An incident that happened on a recent Cathay Pacific flight is getting quite a bit of attention, especially in Mainland China. The airline has now responded by banning two passengers, though I’ve gotta say, the airline should take some accountability as well for how the crew acted.
In this post:
Couple bullies woman for reclining seat on flight
This incident happened on Tuesday, September 17, 2024, on a Cathay Pacific flight from Hong Kong (HKG) to London (LHR). This story was shared by a woman on Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu.
During the flight, this woman decided to recline her seat, which is perfectly within her rights. The couple seated behind her — a husband and wife — accused the traveler of obstructing their view of the seat back television, and asked her to put her seat in the upright position.
She refused, and then endured quite an unacceptable amount of harassment. The wife put her legs on the armrest of the traveler’s seat, flicked her off, and slapped her wrist. Meanwhile the husband started repeatedly pushing on her seat, making it shake.
The wife then started scolding her in Cantonese, and when she realized that the traveler couldn’t speak Cantonese, they started calling her “mainland girl” in a derogatory tone.
At this point the woman sought help from the crew. However, rather than telling the husband and wife duo to knock it off, they instead suggested that maybe the woman should put her seat upright. As the traveler explained, “I was shocked because it was not meal time, yet the flight attendant wanted me to compromise, I rejected the suggestion.”
The traveler was at least pleased that other passengers, including many from Hong Kong, stood up for her:
“When the first person spoke up, tears welled up in my eyes. I felt a deep sense of injustice, but also a relief that someone understood and spoke up for me, including a lot of Hong Kongers who helped me. I see this as an isolated incident and do not want it to affect the unity between the two places.”
Below you can see the video capturing some of the behavior, which was widely shared online.
Cathay Pacific bans couple from the airline
Given the amount of attention this incident has received, Cathay Pacific has responded by putting the couple on the carrier’s no-fly list, saying it has “a strict zero-tolerance policy” toward behavior that disrespects other passengers.
In recent times, Cathay Pacific has been in hot water regarding its treatment of passengers from Mainland China. In 2023, Cathay Pacific fired some flight attendants who had been seen making fun of passengers from Mainland China. Following the incident, the airline has even started hiring flight attendants from Mainland China, in an effort to be more inclusive, and avoid these kinds of situations in the future.
It sounds like the crew on this flight really didn’t handle the situation well. In the past, I’ve addressed the topic of whether reclining your seat on a flight is a right or a privilege. Simply put, it’s absolutely a right, though I always recommend being courteous toward others, and avoiding confrontation.
In this case, the couple acted completely out of line, as you don’t put your feet on people’s seats, shake their seats, flick them off, or slap them. Cathay Pacific did the right thing by banning the passengers. I’d just say that the crew should’ve more quickly deescalated the situation, and should have reseated passengers immediately, so that this uncomfortable situation wouldn’t continue.
Bottom line
Cathay Pacific is getting some bad press over its handling of a recent seat recline incident. A woman who decided to recline her seat was harassed by the couple seated behind her, with them shaking her seat, flicking her off, and even slapping her. This kind of behavior shouldn’t be tolerated, and the crew shouldn’t have asked this woman to even make any compromises.
I’m happy that the negative attention from this incident has caused Cathay Pacific to ban the couple.
What do you make of this Cathay Pacific seat recline incident?
This happened to me recently on an Air France flight and I was a bit disappointed how tolerant the flight attendants were to the harasser behind me who made a scene over my reclining my seat. The first FA asked me to move from my aisle in the front of the cabin to a middle seat in the back row. I told her "you are cabin crew, and I will follow any instruction you give...
