Don’t tell this disgruntled traveler to relax.
A first-class flyer likely thought he was flying coach after the passenger in front reclined their seat into his lap on an American Airlines flight. A picture of the egregious space invasion is currently taking off on X.
“‘First Class.’ Dude is in my lap,” snarked X user @av_cova, who was sitting in seat 3C on AA flight AA1851, Fox News Digital reported. “You continue to be awful @AmericanAir.”
Included in the post was a pic of seat 2C leaning so far back that it appears to be pinioning the passenger’s knees.
“No matter how I positioned myself, the seat was still against my knees,” the passenger told Fox News Digital. “The gentleman in the seat in front of me was very sympathetic, but he was unable to get the seat to lock forward, as it was inoperable.”
Along with being uncomfortable, the predicament reportedly prevented the flustered flyer from using his tray table or “getting up,” he griped in a follow-up post.
The X user, who neglected to be named, added that the seat was “clearly broken. “Get it fixed before someone else wastes a fortune on first class and gets f–ked,” he fumed.
The passenger told Fox News Digital that they alerted a flight attendant of the issue, but they “shrugged it off,” claiming that it was an “old airplane” and some “these seats are worn out.”
To make matters worse, the passenger had reportedly shelled out $500 for a first-class upgrade so they could enjoy extra legroom.
Virginia travel expert Gary Leff claimed that something was “definitely awry” as domestic first-class seats, and specifically American’s first-class seats on the Airbus A320, aren’t designed to recline that far.”
However, he claimed that recliner malfunctions were unfortunately commonplace on older planes, especially AA’s old Airbus A320s.
American Airlines responded to the flyer’s complaint on X. “Keeping our planes in top-notch shape is always the goal,” they wrote. “We’re sorry for this inconvenience and appreciate you bringing this to our attention. We’ll get this right over to the Maintenance folks for review. Our apologies again.”
However, @av_cova was none too pleased with their mea culpa, claiming that AA neglected to offer him a perk or a refund.