Woman on a flight out of Texas asks her seatmate to close his window like the crew requested. Then she says she’s the one who gets in trouble

Rosey Catherine says a passenger allegedly yelled at her when she asked him to close his window shade after a crew announcement on a Texas flight. She shared the story on TikTok, according to BroBible.

According to Catherine, the crew reportedly asked window seat passengers to close their shades, as light off the concrete would make the plane really hot. Seated in the middle, she reportedly could not reach the window. She says she tapped the man in the window seat and asked, “Hey, can you close that window? They just asked, and it’s getting really hot.”

“I can do whatever f*** I want! I paid for this seat,” he allegedly yelled in response, according to Catherine. However, she says the man allegedly faced no reprimand, while she ended up in trouble herself. “I got in trouble because I had my needlepoint on my lap during takeoff,” Catherine said in the video.

She says her seatmate snapped and yelled that he paid for the seat

In the comments, the outlet noted that viewers were split on who was in the wrong. One argued that enforcing the request was the flight attendant’s job, not Catherine’s, while another suggested some passengers keep their window shade open as they have claustrophobia. Catherine replied that she understood, but said the man still didn’t have to scream at her.

Needlepoint is a type of embroidery stitched onto stiff canvas, and it has drawn a younger crowd online. TikTok told Axios that posts tagged #needlepoint rose 400% in the first 10 months of 2024 compared with the same period in 2023. The TSA allows sewing needles in carry-on bags, so passengers like Catherine can bring a project aboard. 

Crews usually ask for closed shades on hot days to keep parked planes cool

Another commenter claimed the close-the-window request was new to them, saying they first heard it on a flight out of Austin. Flight attendant Kelly Kincaid told The Points Guy that crews often ask passengers to close their window shades before deplaning in hot climates, as it keeps the cabin cool for the next group boarding.

Delta told The Washington Post that flight attendants may ask passengers to open or close their window shades in specific situations and expect compliance. However, Beaumont Etiquette founder Myka Meier has said the person seated by the window owns the window shade, a norm that echoes the seatmate’s argument about paying for his seat.

Catherine’s reprimand appears to rest on firmer ground. Federal Aviation Administration guidance tells airlines to instruct passengers to secure loose items in a bag under the seat or on their person until roughly two to three minutes after takeoff. A needlepoint project sitting loose on a lap would likely fall under that instruction.

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