This happened to me recently on an Air France flight and I was a bit disappointed how tolerant the flight attendants were to the harasser behind me who made a scene over my reclining my seat. The first FA asked me to move from my aisle in the front of the cabin to a middle seat in the back row. I told her "you are cabin crew, and I will follow any instruction you give me, but I want to make it clear that I'm not moving voluntarily and I think you are rewarding bad behavior by giving this petulant person his way, and you should be asking him to move." She left and returned with the head FA and I said the same thing to her. She asked me to follow her and I was led to the Premium Economy cabin and sat for the rest of the flight there. I suppose that this was professionally and properly handled, but I think the better response would have been simply to shut the other guy down and offer to move him behind an empty seat.
One of the good features of gruff US based FAs is that they won't have any of this and tell you to shut up or prepare to be arrested if you can't sit quietly.
“Victim”LOL. Ask any HKers how MLers treated them after 1997 and then tell me who the actual victim is.
This happened to myself & family on Aerlingus. My kids wanted to sleep on overnight flight from NYC to Dublin. They put seat back and people behind started banging seat and demanded we raise it up. I complained to air crew only being told it's best to raise it up. I was furious but crew got angry at me for calling them out for not doing anything
Just adds to my opinion never to travel to
Hong Kong or China. After living in San Francisco I know that is not the group I want to hang around with............too many eat with their cell phones going and their mouths open................I was in New Zealand during Chinese New Year and oh boy what a mistake that was............Japan yes.......China no..........
Even in a liberal city like SF people like you are still racists.
@JustSaying
Just saying you are racist.
Nothing racist about it. He's stating the facts and, unfortunately, that's how most Chinese and Hong Kongers behave in public areas. My family is Cantonese speaking and we often got surprised at how abrupt and rude people were in HK. Culture differences? Sure. But it doesn't deter from the fact that they were objectively rude.
@Smic8881
How is he not racist? An aspect of racism is overgeneralization of people or events. He is not stating facts and you are not either. It is a cognitive distortion. You assume just because you encounter some people behaving that way and it applies to the whole group?
And according to the two of you based on your logic Japanese people are the people you want to hang out with because they are...
@Smic8881
How is he not racist? An aspect of racism is overgeneralization of people or events. He is not stating facts and you are not either. It is a cognitive distortion. You assume just because you encounter some people behaving that way and it applies to the whole group?
And according to the two of you based on your logic Japanese people are the people you want to hang out with because they are so not rude. Like you said, he is just stating the facts. So, I got it. You agree with him that no one from Japan is rude because overgeneralization of something is the way to go.
When the majority of HKers behave like that, that's not racist. It's stating an actual characteristic.
I'm afraid there's a Cantonese (HK) vs. Mandarin (mainland/Beijing) distinction here, all too typical, particularly as Beijing exerts more and more control over HK. China may not be the unified harmonious people that the Party declares it is?
It's economy class. Others will recline into your space, and you will recline into theirs. It's crowded, it's cramped, it's uncomfortable, and that's because it's cheap. If you want personal space, the tickets cost more. That's all there is to it.
This is why America is great.
On US carriers.
The flight would be diverted immediately after the couple fail to obey crew instructions claiming it's a security threat.
Communists don't deserve fair treatment. Hong Kongers shouuld fight back any way possible.
@Jackson
Ah yes, every citizens of China, who don't have any sort of democracy and thus have no way to oppose their policy, are responsible for what the CCP is doing.
You hypocrites really love group punishments, don't you?
@Jackson What a stupid and immature comment.
As someone who speaks Cantonese and Mandarin natively, I don't agree with this take.
The two abusive HKers completely deserve getting banned, and their actions are absolutely atrocious, but the FA was simply following protocol. She made 3 trips to the situation at hand. In the heavily edited clip (not edited as in fake, but clearly a lot of interactions are cut out, for practical reasons), the FA had told the two in the back...
As someone who speaks Cantonese and Mandarin natively, I don't agree with this take.
