Via iStockphoto / @mkg0707 TikTok
A TikToker went viral after sharing her experience with a passenger on the plane. But things quickly backfired.
Overhead bin etiquette can be a touchy subject when flying. However, for one woman, a passenger eight rows behind her took things way too far.
As previously reported by BroBible, airplane etiquette can feel like a lost art. But one thing TikTok user Mary Katherine (@mkg0707) didn’t expect is the discord her TikTok would cause.
The video, which has garnered 439,000 views, depicts her sitting on a plane and looking at the camera with a disappointed expression. The on-screen text reads, “To the guy who took my backpack down from the overhead bin without asking and shoved it at me, saying, ‘Yep, moving that,’ and put his own bag up, AND WHOSE SEAT IS 8 ROWS BACK FROM US… Who raised you?”
Accompanying the video is a viral Dolly Parton sound, in which the late singer says, “I don’t lose my temper often, but if I do I can do it real good.”
Katherine then continued her frustration in the video description, adding, “Then he yelled at a guy for taking too long when we were all getting off the plane. I cannot believe people like this exist.”
BroBible reached out to the TikToker via email.
Sparking Discourse
Many questioned why the TikToker had her backpack in the overhead bin in the first place.
“Why was your backpack in the overhead bin that’s for small suitcases?” one asked.
“Backpacks go under your seat,” a second said. “The bins are for carry on luggage. He shouldn’t have done what he did, but you should know where to put your items.”
“Overhead bin is for carry on luggage but not backpacks,” a third concurred. “Doesn’t matter where he is seated and that it’s not his row. That’s still the rule and he’s supposed to find space wherever he can in the bins. However he was rude about it.”
However, other viewers took the TikToker’s side. “I hate that trope,” a fourth explained. “We all get a carry on, and just because my backpack happens to be my ONLY carry on item doesn’t disqualify me from putting it in the overhead bin. If we run out of space sure, but I’m putting it up there.”
The Context
In a follow-up video, the TikToker addresses the discord in the comment section. She remarks that it made her “really sad” over people’s “humanity.”
While she notes that the people have a right to their own opinion, she expresses her dismay at the comments section turning into “a fight about the backpack placement and losing sight of the entire reason why I made the video, which is about how somebody threw the bag at me, spoke with disrespect, without kindness, and touched somebody’s property. Not a fight on who was right or wrong, or where the backpack should be in the first place.”
“I hear both sides on that, cool. It was my only bag. It was too big to fit under my feet. That’s neither here nor there. I don’t need to defend that part. It’s about the guy’s actions, and that’s what everybody is losing sight of. And that makes me sad,” she explains.
Should You Put Backpacks In The Overhead Bin?
In another viral video, one TikTok user, who was filming himself waiting for his bag at the airport, says, “The easiest way to tell if someone is a good person in an airport is to see where they put their luggage when they get on the plane.”
He then went on to explain. “If they put their carry-on luggage in the overhead compartment, and they put their personal item like their backpack or their purse under their seat, they’re a good person, and they’re aware of their surroundings,” he says.
However, he argues that “if they put their backpack or their purse or like that little small item, if they put that on the overhead compartments that no one else can put their carry-on luggage on, and they have to check it, and they have to wait by baggage claim to get their stuff, they are the worst type of person, and they deserve a jail sentence for life.”
However, as several commenters pointed out, things get a little dicier when the only luggage one brings is a personal item.
Where do you think a traveler’s belongings should go if all they bring with them is a personal bag?