‘Pushy influencer filmed me sleeping on plane for a vlog – it was so intrusive’

A bloke has explained the baffling situation he found himself in while on a flight out of the UK recently. He said that the woman sitting next to him not only chatted away for a bit too long but actually filmed him for her social channels while he was sleeping.

Despite asking her to stop, saying he didn't want to talk and warning that he would tell staff, the man found out she had filmed him while he slept. Plus, the influencer even kept pushing her head onto him to catch some sleep herself.

The man took to Reddit to explain what had happened on his flight: "I 21 (male) have been flying all my life without issues, and finally ran into a 'bad' experience. This situation happened on a flight departing from the UK if that matters.

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"I feel like it might've been cursed from the start because I had to grab a flight last minute due to a family emergency. By the time I booked, there were no aisle seats available, but I found a row of three seats with extra leg room and selected a window seat. Seated next to me was a man around my age or maybe older, and in the aisle was a woman (22). The woman was very talkative. The man was very quiet. I had no intention of getting friendly. I think I was sad, or worried, but it might've translated into a**hole.

"She initiated and we all made brief introductions. I had the family emergency on my mind so I switched my headphones on closed my eyes following our intros, and waited for us to take off. I heard the other two talking and felt them shuffling around. [The woman] switched seats with the guy. Now he was in the aisle and she was in the middle."

The traveller had his eyes closed, but then he heard the woman talking, and opened his eyes to see that she was 'making a video', something that left him surprised and confused him as she wasn't filming herself.

"I opened my eyes and she had the camera on me in that moment", he said. "It was brief so I let it slide, gestured a little acknowledgement, not saying anything because at that time I had no idea how annoying it was about to get.

"She eventually turned the camera off and started asking me a lot of questions I wasn't in the mood for. I understand she was feeling chatty, and maybe I wasn't in the right headspace for someone like that. She was headed on an adventure. I wasn't.

"I answered a few questions briefly and then I told her to talk to the other guy because I wanted to sleep. She told me she did not want to talk to him, she wanted to talk to me. At this point I felt like she wasn't taking a hint so I told her bluntly…I don't want to talk. This worked (kind of).

"I thought she had stopped bothering me for a while because it was silent, but when I opened my eyes I saw that she was filming me. I raised a brow and she giggled. I told her I needed her to stop. She laughed and told me I had said I don’t want to talk but I didn't say I don’t want to be filmed.

"I replied to that with 'now you know'. She brushed this off, switched to filming herself, and said to her camera 'he is so cranky'. She stopped filming me though, and finally settled in, watching something on her iPad. I fell asleep."

But, when he woke up things only got worse – she wasn't there however the man next to him then told him that she was "filming" him when he was asleep, but also doing "stupid things" like pretending to touch his face, waving her hand in front of his eyes, hovering her hand over his to compare size, and putting her shoe next to his, and more.

"He said he told her to stop, and she did, but he has also been sleeping and isn't sure if she did things while he slept. He asked me not to bring it up because he didn't want to 'get in the middle'."

The bloke continued: "I waited for her to get back and then immediately confronted her. She turned to the other guy angrily… meanwhile, he looked uncomfortable (English was his second language). Before she could go off on him I stopped her.

"I requested she delete whatever footage she took of me. She doesn't have my consent. She stated she doesn't need it. I gave her an… 'Are you serious?' look and she switched to pleading. I was so tired of it at this point so I gave her a warning: no more filming, or I'm complaining to flight staff. She stopped filming me after this.

"Mid flight: she fell asleep, and kept resting her head against me… which I kept pushing away, only for her to kind of frustratedly put her head back. The entitlement of this girl. I got a pillow and shoved it between and tried to get some sleep as well.

"When we were approaching the landing, she asked me to take her camera and film the descent. Not only that, she asked me to also give commentary. I told her I'm not doing any of that. This made her start reaching over me to film the window.

"The flight attendant doing her checks and I made eye contact, and she told the girl off. The girl straightened up and stayed quiet. Some time passed, and I felt a little bad she wasn't going to get her stupid shot for her stupid vlog, so I offered to let her switch seats with me.

"She refused. She said it was too late (disagree). She said I ruined her video. It was her first time visiting this country and I was starting her off on the wrong vibe. She also said I was single-handedly giving her a bad impression of men in my country. I was being a bad 'ambassador for the brand' (her exact words).

"This made me laugh. She asked me aren't I going to 'make it up' to her? I said I didn’t know I owed her that. I’ll get her luggage down from the overhead. She said it wasn't good enough. I disengaged."

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He said that he knew "content creators" and influencers exist, but he'd never "encountered one in real life", so he wanted to know whether he was an "a**hole for not being a good sport."

"I admit I was in a bad mood because of the situation that had put me on the plane in the first place, but I still don't think it's appropriate to film in close quarters. It's a public place, sure, but come on…", he ended the post by writing.

In the comments, people were quick to tell the man that he hadn't been unreasonable in this situation, with one penning: "Not the a**hole. If something like this ever happens again, call for a flight attendant and explain that the person in the next seat is filming you without your consent." Another said: "Those people are scum."

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