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.
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?
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