Spilled drinks, shattered laptop screens and bruised knees.
A new video shows the reasons why reclining the seat on airplanes has evolved from an acceptable practice to an acceptable practice a major nuisance for many airline passengers.
The video is part of an advertising campaign launched in late November by furniture company La-Z-Boy that includes: petition We urge travelers: “Stand upright. Don’t sit back while flying.”
The petition had more than 186,000 signatures as of Monday, a representative for La-Z-Boy said CNBC Travel.
The tongue-in-cheek campaign from the company known for its oversized plush lounge chairs tackles an increasingly topical topic of outrage growing passenger numbers and ever-shrinking seat distances.
As opposed to drunkenness and hygiene issues such as clipping fingernails and taking off shoes is largely despised by fellow travelersOpinions on reclining seats fall mainly 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 reclining acceptable on long-haul or overnight flights.)
La-Z-Boy’s campaign places the company firmly in the “never sit back” category. The petition states: “Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.”
Another video from the campaign shows how a reclined seat can flutter through the plane like falling dominoes, eventually ending up in the last row of the plane – a row that both disliked because there was no way to recline and the one in favor was praised to be one of these seats There are few places on the plane where you can sit back with impunitydepending on the aircraft.
A 2023 survey of 18 markets by market research firm YouGov found that attitudes toward seat recline vary by region, with Europeans least tolerant of the practice. Europe is the home of the tallest people in the world to.
However, it bothered fewer than one in three travelers in the United Arab Emirates.
According to the survey, passengers from the United Arab Emirates overall were bothered by fewer in-flight behaviors – including personal hygiene and noisy children – except for one. The survey found that respondents from the United Arab Emirates were more likely to view public displays of affection as unacceptable than respondents from Europe, North America and Asia Pacific.
