She wanted to recline her plane seat so she could get some sleep on the flight (stock) (Image: Getty)
A woman has sparked a debate after sharing how she kept her seat reclined despite knowing it was making another passenger uncomfortable.
She shared how she was travelling on a nine-hour from Dallas to Paris with her mum – and was hoping to catch up on sleep on the overnight plane.
To help with this, she reclined her seat back, put headphones in and shut her eyes. But she was soon disturbed by the woman sitting behind her, who asked whether she’d put her seat back in its upright position.
She said on : “After take off, I lean back my seat to begin snoozing. Almost immediately, the girl behind me taps on my shoulder and asks me to pull up my seat, which I do, but then asked why.
“She said there was a baby in a car seat right behind her, so she couldn’t recline, and if I leaned my seat back, she can’t really see the TV screen on the back of my seat.
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“I was like, OK, but a few minutes in I realised I really needed to lean my seat back if I was gonna sleep (it just made a huge difference for me).
After noticing an empty seat in another row, she suggested the woman move there so she could continue to watch her movie and she could recline and relax. However, the woman wasn’t having any of it. She added: “I figured, since there was an empty seat in the middle section just a few rows back, if it really bothered her, she could move there. I had even told her as much.
“So, after a few minutes, I leaned back my seat again and close my eyes. She then gets the attention of a flight attendant to tell me to pull up my seat. I put in my headphones.” Annoyed, the woman called over a flight attendant and explained the situation to them – but they simply said there was nothing they could do about it.
“The girl then got the attention of two more flight attendants, who all said the same thing, and offered the same seat I told her about. Thing is, we were in the window seat, and the girl complained that she picked that seat because it’s the window seat so she refused to move. Meanwhile, I pretended to sleep the whole time.”
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Wanting to know whether she’s in the wrong for refusing to readjust her chair, she added: “I felt really bad for her. If it was me, I’d be complaining too. But I also didn’t really care about the window and wouldn’t have been bothered at all about moving, so in my mind when I leaned back, I figured she could move if it really bothered her. I bet she really thought I was the a***hole though. It was just a sucky situation.”
Commenting on her post, one user said: “I’d love for airline seats to slide forward to recline. Want to recline? Lose a couple inches of legroom but not inconvenience the person behind you.” Another user added: “airline passenger seats have been designed without thinking through all the permutation on how people actually use them when flying.” A third user said: “Car seats are required to be in the window seat so as to not block other passengers if there is an emergency. So the only real solution was for the girl to move.”