AirAsia economy passenger causes ruckus over premium seats

The woman got into an argument with passengers and crew after she laid down on a row of higher-priced premium seats without paying for them.

VIDEO INSIDE

A woman passenger tries to make herself comfortable in a row of premium seats although she had paid for the standard economy seats on an AirAsia flight. (Bruce Lam’s Facebook pic)

PETALING JAYA: A woman passenger caused a ruckus on an AirAsia flight from Kuala Lumpur to Hong Kong recently when she decided to give herself a free “upgrade” from her standard economy seat to a row of empty premium seats.

The woman had booked a standard economy seat on the AirAsia flight on March 2 but moved from her seat and laid down on a row of empty premium seats before take-off, Britain’s The Sun reported.

Other passengers who had paid more for their premium seats, which come with more leg room, were not happy with the woman’s action and one of them, Bruce Lam, told her to get back to her seat.

The woman refused and argued with a cabin crew member before finally moving back to her seat.

However, the matter did not end there as the woman kept coming back to the premium seats after take-off.

“We paid extra for our tickets. When the plane took off, a middle-aged woman walked from her standard seat to the empty, premium seats behind me.

“Staff quickly asked the lady to return to her seat and indicated that she could not arbitrarily adjust. The woman said angrily, ‘Why?’

“She was told there is an extra fee for those areas and it took four to five minutes for the woman to return to her own seat,” The Sun quoted Lam as saying.

Lam said the woman kept returning to the premium seats despite the admonishment.

“After take-off, the lady once again came to the seat behind me. She refused to get up again, but after five minutes arguing she returned for a second time.

“Then, a few minutes later, the woman [appeared] behind me for the third time, so a flight attendant asked the middle-aged woman to return – saying it was not fair to others.

“I do not know if the flight attendants were too gentle and polite, but the woman had a bad attitude – more than before. She was abusive and angry,” Lam said.

It was only when another passenger lost his temper and told the woman she had an “ugly attitude” that she eventually returned to her own seat for the rest of the four-hour flight.

Lam said the flight attendant walked to his side and said in Chinese: “Thank you, we often encounter these rude guests. Thank you.” - FMT