A woman says the man behind her kept shoving her reclined seat on a 13-hour flight, then he swapped seats and left her boyfriend’s recline alone

Sarah McCoy recently dealt with a frustrating situation on a 13-hour flight from Istanbul, Turkey, to Denver, Colorado, which she shared through a video on TikTok. The drama started during the wind-down portion of the trip when she chose to recline her seat. Almost immediately, the man sitting behind her reportedly began shoving the back of her chair and demanded she put it back into the upright position.

As reported by BroBible, McCoy refused to move her seat. She recalls demanding, “Don’t push my seat.” She also noted, “She has hers reclined in front of me, so I am going to have mine reclined.” Because the man kept pushing, McCoy brought a flight attendant over to help. 

Even with the crew member standing right there, the man continued to shove her seat. He insisted to the attendant that the woman sitting in front of McCoy should also move her seat up. 

He reportedly did not stop pushing her seat

The flight attendants reportedly told him to stop pushing or they would be forced to move him. However, he started shoving the seat again as soon as the flight attendants walked away. McCoy had to alert the crew a second time, which she says left the attendant in disbelief.

This situation highlights the ongoing debate about airplane etiquette. One commenter online mentioned, “If I pay for a reclining seat, I’m reclining. If you don’t want someone reclining in front of you buy a bulkhead seat.” 

Another person added, “He can pay for an upgrade if having the space is that important to him.” Someone else noted, “I really hate that they build these planes to have so little space, that reclining is actually encroaching.”

There are plenty of people who think the airlines are the ones to blame for the lack of room. One person commented, “You might dislike it, but it’s not the person who needs to recline’s fault. It’s the airlines that design the plane interiors that way. Take it up with them. All of the passengers are in the same uncomfortable position. Misery doesn’t need company here.”

McCoy eventually made it back to Denver while staying in her reclined position. However, the situation took a weird turn toward the end of the flight. The man eventually swapped seats with his wife, which placed him directly behind McCoy’s boyfriend. The boyfriend also had his seat reclined, but the man did not reportedly shove his chair at all. This change in behavior stood out to McCoy. She said, “Yup. They’ll harass a woman but they’ll respect another man. It absolutely f**** me off.”