A plane passenger has shared his bemusement over a rude fellow traveller’s odd behaviour, which went unchallenged for a rather amusing reason.
The incident was shared on Twitter/X, complete with a photo of the inconsiderate passenger on his flight. The man had slung his right arm over the top of his seat to get comfortable, inadvertently obstructing the screen of the person sitting behind him.
The tweet quickly garnered thousands of likes and comments, with many questioning why the man wasn’t confronted about his breach of etiquette. John Kennedy, the plane passenger affected by the act, said that he chose not to address the situation as he found it more entertaining than any of the in-flight entertainment options available to him.
He allowed the passenger to continue blocking his view and later explained his reasoning in a subsequent tweet.
His tweet read: “Everyone keeps telling me to confront him as if this was an issue for me. It was more entertaining than anything delta offered to watch. ‘Sir can you move your hand I was watching a full episode of Key and Peele’.”
Those who stumbled upon the post offered various creative suggestions for how Kennedy could have dealt with the man, ranging from dipping the intrusive hand into a cup of coffee to gently caressing his fingers a tactic one user claimed “works every time.”
Some were perplexed by the physical logistics of the situation, as one individual commented: “I’ve been staring at this for five minutes and I can’t figure out the angle of this man’s arm.”
Another proposed that a simple conversation with the screen-blocking man could resolve the issue, since he might be unaware of the inconvenience caused.
Their advice was clear: “I’d probably just tap on his hand and he’d realise what he’s doing. Even though he’s watching a screen in the back of another chair, he’s probably not even thinking about the one on the back of his own chair.”
Those who previously faced similar dilemmas shared alternate strategies that proved effective, including faking a sneeze. A commenter recalled: “Someone did this to me once and I made a sneezing sound and sprayed water from my water bottle on their hand.”
Others concurred with the sneeze tactic, one urging: “Make a huge sneezing sound and flick some water on his hand.”
Another mentioned: “He’s almost certainly doing it absentmindedly and will stop and apologise profusely if you just told him. It’s really no big deal.”