I spilled my drink, cracked my laptop screen, and shattered my knee.
A new video shows why reclining airplane seats has gone from an acceptable practice to one of the biggest annoyances for many airline passengers.
The video is part of an advertising campaign launched in late November by furniture company La-Z-Boy, which also includes a petition urging travelers to “do the right thing. Don’t recline when you fly.” .
A La-Z-Boy representative told CNBC Travel that the petition had more than 186,000 signatures as of Monday.
The tongue-in-cheek campaign from the company, known for its luxurious oversized recliners, touches on an issue that has become increasingly prominent as passenger numbers increase and seat spacing narrows.
Unlike drinking and hygiene issues (like cutting your nails and taking off your shoes), which are widely scorned by fellow passengers, opinion on seat recline is divided into two main camps. There are those who say “no” and those who insist on the existence of a reclining button. There’s a reason. (A third, more nuanced position holds that reclining is acceptable on long-haul or night flights.)
La-Z-Boy’s campaign places the company firmly in the “never recline” camp, and the petition reads, “Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.”
Another video from the campaign shows a single reclining seat ripple through the plane like dominoes, eventually ending up in the last row of the plane. This row is both hated for its lack of reclining options and praised for being one of the few spaces on the plane. Some airplanes allow you to recline without any charges.
A 2023 survey of 18 markets by research firm YouGov found that attitudes towards seat recline vary by region, with Europeans being the least tolerant of the practice. Europe is home to the world’s tallest people.
But less than one in three UAE travelers cared about that.
Overall, all but one of the travelers from the United Arab Emirates were less concerned about all on-board behavior (including personal grooming and noisy children), according to the survey. People in the United Arab Emirates are more likely than people in Europe, North America or the Asia-Pacific region to believe that public displays of affection are unacceptable, the survey showed.
