Right to recline: who's in the incorrect in viral video of American Airlines passenger hitting woman's seat?

Travel etiquette is a much debated topic, and the politics of the recline appear to be the most divisive issue at 35,000 feet. This week, a video of a guy punching a fellow passenger's seat when she thought we would put her seat back has gone viral and Twitter users cannot decide who's in the right.

Wendi Williams, was flying American Airlines from New Orleans to Charlotte, when she started to film her fellow passenger. The video did not stop him nudging her chair.

"He was angry that I reclined my seat and punched it about nine times - HARD, at which point I began videoing him and he resigned to the behaviour," Williams explained of the incident on Twitter when posting the video.

"I was returning from a teachers’ convention. The person asked me, with an attitude, to place my seat up because he was eating. I did so," Williams explained in another Tweet.

"Then i reclined it again when he was finished. At that time, he started hammering away at me. That’s when I started videoing and tried to call the flight attendant".

Replies to Williams have already been divided, to say the least. With the loudest shouters seeming to side with the male passenger.

"Reclining your seat while you are flying coach generally is the most selfish inconsiderate thing an individual can do. It literally ruins the travel connection with the individual sitting behind you. You are simply as bad if not worse [than] him," replied one Twitter user.

"Why were you so inconsiderate? Reclining airline seats is such a dud move. I admire his resilience. Why would you share this video when it puts you in such a bad light?" said another.

Although some were on Williams' side.

"I’m 6’2”, travel extensively, and always purchase the excess leg room. This boy is in the incorrect, that’s assault. All of the people tweeting 'you must have asked to recline first' - I've never seen someone ask if it’s okay. That is why I don’t fly American anymore too," one supporter said. While another added: "This behaviour isn't acceptable, no excuses".

"The proper move to make is, if you’re going to recline into somebody, you ask if it’s OK first," Bastian said throughout a CNBC interview. "I never recline, because I don’t think it’s something as CEO I should be doing, and I never say anything if someone reclines into me."

In another thread, another blogger Allie Beth Stuckey has offered up her "objective, final set of airplane/airport rules", which include no no flip flops, pungent food or reclining.

Off social media, however, persons seem to be more inclined to recline.

According to a YouGov survey, which quizzed 1,219 adults in the usa, 69 % of respondents agreed that it is fine to recline.

Generation X - persons born between 1965 and 1981 - were the most relaxed about seat recline with 36 per cent of these surveyed happy for travellers to take action. The youngest travellers, Gen Z - those born after 2000 - were minimal towards reclining, with only 23 % of respondents happy for individuals to lean back.