‘I think she might strangle you’: Woman infuriates fellow passenger by reclining seat on flight

‘I did what any mature reasonable adult would do: I told on her,’ says reporter

Altercations often happen at altitude (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

A traveller has shared her experience of reclining her seat on a long-haul flight - only for the woman behind her to un-recline it.

Rachel Thomas, a health reporter for New Zealand news outlet Stuff, said she was on the first leg of a two-day journey to Europe when the incident occurred.

Describing her experience in an article, she said she had settled in for the 12-hour flight with her “melatonin, 83cm of legroom and my headphones”, determined to sleep for much of the journey.

Ms Thomas reclined her seat to get comfortable, but claimed: “Whenever I reclined my seat and shut my eyes, I would open them minutes later to see my seat in line with the empty one next to me.

“The passenger behind me was un-reclining my seat.”

Once she realised what was happening, Ms Thomas says she confronted the woman behind her.

“I turned to find a woman, at least in her early 50s and no more than 1.6m-tall, with her knees wedged up against the seat, offering the world’s worst massage.

“When I asked her to take her knees out of my back, she refused with a simple ‘no’.”

The altercation escalated, with the woman behind calling Ms Thomas “selfish”, and her retaliating by calling the woman “childish”.

Ms Thomas claimed the woman proceeded to put her headphones in and ignore her.

“At that point, I did what any mature reasonable adult would do: I told on her,” said Ms Thomas.

A flight attendant tried to reason with the woman, eventually moving her to the back of the aircraft and bumping up Ms Thomas to a seat in premium economy, saying of the furious passenger: “I think she might strangle you.”

It follows a number of recent incidents that have raised the debate of whether or not you should recline your seat on a flight.

Earlier this month, a video of a passenger reclining their seat back went viral on social media.

Henry and Mike Budrewicz, known as The Pointer Brothers on Tiktok, shared a clip with their 1.4 million followers that highlighted the issue.

In the footage, the camera pans around, showing the plane cabin, before coming to rest on one of the brothers - whose space is severely compromised by the passenger in front’s reclined seat.

Text on the video reads: “Five hour flight home. Is this the most reclined seat in the history of aviation?”

The caption below says, “easiest red card of all time #redcard #thepointerbrothers”, referencing the fact that Budrewicz is holding up a red card in the video.