The drastic lengths that one passenger went to in order to stop the people in front from reclining during a flight has sparked a debate about seat etiquette online.
Gary James, 31, was on a TUI flight from Mexico to Manchester, in the U.K., on August 8 when he captured footage of the shocking moment. Shortly after takeoff, passengers in the row in front of James tried to recline, only to discover that something (or someone) was blocking them.
James, from Halifax, in the U.K., watched in disbelief. He told Newsweek that the man “slammed his hands” on the chairs in front of him to stop the passengers from reclining throughout the eight-hour flight.
“He then kept his hands on the back of the chair for the remainder on the flight,” James said. “I believe the family in front just gave up and thought their chair was broken as they didn’t really try again.
“I went to go tell the family in front, but any time I went over, they were completely passed out for the rest of the flight.”
Newsweek has contacted TUI via email for comment.
After capturing a video of the man refusing to let his fellow passengers recline their seats during the overnight flight, James shared the footage on TikTok (@heyimgazza). The clip has certainly captured plenty of attention online, generating over 2.7 million views and more than 81,000 likes on TikTok at the time of writing.
The TUI website says that seats can be reclined, apart from those by the emergency exit, or in the row in front of the exit. Chairs in front of a partition, such as restrooms, also cannot be reclined, but those elsewhere on the plane can.
Indeed, James himself also had a dispute on his hands when he tried to recline his seat to sleep. The people behind him called the flight attendant over to request that he put his seat up, leaving James wondering if “the whole plane was against people reclining.”
When he shared the footage online, James said he presumed most people would agree with him that this wasn’t acceptable plane etiquette. Although, to his surprise, many social-media users agreed with the man’s behavior, and it sparked an interesting debate.
James continued: “I was shocked that a lot of people were on this man’s side. I was expecting the comments to be 90 percent in my favor, however I have found that it’s more like 60 percent in my favor and 40 percent against reclining.
“A lot of people seem to think reclining is selfish and, if people want to recline, they should upgrade their ticket. I totally disagree with that. I think, if the chair comes with the ability to recline, then we should be allowed to without worrying about people kicking off or preventing me from doing so,” James said.
In just a matter of days, the viral TikTok video has amassed almost 10,000 comments as internet users were quick to share their thoughts.
One comment reads: “he did well, people reclining their seats are sooo annoying.”
Another TikTok user wrote: “Yeah those seats shouldn’t recline, they’re simply isn’t enough space between the rows.”
A third person replied: “Nope. A reclining seat is a feature I PAID FOR. If you don’t want the person in front of you to recline, pay extra to sit in the front.”
One commenter added that “this is ridiculous, if people don’t want people to recline to this point, they should just go in business class.”
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The post Passenger Stunned by What Man Does To Stop Front Seat Reclining appeared first on Newsweek.
