Flight attendant shares their trick to punish passengers who refuse to swap seats

A flight attendant has shared how she punishes passengers who refuse to swap seats - and you may not be too happy about it.

For years, a fierce debate has raged over the etiquette of seat swapping on planes. Some believe that if you've paid for a seat then absolutely nobody should have the right to request it - and understandably so. Others however argue that, under certain circumstances at least, you should make allowances and give up your precious seat to those who need it more - even if you have managed to bag a coveted window seat.

Now a savvy air hostess has revealed her tried and trusted method for getting more obstinate passengers to swap their seats with parents travelling with young children, and claims it works like a charm...

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Orlando-based flight attendant Mitra Amirzadeh explained that if a child is mixed up in a heated seat-swapping dilemma, she'll step in to try and smooth things over - using all her hard-won powers of diplomacy.

Mitra, who is also a union rep for an airline that charges passengers for advanced seat selection, told the publication: "I have said before, 'OK, so you're going to watch the toddler? 'You'll want their snacks and their colouring books then, because they're going to need that'."

As you can imagine, this motivates plenty of peace and quiet-loving passengers to hop up sharpish. The cabin crew member went on to clarify however that she very rarely intervenes in cases which don't involve kids - for example with couples who simply want to sit together, despite not having planned for such an eventuality at the time of booking.

Confirming that she absolutely doesn't want passengers to be 'forced' to swap seats they've paid for, Mitra continued: "The next time you feel yourself getting angry or getting frustrated that you're not getting the seat you want, you need to remind yourself that you didn’t pay to pick your seat. Otherwise, you'd be in it."

According to Mitra, such awkward situations are far from a rare occurrence, with the universally frustrating seat-swapping scenario occurring during approximately 80 per cent of her monthly flights.

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