There are any number of things that can annoy you on an airplane—from crying babies to rowdy passengers and long bathroom lines. But one of the biggest debates in airline etiquette is whether or not it’s acceptable to recline your seat for a more comfortable ride.
La-Z-Boy has a firm stance on the matter: “Do the upright thing. Recline at home. Not on your flight,” the American furniture manufacturer said in a recent ad campaign.
La-Z-Boy has even taken it as far as to launch a petition to ban reclining on airplanes.
“I commit to reserving the act of reclining for my home, and will not engage in reclining aboard any and all future flights,” reads the petition, which CNBC Travel reports has gathered more than 186,000 signatures.
Petition signers have the chance to win a free recliner and $500 toward a flight, according to the La-Z-Boy ad posted to YouTube.
“Just because you can recline doesn’t always mean you should,” according to La-Z-Boy.
La-Z-Boy didn’t immediately respond to Coins2Day’s request for comment.
While the tongue-in-cheek campaign is a clear marketing tactic, it gets at one of the top irritants for airline passengers. The ad shows a customer’s drink getting knocked over when the person in front of him reclines, and another passenger’s knitting getting disrupted from the same action.
Some airline passengers have visceral reactions to seat reclining, one flight attendant said.
“I remember flying from Bangkok to Sydney when a passenger got up and began whacking the passenger in front of them with a rolled-up in-flight magazine simply for reclining their seat,” Niccolo Serratt wrote in a Condé Nast Traveler article published in June. “Ask any flight attendant; we all have similar horror stories.”
Meanwhile, etiquette experts take varying approaches on whether it’s appropriate to recline your seat on a plane. For example, William Hanson, an etiquette coach and author, told BBC it’s more about choosing a good time to recline your seat, which wouldn’t be during a meal or if the person behind you is using their seat-back table.
Others say it’s completely fine—otherwise, airlines wouldn’t have the option for it at all.
“The aircraft wouldn’t have the option to recline if it wasn’t acceptable,” Jo Hayes, an etiquette expert, consultant, and founder of EtiquetteExpert.Org, told Travel + Leisure. “While only a slight adjustment in angle, it can make a huge difference, comfort-wise.”