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A Delta passenger says a disagreement over an airplane window shade escalated to the point that flight attendants got involved. She was still explaining herself to airline staff after the plane landed.
In a TikTok, content creator @ohhhnyny_ recounts how she and the passenger in the middle seat had opposite needs regarding the window during the flight. Her seatmate, who described herself as a nervous flyer, wanted the window shade open during takeoff and landing.
But the creator explained how she specifically books a window seat whenever she flies because flying makes her anxious, too. keeping the shade closed helps her manage it.
The video was overlaid with a caption reading, “A Karen cried to Delta b/c I didn’t want to put my window up for her…” It has since racked up over 760,000 views.
What Happened on this Delta Flight?
By the end of the flight, the other passenger had reportedly been moved elsewhere on the plane. But as far as the TikToker was concerned, that still didn’t explain why she was the one being pulled into a conversation with airline staff.
She tells the flight attendant that she had already submitted a complaint and that her mother, who she says has Diamond Medallion status with Delta, had also contacted the airline.
“All of her tears and all of her complaining and however entitled she feels, none of that has anything to do with me,” she explains to the flight attendant while still on the airplane. “So now I gotta stay here…it just feels like I’m being called to the principal’s office.”
After landing, the creator gives a gate agent a much more detailed account of how the disagreement started.
She says when she returned from a trip to the bathroom while the plane was still sitting at the gate, the window shade was up even though she had lowered it.
“I always keep the window down,” she explains. “I always get a window seat because I too have my anxieties about the plane.”
She continues, “I can’t sit in the middle, I get claustrophobic, I get nauseous, even looking out the window.”
The TikToker recounts that she simply lowered the shade again without comment. That’s when, according to the creator, the woman sitting in the middle seat next to her told her she was a nervous flyer and needed to be able to see outside during takeoff and landing.
They Can’t Agree On The Window Shade
The creator says she understood what the woman was telling her. She just had the exact opposite problem.
“I said, listen,” she recounts, “I heard what you said, but I don’t like to fly with it up.”
She reiterates her flying anxieties to a Delta gate agent after the flight: “I sit at the window so I can put it down and I can fly, you know what I’m saying? I don’t wanna look out, I don’t wanna see the sky. ‘Cause again, right, we all have our own anxieties.”
She then describes how she pointed out there were other open windows nearby the passenger could look through, including “the people on the other side of us.”
But this did not calm the woman. Instead, she “immediately” began crying, said she was going to have a panic attack, and began to reach over the TikToker in an attempt to open the window shade.
“I said, ‘Don’t reach over me,’” the creator recalls. “I don’t want the window up.”
When the gate agent tells her that the other passenger denied reaching across her, the creator disputes that account, saying the passenger seated on the other side of the woman witnessed what happened. She says her seatmate then suggested that she simply close her eyes so that the shade could remain open.
“So now I’m accommodating you all the way around,” the TikToker says. “I gotta put my window up and I gotta close my eyes.”
She Gives Up
Still, she relented to the crying woman and eventually raised the window shade.
“I shouldn’t have even waived on that. I should have left the window down,” she recounts to the gate agent. “We would have been going back and forth on the plane, up and down, up and down, up and down.”
At some point, the creator says she told the woman she hoped a flight attendant would move her. Apparently, that’s exactly what happened, as the woman reportedly ended up “all the way in the boonies in the back of the plane.”
Once inside the airport, a gate agent appears to give the creator an explanation for her detainment. After recalling her side of the story, she asks why the incident needs to be noted on her account. The employee says the documentation is “just to protect you” in case the other passenger files a complaint of her own. The creator then provides her ID so the employee can document her side of the incident.
Who Controls The Airplane Window Shade?
There is no FAA rule giving the window-seat passenger legal ownership of the shade, nor is there a federal rule requiring shades to remain open during takeoff and landing.
Airlines follow their own procedures and passengers are required to follow crew instructions. The FAA notes that many airlines consider keeping shades open during takeoff and landing a safety best practice so crew members can better assess outside conditions in an emergency.
Still, for the most part, the window seat passenger is generally considered the one who gets to control the window shade.
Commenters Defend The TikToker
The comments section under @ohhhnyny_’s video is filled with folks defending her right to the window, with a self-identified flight attendant writing, “She would have been put off because she’s not fit to fly if she can’t be ok during the flight without controlling the window she didn’t pay for.”
“To control the windows shade you must purchase the windows seat,” wrote one commenter.
“The entitlement of these people is sickening,” wrote another.
Yet another added, “Window seat controls the window. Middle seat gets both arm rests. Aisle seat gets more leg room and can stand up easier for bathroom breaks. Thems the rules!”
We reached out to @ohhhnyny_ and Delta via email.
Update:
In an email, a Delta spokesperson shared the following statement:
“Our Customer Care team was in contact with the customer regarding this matter and worked directly with them to address their concerns.”
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