The two abusive HKers completely deserve getting banned, and their actions are absolutely atrocious, but the FA was simply following protocol. She made 3 trips to the situation at hand. In the heavily edited clip (not edited as in fake, but clearly a lot of interactions are cut out, for practical reasons), the FA had told the two in the back to stop kicking, and the two actually puts up a facade of being normal human beings and complying. Clearly the FA is attempting to de-escalate if possible, and could not have known how bad the situation was, yet.
When the FA was called back again later, I assume other passengers joined in the outrage, so it became much more obvious how bad the situation was, and that the 2 were simply not going to comply. She probably then reached out to the IFA and other passengers in the PE cabin in order to upgrade her into one of the seats (given Y was full).
The XHS (little red book) peanut gallery was making assumptions based on a short clip, and making a ton of assumptions that are totally wrong (they think there are "police" or security on HKG-LHR flights like in the mainland, or that FAs can just move passengers up a cabin without protocol, or that the FA was lying about the cabin being full because she was later upgraded etc).
Specifically, this is wrong: However, rather than telling the husband and wife duo to knock it off, they instead suggested that maybe the woman should put her seat upright.
The FA did tell the couple to knock it off first thing (and the couple actually pretended to be normal human beings and said yes in a nice way), before asking if the girl was willing to move the seat back up a tiny bit. This...
Specifically, this is wrong: However, rather than telling the husband and wife duo to knock it off, they instead suggested that maybe the woman should put her seat upright.
The FA did tell the couple to knock it off first thing (and the couple actually pretended to be normal human beings and said yes in a nice way), before asking if the girl was willing to move the seat back up a tiny bit. This is all in the video. I'm guessing when the FA first arrived at the scene, they didn't know exactly what transpired and who was right/wrong, so instead of immediately siding with one of the two parties (and potentially making the wrong call), they did what they were taught in training and tried to de-escalate by getting both parties to compromise.
As someone who's half-Chinese American and has been living in Hong Kong for the past two years, I've got to point out it is just common behaviors I've noticed when it comes to how locals here treat folks from mainland China. What really brought this to light was an incident where a victim recorded their mistreatment and posted it on social media. It could be that due to Hong Kong's colonial past, there's a kind...
As someone who's half-Chinese American and has been living in Hong Kong for the past two years, I've got to point out it is just common behaviors I've noticed when it comes to how locals here treat folks from mainland China. What really brought this to light was an incident where a victim recorded their mistreatment and posted it on social media. It could be that due to Hong Kong's colonial past, there's a kind of politeness reserved mostly for Westerners. This attitude extends towards how they treat each other, and it's even more apparent in their interactions with mainland Chinese, who they're not exactly fond of. It's a common misconception among Hongkongers that they're inherently polite—my experience says otherwise. I've encountered some of the least educated and rudest behaviors during my time here.
The nicer ones already left for US and Canada since 1997.
That's why those kids there are easily brainwashed to be pawns.
If the reclining passenger was Thai, Indian, Indonesian, or from literally anywhere other than Mainland China, this wouldn’t even be a story. All bow down the Mainland Chinese (especially anyone at Cathay Pacific). Disgusting.
@Malcolm Literally any ethnicity, not just the ones you listed should definitely complain. It is called common decency. If people were mistreated, they should stand up for themselves and not be disrespected. It seems as though you are suggesting that only non-Mainland Chinese people should be allowed kindness and respect. I am very sure any ethnicity would have totally complain about it. You are just demonstrating prejudice.
@Malcom
You folks always say "this wouldn't happen if-" when you want to say something bad about A but can't come up with a valid reason to deny A.
CX have been known for discriminating mainland Chinese passengers for a long time. In other words, what really could have happened if the passenger was "Thai, Indian, Indonesian, or from literally anywhere other than Mainland China" is probably the other way around of what you...
@Malcom
You folks always say "this wouldn't happen if-" when you want to say something bad about A but can't come up with a valid reason to deny A.
CX have been known for discriminating mainland Chinese passengers for a long time. In other words, what really could have happened if the passenger was "Thai, Indian, Indonesian, or from literally anywhere other than Mainland China" is probably the other way around of what you think.
