Heated argument between economy passengers reignites plane etiquette debate
A 12-second clip of two passengers arguing on a plane has reignited the age-old debate of whether it is acceptable to recline your seat on a plane.
The viral video which was originally posted on TikTok and then re-shared on X, has racked up over 8 million views since Thursday.
In the video, a frustrated woman was calling out another female passenger for pushing her seat the entire flight, right after they landed.
“The whole trip she pushed my seat,” the woman said to a male passenger seated next to the female passenger accused of kicking her seat.
“You seen it. You know she did.”
“I’m allowed to put my seat back," she yelled repeatedly.
Ian Miles Cheong, the user who posted the video on X, defended the woman saying: “She’s allowed to put her seat back. You don’t get to kick it repeatedly just because you want more space.”
A few were on the woman's side and praised her for standing up for herself.
“You are allowed! Period! You want space in front of you instead of pushing the seat, buy a seat with extra space or get your a** to business class. Reclining was put there for a reason,” one person wrote.
“She was patient enough to wait till flight landed," they added.
“If the seat is reclinable, recline it,” another commented.
"What she’s saying is right. The woman has a right to put her seat back without someone kicking it," a third agreed.
However, others claimed that there was an unwritten rule that you shouldn't recline your seat, especially on a short-haul flight, adding that the recline feature should be scrapped from airplanes.
“Putting your seat back in coach is an unspoken thing most people don’t do. It’s really the airline’s fault because they’ve made coach so cramped and tight that putting the seat back shouldn’t even be an option,” one commented.
“Airline seats simply shouldn’t be able to recline. It intrudes on the already very little space a person has on the plane for the person behind them,” another added.
“Really it’s the airline’s fault for cramming so many people in such a small space. They don’t call it cattle class for nothing,” a third wrote.
One user understood both sides of the argument, and blamed the airlines for making the seats so cramped.
"It can be annoying sometimes to be behind someone with their seat all the way, but if the airlines didn't want to allow that, it wouldn't happen," they wrote.
"You don't kick the seat like a baby. Blame the airline, not the person doing what the airline says is fine."
Images: Twitter