Passenger hits out over 'most reclined seat in history' during five-hour flight

Travelling by plane really can make or break your holiday, depending on how smoothly your journey goes.

Most of the time, the problems like non-existent leg room, cramped middle seats, and unsettling turbulence are out of our control. But there's something particularly irritating about a fellow passenger adding to the discomfort.

That's what brothers Henry and Mike Budrewicz had to put up with during their five-hour flight, when the passenger in front of them reclined their seat all the way back:

Henry and Mike, also known as The Pointer Brothers, had no choice but to pull out the red card on their fellow passenger when they reclined their seat so far back it was almost touching one of the brothers' noses.

Documenting the uncomfortable moment on TikTok, the brothers, who have 1.4 million followers on the app, wrote: "Five hour flight home... is this the most reclined seat in the history of aviation?"

Below the video, they added: "Easiest red card of all time."

It wasn't long before the video went viral, racking up over 4.3 million views. But the reaction to their TikTok was unexpectedly very divided.

While many agreed that reclining an airplane seat was completely unacceptable, a lot of people were very passionate about their reclining rights.

Personally, unless it's a seriously long-haul flight, I'm going to avoid reclining my chair at all costs. But apparently not everyone feels the same way.

TikTok/@thepointerbrothers

"Out of respect for the person behind me, I never recline," wrote one TikToker.

"Why the airlines continue to let those seats recline is beyond me," admitted a second. "Flew home from Nashville the other day with the seat in my face."

A third added: "Those seats should just not recline, it’s cramped enough and I already don’t have leg room."

Trying to find a compromise, a fourth viewer wrote: "You can recline you seat but not to the point where the person behind you don’t have any more space to move. I hate people who do that."

In total disagreement, one pro-recline user argued: "I recline my seat every single time and never once have I been upset with the seat in front of me for reclining their seat..."

A second agreed: "I paid for a reclining seat. They are already uncomfortable as it is. If it takes up your space then recline your seat. Simple fix."

And a third commented: "My brother, I fly for 20 hours I'm going to recline my damn seat."

Looks like this is a more controversial topic than I thought.