Mum praised for way she asked stranger to switch plane seats so her family could sit together

A woman has been heaped with praise after sharing how she convinced a fellow flyer to swap plane seats with her.

Anna Lyn Cook took to TikTok where she explained that, despite trying to ensure her family were all sitting together when booking online, she wasn’t able to seat them next to each other.

Watch Anna's video below:

Anna told how she had tried to get staff at the flight’s gate to assist, but they weren’t able to help.

When Anna got onto the aircraft, she noticed that the passenger who was sitting with her family looked a little stressed about the fact he was surrounded by kids, and ended up being more than happy to swap seats with Anna.

She shared: "The guy who was sitting in the seat just came. He was like looking at the seat, putting his bag up. You could just kind of see on his face, 'I'm sitting here with all these kids.'”

Anna said the passenger was ‘so down’ to take her seat, which she pointed out also had more leg room.

She wrote: "I would never ask anyone to switch seats unless I could offer them a better option. If they didn't want to, I'd happily accept that. Also — we ALWAYS pay extra to select our seats if we have the option."

The video has since racked up more than 1 million views and social media users were quick to praise Anna’s handling of the situation.

TikTok/@annalyncook

One person commented: “And THAT is how you get people to switch seats,” while a second person echoed: “See this is how you trade a seat! Offer a better one.”

“That’s the way to do it!” penned a third TikToker, with a fourth adding: “This is the perfect example of how to ask to switch seats.”

Other comments included: “See this is awesome because you're giving up the better seat to be with your kids and this is the right way to do it,” “But THIS is how you do it. The people who try to convince someone in 1st class to move to the back…no” and “This is how you do it. You didn’t ask the person sitting by your good seat to switch for the worse seat.”

Judging by other videos on Anna’s TikTok - not to mention her bio, which reads: “Travelling w/ our 2 kids” - she spends a lot of time travelling with her family, so it’s no wonder she has her flight etiquette nailed.