A recent incident on a China Express Airlines flight has sparked widespread debate after a Chinese woman was escorted off the plane for refusing to store her designer Louis Vuitton bag under the seat in front of her. The incident, which took place on August 10 at an airport in Chongqing, led to a delay of one hour as the flight had to return to the boarding gate to remove the passenger.
The situation was captured on video and shared on Douyin, China’s version of TikTok, where it quickly went viral, accumulating over 4 million views. In the video, the unnamed woman, seated in economy class, is seen insisting on keeping her expensive bag beside her instead of following the airline’s standard procedure of placing it under the seat.
The flight delay and the woman’s removal were met with mixed reactions on social media. Some users criticized the woman for causing inconvenience to other passengers, while others sympathized with her reluctance to put a high-value item on the floor. Comments on Douyin included suggestions that a compromise could have been reached, such as providing the woman with an alternative way to store her bag, rather than kicking her off the plane.
China Express Airlines has not commented on the incident or the identity of the passenger involved.