Man called ‘a******’ by angry plane passenger for blocking her reclining seat

A PASSENGER has sparked debate after he annoyed a woman on board a plane by not letting her recline her seat.

The tall man wasn’t happy when the seat in front slammed into his knees – and he told the woman trying to recline that he was unable or unwilling to move his legs to accommodate her.

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The incident happened on a relatively short four-hour journey in which the man hadn’t expected to encounter any trouble with other passengers.

He said he picked a seat in economy, despite being six foot five, as he didn’t mind being uncomfortable for a while, if it meant he didn’t have to spend extra on other seats.

However, an issue arose when the woman in front wanted to put her seat back, leading to an argument.

The man took to Reddit to ask other people if he had been in the right in this situation, or if he should have let the woman recline.

He wrote: “I (25M) am around 6’5 or 196 cm, but my legs are long. Normally I purchase economy plane seats because I have no issue being uncomfortable for a while, especially for shorter flights.

“Last week, I was on a 4-hour international flight with my knees crammed into the seat in front of me.

“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. I was a little annoyed, but apologised and told her I could not move my legs out of the way.

“She accused me of doing this on purpose just because I wanted more room for myself, calling me an a****** 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.

“Should I pay extra for seats with more leg room so that people in front of me can recline even though this is not always a problem?”

The man found plenty of support from other users, many of whom sympathised with his situation.

One wrote: “I’m a big guy and it’s a common problem. They squeezed every inch out of those aircraft and it’s uncomfortable. She should have been more understanding of reality.”

Another said: “It’s not your fault you’re too tall for her to recline.”

Although the vast majority of people were on the man’s side, there were a couple who thought the woman had some cause to be annoyed.

One argued: “Is it bad to expect to be able to recline, since that’s what the seats do?”

A second added: “If I pay for a recline seat, if we can recline the seat, I don’t know why it should be inconsiderate to not recline it.”

In an article for the Points Guy, etiquette experts and passengers explained the rules for reclining and revealed how passengers can do it, while causing minimal annoyance to the person behind.

One of those, Julia Esteve Boyd, an etiquette coach and podcaster from Switzerland said: “It is completely reasonable to recline your seat if you want to.

“Just don’t recline the seat too quickly.”

This can make all the difference, which some people have found out the hard way.

One passenger was left fuming when his Apple MacBook Pro was destroyed during a flight – after the person in front reclined their seat too hastily.

Pat Cassidy was flying with Delta from Austin to Los Angeles when his computer was crushed by the seat going back onto it.

Meanwhile, you’ve been wearing your neck pillow all wrong – here’s how you should be wearing it.

And this six-foot-tall man divided opinion online when he kept trying to recline his seat.

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