A Woman Refused To Move Seats On A Flight & People Are Accusing Flair Of Racism (VIDEO)

A TikTok video taken on a Flair Airlines flight from Vancouver to Calgary has gained attention online, and people are accusing the airline staff of racism and discrimination.

A woman on the flight allegedly sat in the wrong seat and refused to move to her correct one — creating a disturbance that was recorded on video.

The TikToker who posted the video, @adeolaalle, said that his wife and family were on the flight earlier this month and the woman was sitting in one of their seats. He said that they were discriminated against after the airline staff did not make the woman move to her correct seat.

He said that his wife was travelling with her 12-week-old baby and mother-in-law, and when she discovered someone was sitting in her seat she thought it was an honest mistake.

According to the TikToker, his wife told the woman that she was in the wrong seat but had to call the flight attendant for help when the passenger refused to move.

"The reasonable course of action was to get that person to stand up from that seat," he said in the TikTok. He added that instead, the flight attendants asked his wife to go to a different seat. She refused to do this because she wanted to stay seated next to her mother-in-law and her child.

"My wife accused them of racism because that's what it is, that's the only explanation that is reasonable here," he said.

"If it was a Black person, or if she was the one who was sitting in that seat, they would not hesitate to kick her off that flight," he added.

"This is 2023 and this is Canada, I don't expect that this should be happening."

He also said that the Flair Airlines flight attendant handled the situation unprofessionally. "The person who was offended, who was in the right, was the one being threatened to be kicked off the plane," he added.

The TikTok also shows a clip of the incident, where you can hear the flight attendant telling the person filming (the TikToker's wife), to "calm down" repeatedly.

The video ends as the incident deescalates, thanks to fellow passengers who gave up their seats so the family could sit together.

People in the comments were also accusing the airline of racism.

In a follow-up video also posted by @adeolaalle, the TikToker said that Flair Airlines reached out to his wife and offered a full refund for her flight, as well as her mother-in-law's.

"My wife told them that it was not about the money," he said. He added that it was more about getting an apology for what happened, which he said they have not gotten.

A Flair Airlines spokesperson told Narcity that they are investigating the "circumstances of the incident, passenger actions," and their "staff response."

"We spoke directly to the passenger first to listen to her experience and concerns first hand, to offer our sincerest apologies for any distress, and to discuss ways the airline can remedy her concerns. Our staff are trained to de-escalate situations that arise related to boarding. We ask that our passengers take their assigned seats to limit any stress to fellow passengers," they added.

The airline spokesperson said that "Flair Airlines staff did ask the passenger in 2A to move to her assigned seat, but she refused multiple times."

"Our flight attendants did offer a solution and attempted to deescalate the situation. The resolution take for the flight was to seat the passenger in the window seat on the other side of the aircraft — the same row and seat, just on the other side of the plane. Subsequently, a representative of the airline apologized to the aggrieved passenger on the phone. A full refund has been issued to the passengers' credit card for the cost of the flight and any extras purchased for both seats," they said.