Is it okay to recline your seat while flying? A new petition says no

Spilled drinks, smashed laptop screens, and crushed knees.

TO new video shows the reasons why reclining your seat on airplanes went from being an acceptable practice to one of the main irritants for many air passengers.

The video is part of an advertising campaign launched at the end of November by the furniture company La-Z-Boy, which includes a request imploring travelers to “do the right thing. Don’t lean back when you fly.”

The petition had more than 186,000 signatures as of Monday, a La-Z-Boy representative said. CNBC Travel.

The tongue-in-cheek campaign from the company, known for its luxurious, oversized reclining chairs, touches on an increasingly hot topic, fueled by increasing passenger size and ever-shrinking seating spaces.

Unlike drunkenness and hygiene issues (such as cutting nails and taking off shoes), which are widely disdained by fellow travelersOpinions on the reclining seat mainly fall into two camps: those who say don’t do it and others who argue that the recline button exists for a reason. (A third, more nuanced position considers it acceptable to recline on night or long-haul flights.)

La-Z-Boy’s campaign places the company firmly in the “never lean back” camp, with the petition stating that “just because you can doesn’t mean you should.”

Another campaign video shows how a reclined seat can ripple across the plane like falling dominoes, eventually ending up in the last row of the plane, a row so disliked for not having the option to recline and praised for be one of the most Few spaces on the plane where one can lie down with impunity.depending on the plane.

A 2023 survey in 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 the home of the tallest people in the world also.

However, less than one in three travelers in the UAE were bothered by it.

Overall, UAE travelers were least bothered by each in-flight behavior, including personal grooming and noisy children, except for one, according to the survey. Those in the United Arab Emirates found public displays of affection unacceptable at higher rates than those in Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific, the survey showed.