That’s me! To be fair to myself, it was an accident. I was sitting up straight (back issues) and the person in front of me was leaning back. I noticed that on my exhales, his hair moved.
ETA: but I agree I never thought I see complaints that the seats in economy recline too far!
Have you never been on a completely full flight?
Of course he’s watching cartoons.
Can’t we devise some type of personality test that keeps assholes off of flights?
From the video, it appears to be the tray that’s the issue. I don’t know what he doing that requires the tray down, or if and how much it’s squeezing him.
Her video is happening well into this play, and without knowing what went before, it’s tough to assign blame. Did they have any kind of polite discussion first? How did it escalate and who was driving that?
Some clues:
Is that David Cross in the seat behind her?
People who recline on an airplane suck. People who express themselves by punching the backs of seats suck.
That’s why I choose Falcor Airlines whenever I travel. The only downside: those flights feel like they’ll God-damned never end.
I don’t think it’s black and white. Given that the seat behind her doesn’t recline, she could have been sensitive to that and not reclined her seat so much. I mean we all live on this planet (same logic as coworkers who are smokers going outside or a smoking lounge to smoke). But if he still punched her seat, then he’d be totally in the wrong.
IMHO.
Sadly, if the woman had been a man who weighed 100lbs more then seat puncher, bet seat puncher wouldnt be punching. IMO he decided he would physically intimidate her.
Next:
American Airlines places both passengers in new, Italian-designed, “hanging saddle” standing seats, announces problem solved.
Soon:
American Airlines announces that the hanging saddles will be placed universally due to overwhelming public demand and positive response.
All these people who say the seats should not recline:
The tray table is not affected by the reclining of the seat. I know because long ago, when I first encountered this debate on the internet, I paid attention when next I flew. The tray is attached in such a way that it is not affected by seat movement. Something on the tray, like a laptop, might be harder to use if the seat is reclined, but the relationship between the tray and the passenger whose tray it is remains unaffected.
As to your clues:
I’m not saying this woman’s actions were fully justified; we have only her video as evidence. But people are making out like this dude harassing her wasn’t completely in the wrong, just because she reclined her seat. He was.
Everyone’s the asshole in this scenario, but the man is menacing. It’s scary. That’s different than being your standard asshole.
That’ll be good for your circulation. And if you have hemorrhoids, good luck.
Obviously the answer is yes. And I have had those unlucky last seats before. It sucks…but I’ve never punched anyone’s seat or behaved like an ass.
I’d say both passengers could’ve approached the situation better though i’d be inclined to say the seat puncher could’ve definitely been polite about the reclining to begin with. As others mentioned i think if i had to class someone as a villain here it’d be the airline for giving alcohol out during a bad situation and for cramming seats this close to begin with.
I would like to know how (based solely on what we witness…no assumptions here) she is an asshole in any way shape or form?
@Grey_Devil the issue with this (and with most things like this) is we have no other info. We have personal perspective and such. But we don’t actually have the ability to see for ourselves what happened before or after this moment. We don’t know that she did say ask to recline her seat (which she is under no obligation to do so). We don’t know that she reclined it fully, then on him objecting she said “Oh sorry, I’ll raise it up a bit” and did so.
taking it at face value…she is in a seat that reclines. Reclining your seat is allowed and dependent on the seat holder to choose to do it. He is sitting in a non reclining seat. He then harasses her. This is really cut and dry.
I can’t help but wonder if the situation hadn’t smoothed out much better if only the crew had offered both parties some complementary booze
Airplanes are the perfect illustration of how social norms break down as soon as people are put in a situation where they are competing for limited resources.
