The tourist used his creativity and puppet-making skills to convince other passengers not to sit next to him on the plane and maximize the chances of a comfortable flight in economy class. He tested his clever trick during a flight of the American airline Southwest Airlines, writes the Mirror.
An empty seat next to you on the plane is an opportunity to stretch out, spread out things, and get as comfortable as possible. Unfortunately, budget airlines’ reservation systems and their desire to fill planes as much as possible for profit make such luck rare.
Not wanting to leave things to their own devices, one tourist came up with a slightly strange trick to increase his chances of a spacious flight. He recently boarded a flight with Southwest Airlines, an American company with an open seat policy. Unlike budget airlines, which insist that passengers either sit where they have been allocated a seat or pay to choose a new seat, the American company allows you to choose where to sit directly when boarding the plane.
“Once on board, simply select any available seat and place your carry-on bag in the overhead bin or under the seat in front of you,” Southwest Airlines said in a statement on its website. This rule encourages people to get to the gate faster and get on the plane first, and to come up with clever tricks to keep people from sitting next to them.
To do this, the tourist used his hands, jacket, and cap to construct a mannequin-like figure on the seat next to him. Although the cloth-clad figure didn’t stand up to too much scrutiny, it had enough of a human form to fool an unobservant passerby.
Whether it was a doll or not, the tourist’s expectations came true, and he got an ultra-comfortable flight. In the video he posted, several people can be seen walking past his designed satellite without even looking at it.