Mom divides viewers with viral airplane seating hack

A mom has gone viral on TikTok for sharing her airplane seating hack, which has sparked a debate on the platform.

Jess Darrington, creator of ‘Where is Briggs?’, a blog providing travel tips for parents with children under 4, shared a seating hack on TikTok that has since gone viral.

In her video, which has amassed over 8.2 million views, the mom said that you can choose both an aisle seat and a window seat in the same row, leaving the middle seat empty in the hope that no one books it.

Her family ended up reserving four seats across two rows, with no one booking the middle seat. This allowed them to enjoy both rows entirely to themselves for their 11-hour flight.

Jess noted that she’s tried this hack several times over the years and has had varying results. The first time was when she had just had one child, who was a lap infant at the time. The TikToker added: “It was my husband, myself, and the lap infant, and we were all flying to Europe.

“And when I was booking tickets, the flight was empty. So, I thought, ‘I wonder if I put myself and the lap infant in the window and then my husband in the aisle seat… if that middle seat will just be left open.’”

The couple continuously checked the airline map to see if the seats were filling up. They discovered that 50 seats were still available, and when they boarded the plane, they found they could enjoy an entire row to themselves.

“I kind of gambled a little bit. But when we got on the flight, that middle seat was empty, and it was so nice because we had a little bit of wiggle room,” she said.

While some viewers expressed interest in trying the seating hack, many solo travelers did not appreciate it. “I can’t stand when people do this and then expect me to move or switch seats,” one person wrote.

“Here’s an idea. Just get seats next to each other,” another said. “I’d be the guy refusing to move from the middle just to prove a point,” someone else added.

This is just the latest travel hack to go viral, after a TikToker shared a ‘genius’ airport packing hack to save money.