Tall Guy Doesn't Fit In Plane Seat Comfortably, Drama Ensues After Woman Tries To Recline Her Seat

Something about traveling with a group of others in tight quarters brings out some of the worst features in people. Buses, subway cars, and airplanes can all be brutal battlegrounds as people try to protect their tiny pieces of personal space. It makes sense—you don’t want to spend your entire trip being uncomfortable. Similarly, you don’t want to travel in style at everyone else’s expense.

Redditor u/pooopies1 went viral after sharing a slightly ‘controversial’ story about a recent flight he had. The tall man wrote about how the passenger sitting in front of him got mad because he wouldn’t let her recline. Scroll down for the full story and to see how the internet reacted to the tale.

We got in touch with redditor u/pooopies1 to hear more about the situation, reclining etiquette while on flights, and how to be a great passenger. Read on for Bored Panda's full interview with the author.

Image source: pooopies1

The redditor told Bored Panda that he feels bad for any adult flying in economy. The lady who got mad at him "was likely looking for a precious few cm of space to just marginally increase her comfort level, and was swiftly disappointed by my knees in her back. Any person would understandably feel frustrated by this."

What's more, the OP pointed out that you can never know if someone might have positioning or mobility issues, so they might be very uncomfortable sitting in an upright position. However, taller folks have it tough, too.

"To be honest, I feel that many people closer to average or below average height do not understand that sometimes tall people literally cannot move and cannot simply bend our legs into place to make them comfortable. A 4-hour plane flight in economy is an especially difficult time to try to understand people different than you, and I have no doubt that this played a role here."

Redditor u/pooopies1 said that even a little bit of compassion for your fellow passengers goes a long way. "This is usually why this issue does not occur. You just find a way to accommodate if someone really wants to recline their seat: one person moves, people adjust their carry-ons," they told Bored Panda.

"I have trouble relating to people who simply feel entitled to recline their seat: I almost never do unless it's a very long flight, because I do not want to interfere with the person behind me or affect their use of the tray table and so on. But also, this may be because I see the 'tray table up, seat upright' position as default and indicative of whether or not you fit the seat. All you can do at the end of the day is try your best to make yourself comfortable and help others to do the same."

The author of the story told Bored Panda that he was very surprised by just how "polarized and emotionally charged" the comments about his post were. "People really seem to care about this issue. A common argument for users calling me an AH was that I am affecting a basic function of the other passenger's seat that she is entitled to and paid to use (the ability to recline), so I do not fit in the seat, and therefore need to pay for a bigger one. On the other hand, those claiming I'm NTA usually assumed that reclining your seat is a privilege and not a right, and that the space ultimately belongs to the person occupying the space behind," they explained the different attitudes that most people had.

"What I found interesting was that, often, neither side was ever accompanied by any reasoning—people would just insist, for example, that the ability to recline was paid for as part of the ticket. Obviously, we tend to never think that we're the AH. But my personal view is that I am comfortable sitting upright in economy for 4 hours and she is not, so if she wants additional comfort measures she can pay for them and sit somewhere else. I do not think it is my job to guess ahead of time whether someone is comfortable doing this and spend more money on the basis of that guess," the OP explained his stance and reasoning.

"The seats are designed to recline pretty far back, but this can render the tray table, for instance, completely unusable, which I also pay for, so it's difficult to see that she simply has an entitlement to recline her seat as much as she wants just because the seat has that feature. However, I recognize that this is a complicated issue, and this is reflected in the comments."

In the OP's opinion, the topic was so controversial because a reclining seat is dual-purpose for two different passengers. And so, people are "bound to make different assumptions" about who's entitled to the space. "The back of an airline seat is this way: its positioning can affect both the person sitting in it and the person behind. People feel the same about other shared objects like armrests, HOV lanes, and so on."

The story really did divide the internet in two. While many people thought that he did nothing wrong by calling out the woman for trying to recline her plane seat, others thought that reclining was “a basic right.” However, in the end, the vast majority thought that redditor u/pooopies1 wasn’t in the wrong.

Personally, yours truly thinks it isn’t right to recline your seat on any budget flight. The quarters are tight enough as they are, even if you aren’t as tall as a pro basketball player. Everyone’s already crammed shoulder-to-shoulder like sardines in a tin (actually, they might even have it better), so anyone who starts claiming more space is bound to cause friction. And that’s the last thing you want on any flight.

Or, to put it in slightly more philosophical terms, the happiness you get from reclining your seat most likely won’t outweigh the trouble you’ll cause your neighbors on the plane. If you feel that you absolutely must recline, do ask the person behind you if they mind before you start encroaching on their territory. There’s nothing better than clear communication and a dash of politeness to help avoid mid-air drama.

Aside from some good old communication, some other potential solutions include spending more money to get a better seat, with more room. Bigger people need more room, so it makes sense to splurge a bit if you want to travel in comfort. However, if money’s tight or if you feel that you’d rather be a tad uncomfortable for a few hours, it’s also a valid choice. So long as you’re not overextending yourself into other people’s spaces, there’s no real issue.

Another solution would be for airlines to stop putting profit above their customers’ comfort. Packing fewer seats on the plane would ensure that everyone’s enjoying themselves far more during the flight.

However, there are two main problems with this. First of all, making changes like this would be expensive and would eat into these companies’ profits, meaning they’d just raise the cost of each ticket. The second issue is that with fewer people fitting on each flight, you’d need more planes and more fuel just to match current travel rates. And that ain’t good for the environment.

According to ‘The Points Guy,’ who conducted an informal survey about seat reclining etiquette on Facebook, there’s no real consensus on whether it’s right or wrong. However, it feels like reclining is far more acceptable the longer a flight is. On the flip side, just because you can recline doesn’t always mean that you should.

It’s important to be aware of your fellow passengers and their needs, not just your own. Try to put yourself in their shoes before you start spreading as far and wide as you can in your aisle.

Don’t forget that they’re people, too. Though your paths might diverge later, at least for now, you’re all heading toward the same destination. And it's never a bad idea to spread a bit of kindness.