She was on a flight from heaven — headed straight to hell.
A passenger on a Southwest flight from Hawaii to the mainland found herself trapped in a nightmare after a child wouldn’t stop kicking the back of her seat — and the parent allegedly refused to take the matter seriously.
And while the internet is full of after-the-fact, high-elevation horror stories nowadays, this fed-up flyer found herself in need of immediate moral support.
So she logged into the inflight wi-fi service and posted an urgent plea to the Southwest Airlines board on Reddit, hoping finding a sympathetic ear — and some helpful advice, People first reported.
“I am currently on a flight from Hawaii to Las Vegas and a child behind me keeps kicking my seat,” Redditor Silverlace22 alerted the room.
“His oblivious father is sitting next to him and does nothing. I don’t want to cause a scene but 4 hours into this and I am ready to go full tilt Karen. I have said ‘ouch’ a few times, but to no avail.
“Why do they only put 1/2 inch of foam between your lower back and someone’s foot,” she wondered aloud.
Users were quick to come to the moral support of the ticked-off traveler, telling her to ring for crew assistance immediately.
“Press the flight attendant button and use your best adult words to tell them what you said here,” one virtual Good Samaritan urged.
“I have turned around many a time and just said straight to the kid ‘hey bud you’re kicking my seat and it hurts. Can you keep your legs away from there? Thanks!’ Usually goes fine,” said another.
Other users suggested hilarious ways to strong-arm the child into better behavior.
“‘See this blue button above my seat? It is the eject button for YOUR seat. If you keep kicking me, I will be forced to push it and you will be ejected from the plane,’” one armchair warrior suggested as a line that might work.
Some, however, were quick to blame the passenger for being “passive aggressive,” which the woman clarified was not the case.
“Should have added I already spoke to Dad who says okay and then it continues. So getting flight attendant involved is the only recourse. Was just hoping someone had a creative alternative. Feral parenting is no joke,” she fumed.
In hopeless in-cabin cases, travel pro and advisor Nicole Campoy Jackson of Fora Travel previously told People, it’s good to be cautious — you never know who’s going to lose their cool when confronted.
“This is a tough one because parents are already on high alert and often feel defensive when flying with their kids,” she told the outlet. “To turn around, already mad, and start throwing blaming words around is going to help absolutely no one have a better flight.”
Instead, she advocated for a gentle approach, speaking quietly and directly with the parent — and only involving a flight attendant if the problem persists.
Recently, one mom went viral after confronting a pair of fellow passengers over their badly behaved kid, who wouldn’t stop blowing spittle-filled raspberries from the seat in front of them.
“After the third time my husband very sternly said to the parents, ‘If you don’t get your kid under control, I’ll do it for you,’” Shayla Monnier recounted of her flight from Atlanta to Denver earlier this year.
After the offending mom retorted that people without kids wouldn’t understand, Monnier’s husband had the ultimate comeback:
“‘We have five children and six grandchildren and I promise you not one of them would do something like that,’” he reportedly said.
Unruly behavior in airports and on planes has become common place, typically among adults behaving like children.
In Taiwan, one fully-adult traveler was filmed recently hurling a chair and assaulting a staffer at Kinmen Airport over an unknown issue.
Closer to home, a United Airlines passenger in a “Scarface” t-shirt took a bite out of a flight attendant’s uniform, forcing the Newark-bound plane to make an emergency landing.
Meanwhile, in Washington, D,C, one coach class creep was recently grounded for allegedly following a mother and daughter into the restroom — before illegally boarding the family’s flight, plopping down next to them.
In 2022, the Federal Aviation Administration introduced a permanent zero-tolerance policy for bad behavior.
Penalties can include counseling, fines, warnings and prosecution — not to mention civil penalties of as much as $37,000 per violation, according to the agency.
