Unlike other airlines, Southwest has a peculiar boarding system in which fliers are not given seat numbers. Instead, Southwest enacts what they call “open seating,” which means that, once one’s group is called, they are allowed to select any available seat on the aircraft.
In theory, this allows fliers to sit in whatever seat they like. In practice, this turns the airplane into a battlefield, with fliers camping out on aisle and window seats and doing their best to prevent people from sitting in the seats adjacent to them.
Given this, many have developed methods for keeping seats free. For example, one user went viral after sharing their own way to maintain an open row, which involved being just a little too friendly to passers-by.
These methods don’t always work, however—and, as with the case of Sophie (@boredsoap), attempting them can result in a flier being called out by the airline’s employees.
@boredsoap as you can see I was trying to do reverse psychology lol #southwest #fullflight #corporategirlie #humortiktok #avoideyecontact #lol ♬ original sound – sophizzles
In a video with over 1.6 million views, Sophie shows herself sitting in a seat and consciously avoiding anyone who walks by.
“If you’re trying to avoid the eye contact so nobody will sit in the middle, that’s not going to work today,” a flight attendant says over the intercom, causing Sophie to smile. As the flight attendant later explained, this was due to the fact that the flight was full. The flight attendant follows this up by saying that other methods, such as leaving a bag on the seat, would also not work given the amount of people attempting to board.
In the text overlaying the video, Sophie writes, “POV: you’re on a full flight and called out by the flight attendant for avoiding eye contact so no one sits next to you.”
Commenters were quick to share their own methods for keeping the middle seat open.
“Nah you’re supposed to stare at them so you freak them out and they won’t sit next to you,” said a user.
“This why i put in my headphones and look at my phone,” shared another.
“I just pretend I don’t hear when I don’t like what I hear,” added a third. “You say something?”
A few users offered a potential explanation for the flight attendant’s statement.
“It’s the southwest humor,” observed a commenter. “It also delays the flight when people deliberately make it harder for people to find seats so he’s actually being nice !”
The Daily Dot reached out to Sophie via TikTok comment.
