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

A flight attendant has divulged her sneaky tactic for dealing with passengers who stubbornly refuse to change seats, and it's quite the eye-opener.

The contentious issue of whether to swap seats on a plane has long sparked heated discussions among travellers. Some staunchly defend their right to remain in their pre-booked seat, while others suggest that certain situations warrant a more flexible approach, especially to accommodate families flying together.

An astute flight attendant has now shared her secret strategy for persuading resistant flyers to move so that parents and young children can sit together. She swears by this approach, claiming it never fails to achieve results.

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Speaking to The Wall Street Journal, Orlando-based flight attendant Mitra Amirzadeh disclosed her method for resolving tense seat-swap standoffs involving kids. When faced with such a scenario, she intervenes with all the finesse of a seasoned negotiator.

Mitra, who also represents her colleagues as a union rep at an airline known for charging extra for seat selection, shared with the news outlet: "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'.", reports the Mirror.

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.