Passenger called ‘rude and inconsiderate’ for using plastic seat cover travel accessory

“I guess no entertainment for my wife on this flight…” The woman's plastic seat sent the internet into a frenzy. Photo / Reddit, Grimsical

A woman’s unusual travel accessory has been branded ‘rude’ and ‘inconsiderate’, fitting a plastic cover to her plane seat.

The image which first surfaced on the reddit forum “r/mildlyinfuriating” shows the thick, black sheeting covering the screen of the passenger sat behind in row 15.

“I guess no entertainment for my wife on this flight…” read the passive aggressive caption.

The fitted sheet - presumably a hygiene measure - showed little consideration for the passengers seated behind her. The awkward situation quickly racked up 2.5k votes and 450 comments as to what fellow travellers would do in that position.

“Flip it back over the lady’s head,” was the most common sentiment.

Others asked how this woman could be so self-centred as to only think about “themselves and their own personal comfort.”

Others pointed out it was most probably a hygiene measure taken by the nervous flyer.

“She probably didn’t realise it didn’t go all the way down but she clearly didn’t bother to check.”

Seat covers rose in popularity during the pandemic with travellers being sold disposable seat covers and plastic “seat shields” to separate them from seats on public transport. Amazon is full of branded seat covers for anxious travellers.

Seat covers: there are hundreds of makers of the accessory which you might not be able to use. Photo / Amazon, Screenshot

While few airlines have banned these devices and covers specifically, they might be against a carrier’s guidelines on restricted items.

Most airlines including Air New Zealand have a list of ‘seat accessories’ that are prohibited from aircraft. In most cases it’s up to the cabin crew to determine and enforce, airlines are fairly restrictive about attaching accessories to seating on safety grounds.

Air Canada which operated the flight on which the Reddit photo was taken is particularly strict.

“You are not permitted to attach any unapproved device to any part of your seat or any other part of the aircraft,” reads the airline’s guidelines.

Although the rule is designed to target devices such as ‘knee defenders’ and ‘feet hammocks’, it could easily be applied to the seat covers.

On these grounds, commenters on the reddit post were eager to get cabin crew involved but others said there was a more simple way to diffuse the situation.

“Why do people always want to cause a scene?” wrote one. “All you have to do is kindly ask her to move it and she will.”