Is it OK to recline the seat when flying? A brand new petition says no

Spilled drinks, shattered laptop screens and bruised knees.

A recent video shows the the explanation why reclining the seat on airplanes has gone from a suitable practice to a particularly annoying nuisance for a lot of airline passengers.

The video is an element of an promoting campaign launched in late November by furniture company La-Z-Boy that features: petition We urge travelers: “Stand upright. Don’t sit back while flying.”

The petition had greater than 186,000 signatures as of Monday, a La-Z-Boy representative told CNBC Travel.

The tongue-in-cheek campaign from the corporate known for its oversized plush lounge chairs touches on an increasingly sensitive issue fueled by expanding passenger sizes and shrinking seat pitches.

Unlike drunkenness and hygiene issues – corresponding to clipping fingernails and taking off shoes – that are widely despised by fellow passengers, opinions on reclining seats fall mainly into two camps: those that say don't do it , and others who argue that the lean button is there for a reason. (A 3rd, more nuanced position considers reclining acceptable on long-haul or overnight flights.)

La-Z-Boy’s campaign places the corporate firmly within 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 within the last row of the plane – a row that each disliked because there was no approach to recline and the one in favor was praised to be one in every of these seats There are few places on the plane where you’ll be able to 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 house of the tallest people on this planet to.

However, it bothered fewer than one in three travelers within 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 – aside from one. The survey found that respondents from the United Arab Emirates were more more likely to view public displays of affection as unacceptable than respondents from Europe, North America and Asia Pacific.