‘She Couldn’t Keep Her Claws Off Me’: United Airlines Passenger Posts Photo of Seatmate’s Hand Reaching Through Their Seat

A Portland-based passenger shared a photo they say was taken on a United Airlines flight, where another customer “couldn’t keep her claws” off of him.

The image shows what appears to be a passenger’s hand from the row in front of them. The hand is reaching back through the space between the window and the seat, resting or clawing at the leg of the person seated behind them.

Airline seats are small. There’s nowhere to run or hide when a seat opponent invades your space and gets too personal. Just extending into your personal area is bad enough without even touching you. This is so bad that it almost doesn’t seem real. But it’s bad even without the touching.

Do you say something if you’re sitting there?
byu/Qwaymind inImTheMainCharacter

Since the passenger here is asking how to report the situation, here’s what I suggest.

  • I’d probably ask the passenger behind me to stop. But someone who’s this antisocial seems just as likely to escalate a conflict as to resolve one.
  • Seeking the help of a flight attendant.
  • If there’s an empty seat on the aircraft, your best bet may be to move. Ask a flight attendant first, and explain the reason why.

The alternative is a passive aggressive response. This is not recommended. But how would you torture them back as revenge for their behavior? I guess you could start painting this person’s nails.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. Back in the day, stories like this always began with the words: Dear Penthouse, I never thought this would happen to me…

  2. Telling the loser that she will rip his nutsack off his body if he continues would be a good way of stopping the horrific behavior. This creep deserves no respect or niceness.

  3. I once had a somewhat disheveled young woman sit next to me on a very early flight. She proceeded to snuggle up and lay her head on my shoulder; she slept the entire flight. When we landed, she got up and deplaned, and we never said a word. I have to say I didn’t mind. She was beautiful sure, but more than that it seemed like she needed it after what had to have been a rough night.

  4. It’s her left hand…..meaning…. she has to be turned around facing the guy.

    I’m calling it fake

  5. Waiting for the ‘but, but, Gary, something, something, journalism’ crowd to show up. Folks, this is a guy’s travel blog, not the Associated Press. Have some fun. Live a little. And yeah, the subject of the post seemed staged. Social media just farming content for clicks these days. I donno how any of them make money off this. Anyway, good luck with the credit card referral commissions, Gary!

  6. “UNITED AIRLINES I’m disturbed!! The passager in front of me couldn’t keep her claws off me! How do I report this?”

    Appears the passenger hand is of young, supple skin. Therefore, the way to report would’ve been to join the “Mile High Club”, then brag about it on Reddit, Twitter, Discord, or AndyS’ favorite platform, Telegram.

  7. @aaway

    So, we’re in agreement, @AndyS is likely either a Russian chaos agent, or just a useful idiot.

    There are others who comment at VFTW that are suspect as well. If look back at Gary’s relatively recent post about the Russians (‘After Downing A Civilian Airliner, Russia Is Smuggling Explosives In Electronics To Target Planes’), from January 17, 2025, commenter @Mike P (another four-letter common first name with just a last initial) knowingly or stupidly spread Kremlin disinformation.

    Like, notice how @AndyS rarely has anything useful to say about any topic on this site; it’s just him spreading hate. Nothing about airline status, credit card sign-up bonuses, or anything people following this ‘hobby’ actually care about. Oh, yeah, maybe it’s because he’s freakin’ traitor!

  8. @1990

    There are a lot of “fake-triots” here.

    My personal favorite is Stephen David R. Miller, to whom I continuously invite for a get together to shoot hoops at the the world famous basketball courts near his hometown.

    Has yet to take me up (*shrugs shoulders*).

  9. It’s the airlines fault for making your seats and space so small. They are ridiculous with what they have done

  10. Seems fake. I was expecting a cat paw and an “awwww” moment.

    A human hand poised with fingers like that is different, mainly in that it takes relatively little force to dislocate or break every single one of those fingers, or even better, remove the manicured nails. Slowly.

    A hand presented like that to me, with nails digging into flesh, would be returned to its owner in substantially worse-for-wear condition. The arm might even get broken. It happens.

  11. Skip passive and go straight to aggressive. Anybody’s hand clawing on my leg will get smacked hard with my paperback and a muffled shriek…. “Oh, I’m sorry, I thought that was a bug crawling on my leg!”

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