Flight etiquette is a hot topic on social media, with frequent flyers and travelers regularly revealing the awkward situations they find themselves in.
Now, a man has sparked a debate online after labelling passengers who recline plane seats ‘rude’.
While venting in the Am I The A**hole? thread on Reddit, the anonymous 25-year-old man, who claims to be around 6’5”/196cm (we’ll take that with a pinch of salt) says he has long legs.
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He usually purchases economy plane seats because he doesn’t mind being uncomfortable on shorter flights.
At the start of the lengthy post he said he takes care ‘to never intrude on other people’s space around me’, although he says this ‘can be tight’ when there's another tall person thrown in the mix.
A recent four-hour international flight proved to be quite uncomfortable for the guy, since his knees were ‘crammed’ into the seat in front of him.
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The woman sitting in the seat in front decided she wanted to recline her seat, which is when all hell broke loose.
“The passenger directly in front of me tried to recline, but realised that my knees were preventing her from doing so. She turned around, gave me a dirty look, and attempted to recline again with more force,” the man said in his viral Reddit post.
“I was a little annoyed, but apologized and told her I could not move my legs out of the way without encroaching on the spaces beside me (i.e., moving my legs to the side into other people's spaces, freeing up space for her).
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“She accused me of doing this on purpose just because I wanted more room for myself, calling me an a**hole and saying that if I could not fit into a normal economy plane seat that I should pay extra for an emergency exit seat so that people around me can have more free space.
"If I'm honest, I feel that people who recline their seats in economy are annoying and inconsiderate, so I didn't exactly bend over backwards to accommodate for her."
After asking the people on Reddit if he was the a**hole in the situation, many users came out to defend him.
“I'm a big guy and it's a common problem,” a Reddit user replied. “They squeezed every inch out of those aircraft and it's uncomfortable.
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"She should have been more understanding of reality. Maybe you could have gotten an aisle seat but you paid for your seat as well and are entitled to your space.”
Another reader posted: “I will be completely honest here. I think that if they are going to make the seat room as tiny as they have made them, that they need to take away the ability to recline.”
However not everyone agreed, as some people defended the woman.
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“But she paid for her seat too,” someone argued in the comments. “And the seat she paid for includes the area where her seat reclines.
"I don't like it either when the person in front of me fully reclines, but that isn't actually my space. Yes, it's all of the airlines' fault for squeezing too many rows into each plane. That doesn't make the other woman the asshole at all though.”
Another Reddit user wrote: “Only a**hole here is the airline.”
What do you think?
Gregory Robinson