Let's talk about who's really racist here. And the answer excludes the passenger who reclined her seat.
In this case, the HK couple called the girl "mainland pr*st*tut*, which is absolutely too much. Aligns with my stereotype of HKers. They are more civilized & developed than most of mainland, but way more rude than the Taiwanese and Japanese.
On the other side, mainland Karens, regardless of their age, constantly blame HKers for discrimination, even in clear cases that HKers are just following & enforcing the rules for everyone. Typical RED girl again.
I'm gonna add mainland girl to my list of snarky insults for Karen's.
you will still sound dumb af either way
The crew re seated the lady to PEY. Ben, some mainlanders just love bash anything Hong Kong on their little red book social media account.
They won’t have the nerve to say the same thing on a mainland carrier.
@asprino
So, are you implying that this passenger was in the wrong and should not have complained? Would you not complain on OMAAT, Flyer Talk, Facebook or IG, etc? I think a lot of people would be in support of this passenger and against the abusive HK couple in this aspect. Focus on the facts of this particular situation. According to what you wrote about bashing, I think with your exception anyone else would sure as heck bash about what happened to him or her.
This HK middle-aged couple was a complete disgrace and in full agreement with their BAN and in fact wished there was stronger punishment. I don't however blame the flight crew. The attendant tried to be fair to all side. She is not security and there are a lot of other customers she had to look after. It was well documented the couple behaved the moment the crew was there and returned back to bullying when...
This HK middle-aged couple was a complete disgrace and in full agreement with their BAN and in fact wished there was stronger punishment. I don't however blame the flight crew. The attendant tried to be fair to all side. She is not security and there are a lot of other customers she had to look after. It was well documented the couple behaved the moment the crew was there and returned back to bullying when the attendant moved away. A senior crew member also issued 2 warnings but the couple ignored it. Cathay in my opinion handled it well as they reviewed and issued BAN in a very timely manner. No excuses, no cover-up, straight up apologies and punishment judgement.
Every long haul flight I take lately is 100% full in economy. If that was the case on this flight then moving passengers may not have been an easy option.
This reminds me of my CI flight across the Pacific. A woman of an elephantine proportion sitting in the exit row seat (aisle side), the one near the emergency door so you know she literally had so much space in front of her wanted to recline the whole flight.
I say this because even during meal times she did not put her seat in the upright position. Every time I had to ask the...
This reminds me of my CI flight across the Pacific. A woman of an elephantine proportion sitting in the exit row seat (aisle side), the one near the emergency door so you know she literally had so much space in front of her wanted to recline the whole flight.
I say this because even during meal times she did not put her seat in the upright position. Every time I had to ask the flight attendant to tell her do put her seat upright but the woman passenger would always give me a nasty look. She would then recline all the way and I know she did it to spite me because before I asked a flight attendant for assistance the recline was not all the way.
I think I just ended up reclining a bit so I can better see the IFE. So, what the couple on CX did was just rude and disrespectful so CX management did the right thing. Though, they should take Ben’s advice about how the flight attendants should have handled it better. Maybe, a training course or two on how to better handle such situations.
You're right about it should not have taken so long for action to be taken against the couple. A rise of inflight frustration/aggression should be insta-ban. It is unfortunate that these types of events have to appear in the news or blogs to get attention from airlines, etc..Hopefully this will change slowly.
As a long haul flight attendant this is probably a once every flight situation - having to defuse someone getting annoyed because the person in front reclines.
My response is always the same - the seat has a recline button for a reason and tell the person complaining about the 'recliner' that perhaps they should recline their own seat.
During meal times I ask passengers who are reclined to put their seat upright, just during the meal service.
Hing king is Xina now
@Sina An utterly useless comment in regards to what Ben so eloquently posted.
So true Stanley, perhaps the commentator is one of the banned culprits?