A couple who got into an argument with a passenger who reclined their seats say they will never fly with Cathay Pacific again.
The Hong Kong-based airline banned the pair from flying after video footage of an altercation on board during a long-haul flight on September 17 was made public, according to a statement posted on social media platform Little Red Book.
The video, posted on the platform – often referred to as China’s Instagram – showed the couple taunting the female passenger, making obscene hand gestures and shaking her chair as she reclined her seat on the 14-hour flight from Hong Kong to London.
Cathay Pacific did not respond to CNBC’s request for comment, but said in a statement that it “sincerely” apologised for the incident.
“We maintain a zero-tolerance policy towards any behavior that violates safety rules or disrespects the rights of other passengers,” the company wrote, according to a Chinese translation by CNBC.
The woman, who narrated some of the videos posted on the platform, said she was harassed by the couple after she refused to put her seat back in its original position.
In the video, she says she called out to a flight attendant for help.
“I was shocked because it was not meal time and the flight attendant asked me to compromise and I rejected the suggestion,” the woman said in the video, according to a Chinese translation by CNBC.
When staff failed to intervene, she claims the harassment escalated – the video shows her being kicked and pushed from behind, causing her chair to move – and she was eventually moved to a different seat, the video shows.
But Cathay Pacific said in a statement that on-board staff had issued two “stern” verbal warnings to the two disruptive passengers.
The disorderly behaviour escalated until nearby passengers intervened, and can be heard in the video saying “Have some more courtesy!”, “Don’t bully that girl!” and “You’re bringing shame to the people of Hong Kong.”
One of the passengers who was denied boarding repeatedly referred to the lying passengers as “mainlanders.”
Online reactions
Despite Cathay Pacific’s entry ban, many social media users in mainland China criticized the airline’s initial response to the dispute.
“Only after others spoke out did Cathay Pacific make an effort to rectify the situation. It’s nothing new to me that Cathay Pacific is not friendly to mainland Chinese travellers,” one top commenter said.
For many mainland Chinese, the incident was reminiscent of another scandal that caused a stir on Chinese social media last year, when the airline fired three flight attendants after a video went viral of them mocking a non-English-speaking passenger who mistakenly used the word “carpet” when asking for a blanket.
Social media platforms such as Little Red Book are filled with posts from mainland Chinese who say they have been mistreated while in Hong Kong, where some feel they are discriminated against because locals speak Cantonese rather than Mandarin, the official Chinese language.
The division of Hong Kong from mainland China is a deep-rooted issue, rooted in economic and cultural disparities between mainland China and the former British territory, which was handed over to China in 1997.
Protests in Hong Kong in 2019 and 2020 escalated tensions further, as some local residents rebelled against Beijing’s tightening control over the city.
Cathay Pacific Airways also came under fire at the time for trying to calm Chinese government anger after some of its staff took part in pro-democracy protests.
To recline or not to recline?
What was once a common and harmless behavior has evolved into a new battleground on planes as “airplane etiquette” takes center stage amid an increasingly diverse array of in-flight behavior.
As passengers got bigger, seat pitch (roughly speaking, the distance between the front and back of the seat) got smaller, creating an airborne battle for the tightest space on the plane, from the armrest of the center seat to the area under the passenger’s seat.
Unlike issues on which there is consensus, such as the middle person using both armrests and passengers being allocated the space under the seat in front of them, there is widespread disagreement about seat reclining.
Proponents often argue that there’s a reason why seats recline, while opponents say that reclining seats in economy class is “totally” inconsiderate.
Still, more people say the answer depends on a combination of factors, including the length of the flight, how long it is, whether the back seat can recline and whether prior permission is obtained from the passenger.