It was like a speed date at 30,000 feet.
An Illinois passenger revealed her “uncomfortable” seating arrangement on a European flight — by which she was forced to take a seat face-to-face with one other passenger like a sky-high inflight date.
A TikTok video detailing the awkward configuration has amassed 3.8 million views — and freaked out users — on TikTok.
“I’ve never seen this on a flight before … seats facing one another?” wrote influencer Megan Homme within the caption of the clip showing the bizarre layout, which she endured while flying a “regional airline in Sweden,” per a subsequent TikTok comment.
Within the five-second snippet, the Chicago resident and fellow flyers will be seen sitting opposite one another within the sky à la a flight attendant’s jump seat.
And while that may look like it might allow for more legroom — as flyers aren’t hemmed in by a seat back — that apparently wasn’t the case for Homme. The flustered flyer’s clip showed how her knees and feet were mere inches away from one other pair of passengers who were sitting across from her.
Unfortunately, the Chicagoan couldn’t avoid this uncomfortable orientation, as she wasn’t capable of select her seat ahead of boarding.
Armchair air travelers commiserated along with her inflight plight.
“Absolutely not. Full refund,” wrote one appalled viewer, while one other added, “That’s an excessive amount of looking time for me.”
A 3rd commenter described the composition as “a latest fear unlocked.”
“Um excuse me this isn’t a train ride,” quipped one TikTok wit, referring to the chair layout on some locomotives.
Meanwhile, one other wondered, “Like what’s the explanation for that, who’s idea that is and who accepted this concept.”
The Post has reached out to Homme for comment.
Interestingly, aft-facing airline seats aren’t as unusual as one might think with airlines starting from United Airlines to British Airways offering the arrangement in business class.
Based on the online travel site The Points Guy, many airlines go for those seats in order that they can squeeze more of them into the business class cabin, effectively prioritizing space maximization over privacy.
Paradoxically, the seats cost more cash, which is why airlines are reluctant to put in them, Newsweek reported.
The arrangement is outwardly safer than forward-facing seats, though.
Richard Snyder, a former University of Michigan transportation safety researcher, told Smithsonian magazine in October 2009 that crash protection afforded by aft-facing seats is “supported by over half a century of experience.”
The article referenced a 1952 edition of Naval Aviation News, which explained that “passengers in Navy transport planes have ten-fold higher possibilities of coming out of crashes alive, because of backward-facing seats.”
After reviewing the backward-facing business seats on British Airways, The Points Guy concluded that it had some advantages, namely good views out the window without having to twist one’s neck.
Unfortunately, there have been way more cons, per the reviewer, who complained about nausea through the plane’s ascent, an inability to make use of a laptop comfortably and, unsurprisingly, a whole lack of privacy.
“On the AA 787-8, the rear-facing window seats face the aisle, while the middle seats in the identical row face one another,” TPG wrote. “While this configuration was designed to maximise privacy, I still ended up having multiple staring contests with the lady seated in the middle seat 4H.”
