A couple who argued with a passenger who lay down in her seat will never fly with Cathay Pacific again.
The Hong Kong-based airline banned the pair after the video is shown of an on-board dispute that occurred on a long-haul flight on Sept. 17, according to announcement published by the company on Xiaohongshu social media platform.
The video, posted on the same platform, which is often described as China’s Instagram, showed the pair taunting, making obscene gestures and hitting the chair of a female passenger who reclined in her seat on a 14-hour flight from Hong Kong. in London.
Cathay Pacific did not respond to CNBC’s request for comment, but said in a statement that it “sincerely” apologized for the incident.
“We maintain a zero-tolerance policy towards any behavior that violates safety regulations or disrespects the rights of other passengers,” the company wrote, according to CNBC’s Chinese translation.
The woman, who narrates parts of the video posted on the same platform, said the pair harassed her after she refused to return her seat to a standing position.
In the video, he said he asked the flight attendants for help.
“I was shocked because it was not time to eat, but the flight attendant … asked me to compromise, so I declined the offer,” the woman said in the video, according to CNBC’s Chinese translation.
The harassment escalated after staff failed to intervene, she claimed. The video captures her chair moving from being kicked and pushed from behind. Eventually, he was moved to another seat, the video showed.
However, Cathay Pacific said in its statement that the ship’s staff had issued two “severe” verbal warnings to the two disruptive passengers.
The unruly behavior reached the point where nearby passengers intervened. In the video passengers can be heard saying: “Show some decency!” “Don’t bully that little girl!” “You are embarrassing the people of Hong Kong.”
One of the repeatedly banned passengers referred to the bedridden passenger as a “continental”.
Online reactions
Despite Cathay Pacific’s ban, many social media users in mainland China criticized the carrier’s initial response to the controversy.
“Only after other people spoke up did Cathay try to rectify the situation. It’s not news to me that Cathay is not friendly to mainland travelers,” said one top comment.
For many mainlanders, this incident brought back memories of another scandal that caused an uproar on Chinese social media last year. THE the carrier fired three flight attendants following a viral clip where the crew was heard mocking a non-English-speaking passenger who mistakenly used the word “carpet” when asking for a blanket.
Social media platforms such as Xiaohongshu are abuzz with mainland Chinese claiming ill-treatment while in Hong Kong. Some of them say they feel discriminated against in the city – where locals speak Cantonese, not Mandarin, the official Chinese dialect.
The gap between mainland China and Hong Kong has been a persistent problem, rooted in economic and cultural disparities between mainland China and the former British territory, which returned to Chinese rule in 1997.
Tensions escalated further during the 2019-2020 Hong Kong protests, as some locals rebelled against Beijing’s tightening control of the city.
Cathay Pacific was caught in the crossfire then as well, as it sought to appease the Chinese government’s anger after some staff took part in pro-democracy protests.
To lie down or not to lie down?
Reclining in your seat – a once common and harmless act – has become yet another in-flight battleground as ‘airplane etiquette’ emerges amid ever-evolving in-flight behaviour.
As passengers have grown in size, seat pitches—roughly, the distance between the seats from front to back—have shrunk, leading to mid-air disputes over the smallest plane real estate, from center seat armrests at space under the passenger seats.
Unlike those issues on which there is consensus—the middle man has both armrests, the passengers have the area under the seat in front of them—there is widespread disagreement about seat recline.
Proponents often argue that positions lie for a reason, while opponents argue that it is a reckless act.period“, when it is done in a financial position.
But most say the answer depends on a number of factors, from when a flight takes place, how long it is, whether the passenger seat behind you can recline, and whether someone gets permission from the passenger first.
