Chris Bath says her young niece was left in tears after being “bullied” on an international flight earlier this week.
The journalist claims her niece, 17, was unable to recline her seat during a long flight from Dubai to Sydney due to a man seated behind her who was intimidating and bullying her.
It was the teenager’s first international flight alone.
Bath, a former TV host and now announcer on ABC 702, called the passenger out on Twitter.
"To the brave man on @emirates EK414 to Syd last night. Bullied my 17 y/0 niece in 44A for 13+hrs, would not let her recline her seat," she wrote.
More information was shared on Bath's Instagram account where she wrote, "My 17 year old niece is 45kgs dripping wet, a tiny ballerina. She was travelling alone internationally for the first time to see her family for Christmas."
Tips for savvy travellers, from savvy travellers. (Post continues after video.)
"She landed last night, wiped out, because an awful man seated behind her intimidated and bullied her, had her in tears. Merry Christmas Captain Courageous."
Bath's social media followers have suggested she make a formal complaint to the airline, although giving specific details of the flight number and seat number will probably do the trick.
Emirates is yet to respond to the claim.
Top Comments
Not being able to recline your seat is not the end of the world, and I think it's rude to do so if it makes the person behind you uncomfortable. Like the posters below with a child on her lap or long legs already touching the seat, sometimes you just can't recline. If there was more serious harassment I doubt no one would have called the cabin crew or that they wouldn't have noticed, but 'wouldn't let her recline her seat' is nit the same thing.
The poor girl! I once had a man bully me on a long haul flight because he was tall and his knees happened to be right in the middle of my seat. After I asked him to politely take them out of my back as I have arthritis in my lower back, he thought it would be fun to give me a shove every 20mins or so for rest of flight. And gave me a horrible grin any time I was up for the loo.
Where did you think he could move his knees to, its not like there is room to put them anywhere else but in front of him?
As a tall person he could move his knees wider apart to make room and have the person sitting next to him with arthritic knees and hips complaining about manspreading and ruining their flight.
I think it depends how tall he is. I'm over 2m tall and i don't push people in the back on a plane. But yeah, in general the knees kind of have to be facing forward!
Mr Dragon (193cm) has most of his height in his legs, so on some (domestic) planes his knees are touching the seat in front. Depends a lot on the plane's seat configuration. There's only so much you can angle the legs to avoid it.