I’ve seen a lot of crazy things over my decades of flying and of course, thanks to social media, we’re inundated with photos and videos of people doing the unimaginable. It seems like there’s been a serious decline in manners and common decency, as evidenced in the video below. RELATED: The One Thing Some Women Do on Airplanes That Drives Me Nuts – And I Can’t Believe It’s Not Illegal
Reddit user cassini2019 posted a video of a couple kicking and supposedly punching the seat in front of them on a Denver (DEN) to Nashville (BNA) flight on United Airlines.
According to cassini2019, “On our flight from DEN to BNA, this husband and wife took turns to punch, shove, and kick the seat in front of them. This continued for the duration of the flight. United Airlines opened an investigation and is attempting to ban the couple from flying United.”
She posted the video embedded below with this caption: “The flight attendants were made aware of the couple’s actions, and attempted to approach them nicely. The couple ignored the staff and continued to bully the lady in front of them when the staff wasn’t looking. The couple can be heard saying (in another recording) that the lady has her seat slightly reclined, and that she must be entitled and special. The seat was never reclined, just mechanically not perfectly aligned with the other seats. The couple never attempted to speak to the lady in front of them, just decided to punch and kick the seat violently in attempts to have the seat straightened out somehow.”
On our flight from DEN to BNA, this husband and wife took turns to punch, shove, and kick the seat in front of them. This continued for the duration of the flight. United Airlines opened an investigation and is attempting to ban the couple from flying United.
byu/cassini2019 iniamatotalpieceofshit
Watching this video makes my blood boil for a number of reasons:
1. It’s just plain wrong to act like this.
2. It appears that the terrible person who is kicking the seat is doing so because the seat is reclined but … she also has their seat reclined! The hypocrisy is astounding.
3. It was reported and pointed out that the seat in front wasn’t actually reclined. It was broken. According to cassini2019: “All of us on the flight in the back including the flight attendants checked the seat after the couple left. Seat was not reclined, just about an inch off from being aligned with the other seat. Those people kicking and punching the seat were pure evil.”
BTW: If you’re ever seated in a broken seat (I have been numerous times), report it to the flight attendant so they can write it up and so that the seat can get fixed. Otherwise, no one will ever know the seat is broken. Likewise for entertainment systems.
4. If a seat can recline, you can recline it. But before just throwing your seat back, give the person behind you a heads up or at least turn around to make sure they aren’t working on their laptop.
It’s one of my pet peeves when people just recline without letting me know, especially when they do it with force and I’m working on my computer. But as a passenger, it’s my responsibility to make sure that my laptop isn’t wedged under their seat so their actions wouldn’t break my screen.
Unless it’s a long flight, I try not to recline my seat unless the person behind me is in a row with extra legroom and as long as the person in front of me doesn’t recline. If the passenger in front reclines you pretty much have to recline unless you want their hair in your mouth.
I was once on a flight from Paris to Lyon. It’s just an hour flight and I didn’t recline until the person in front of me did; the pitch on Air France’s planes is minimal. The American woman behind me started yelling at me for reclining. I said, “What am I supposed to do?” and looked and saw that she was reclined herself. The hypocrisy and entitlement is what’s so aggravating.
If you don’t want someone to recline on you, then spend the money to book the bulkhead, the exit row or first class. I really hope United Airlines bans these people for life. Cassini2019 posted, “The person they were shoving was the sweetest lady. I got to talk to her when we landed and showed her the recordings. She was so sweet and grateful that I recorded and reported the incident. I am in communication with the flight attendants (we exchanged information) and they said that United is still working on banning them from flying with United. I wish they would ban them completely from flying anywhere.”
If an incident ever happens like this, obviously report it to a flight attendant right away and get video of the perpetrators.
Perhaps the reason we hear so much about these incidents is because almost everyone has a smartphone so they can capture the moments that might have been happening all along. But thanks to technology, almost anyone can be a reporter and when an incident like this happens, it goes viral quickly.
What do you think? Has this kind of bad behavior been happening all along or is it a side effect of the pandemic? I know it’s not a generational thing because from what I’ve seen, these incidents involve people of all ages.
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What I don’t understand is why all the airlines don’t get together and ban disrespectful, rude and angry passengers from all airlines so they can’t fly. If people know this was going to happen and they couldn’t fly at all they would think twice and their behavior would improve! Banning them from just the airline where the incident occurs means nothing because they can fly another airline. Flying is not a right it is a privilege we pay for and shouldn’t have to pay for entitled people who think they can do whatever they want because there are no serious consequences.
Things are deviating down. Now, there should be a jail in the back of the plane & 4 Huge, strong men to grab the out-of-control passenger(s) & throw them in the pen. And then they get banned for life on that airline!!!!! Please, I do Not want my I.D. shown. Thank you. There are Always some very nasty people commenting back at you.
They should be banned from all airlines. Bad behavior should never be excepted. How bad can adults be!? Bad example for children today.
I have written the president/CEO of United Airlines, American Airlines and the head of the FAA asking why they do not ban any passenger from flying for life for any behavior the endangers other passengers or any behavior that cause a flight to divert and land the plane to have police take a passenger off the flight. That action cost the airline huge amounts of money and ruins the travel of hundreds of others not able to make it to their destination on time. That would stop this entire behavioral fiasco in its tracks. And eliminate the drunks and other malevolent individuals from flying. The rest of the normal traveling public would cheer and vote in favor of this action.
What response did I get. Absolutely NONE!
While the behavior of those passengers is horrendous, the problem is airlines getting cheap and putting the. seats too close together. The last time I fles the person in front of me reclined, which caused me to lose the use of over half my tray. I paid for the full use of my space, so why are they allowed to invade it? if airlines are going pack us in line sardines, they should remove tge recline option snd everyone sits upright in their own space the entire flight.
I want you to know that I always read your posts because they are so helpful. Bad manners and some very sad parenting is very much the subject of that. That said, my husband and I are contemplating moving to Spain from the US. We were told by an immigration attorney that one cannot own property in Spain AND have a mortgage or loan in the United States. That seems strange to me, and, no one seems to have heard of this law. Do you have any idea if this is true?
I appreciate you,
Louise
There is a bigger issue here. Airlines have crammed more and more seats into aircraft leaving less and less space between passengers. So passengers are the ones who suffer.
Those passengers should be banned. I don’t know why people think it’s disrespectful or that anyone should ask permission to recline a seat they paid for. You are on a plane, the seats recline, it should be expected. If you don’t want a seat to recline in front of you, purchase a bulkhead seat.
The people (I use that term lightly) should have been met by TSA upon landing and kept in a holding room for half the day watching videos on manners.
Kind of weird how no one said anything to this couple but waited for them to leave the flight and check the seat. It doesn’t matter if the seat was reclined or not! There is no excuse to act this way. Even reading the article they suggest you report your seat to a flight attendant wtf!
They should be banned and United Airlines should have addressed the issue immediately. Really!!!! What are they investigating? They clearly were in the wrong. Every customer should be able to have safe and enjoyable flight.
Frankly it is the airline’s fault for allowing any seat to recline. Reclining seats encroach upon the space of the person sitting behind them, and really, there is no room to allow for reclining seats. They should all be banned. Reclining seats prohibit the person behind from eating, using a computer, and sometimes even reading. It is totally obnoxious for the passanger in front to take up the space of soneone else.
Just a couple suffering from Narcissistic personality disorder. Amazing how 1%’er can sometimes find eachother.
I wouldn’t have been so kind to ignore that abuse.