to the incident. While some people reportedly thought she could have been kinder to a passenger who had made a polite request, others supported her decision to keep the seat she had chosen.

According to an etiquette expert, Rosalinda Randall, no one is really under the obligation to give up their plane seats, even if asked to do so, as reported by Good Morning America. However, she added that there’s also nothing wrong with “anybody anything.” Randall also told people to “be ready when someone replies to you with the answer that you weren’t expecting.” She advised that “if you’re going to ask, have a good reason.”

Sara Nelson, the international president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, contributed another point that if a person refuses to give up their seat, it’s possible that “they may have chosen that flight for that seat for a very specific reason.” For instance, “They may have paid for it. They may have a very specific reason for sitting there. So don’t be surprised if the answer is no,” Nelson continued.