Man praised for refusing to let 'inconsiderate' plane passenger recline her plane seat

A man has been praised after he wanted to know if he was in the wrong for refusing to let a plane passenger sitting in front of him recline her seat.

Let's be honest, there are quite a lot of things about air travel which we find pretty darn annoying but the internet loves having a good old natter about.

Being asked to switch seats is one of the more controversial practices, usually because family members want to sit together but haven't got tickets for seats next to each other.

Then there's the times someone just straight up nabs the seat you booked even if you paid extra for it, leaving you in the tough spot of deciding whether to make an issue out of the whole thing or not.

Sometimes it's not where you sit but how you sit, as one guy recounted his recent experience on a flight and wanted to know whether he did the right thing in stopping a woman from reclining her seat into his space.

Slick Stock Images / Alamy Stock Photo

Taking to Reddit's ever-popular 'Am I the A**hole' group, the man explained that he's a rather tall 6'5 and his 'legs are long', so the limited seating space on a plane was already uncomfortable for him.

He explained that he was on a four hour flight so he'd booked an economy seat as he had 'no issue being uncomfortable for a while' and always tried his best not to intrude on other people's space.

The passenger said that he was in his seat when the woman sitting in front of him tried to recline her chair and couldn't because his knees were in the way.

She wasn't happy about this and shot him 'a dirty look' before trying to recline again 'with more force', which was not quite solving the slight hitch of a human being's knees being in the way.

The woman accused him of doing it on purpose and called him an 'a**hole', so he hopped onto the internet to check what other people thought of his situation.

Matej Kastelic / Alamy Stock Photo

It turns out that most people thought he was in the right, with the general consensus leaning heavily towards him being right for not letting his fellow passenger squash his knees with her reclining seat.

One of the most popular responses said the woman 'should have been more understanding' and agreed that it was a 'common problem' for taller people.

Someone else said they were 'not going to ask you to cut your legs' to fit in a plane seat and so the other passenger should have stopped trying to recline her chair.

Plenty of commenters pointed towards airlines having such cramped seating sections on their planes as the real villain in all of this, saying the 'only a**hole here is the airline'.

There were still some people who thought the guy shouldn't have been so opposed to the woman reclining her seat, arguing that 'every passenger has a right to do that' even if taller flyers 'do get the short end of the stick here'.

Another said 'everyone pays for' the opportunity to recline their seat, but other folks pointed out that the real issue was lack of space on the plane to do this.

Topics: Life, Travel, Plane Etiquette

Joe Harker

Joe graduated from the University of Salford with a degree in Journalism and worked for Reach before joining the LADbible Group. When not writing he enjoys the nerdier things in life like painting wargaming miniatures and chatting with other nerds on the internet. He's also spent a few years coaching fencing. Contact him via [email protected]

@MrJoeHarker