Rebelyell

I have acid reflux and sometimes use a wedge pillow. Somehow I got to thinking it might be useful to use one of these on an airplane to simulate seat recline. Most of these are about 32-inches wide, so I would need to cut one in half.

A couple of notes. First, I'm 5-10 and find that most planes have super-plentiful legroom. So shifting my butt forward a few inches isn't likely to cause any legroom problems. Second, I find the way that the airline seats actually lean forward to be really uncomfortable and to make it hard to breathe (I don't have severe asthma attacks, but do have constant minor problems breathing). As a practical matter, airline seats no longer recline at all.

So anyway, I started shopping Amazon for a 7-inch-rise wedge pillow that I could cut in half so that it would be 16-inches wide when I stumbled upon something called a "dual-position wedge." This is listed at 19 inches wide, although customers say it is 18 or 18.5. So I will still need to trip the edges with a razor blade to fit a 17-inch-wide airplane seat. It has a 12-inch rise, which I think may be too much and may require more razor blade surgery. But with all that said, it looks like it might make it possible to lean back and stretch out on transatlantic or other very long flights.

Does anyone have any experience using anything like this? Does it count as my one personal item? What if I have a medical note. I've ordered one of these and am going to try it in a couple of chairs at home to see how it works. If it doesn't, I'll probably send it back.

Here's a photo:

Loren Pechtel

I once tried an inflatable pillow meant to do something similar. As a 6'er I found it useless--it just pushed my knees into the seat in front.

CPRich

OP - you say knee room isn't an issue, but keep in mind that you'll also lose that much seat length. All of your weight will be spread over a shorter length of seat, increasing the pressures on your legs.

celle

Another possible effect is that it could make it more difficult to do up your seat belt.
I usually put one of the small, airline pillows behind me and I find that I have to lengthen the seat belt, to do even that.

Rebelyell

I worry about that. As things are now I generally have several inches to spare, and I usually stretch my legs out and put them under the seat in front of me. I'm worried the base may be just too thick. Of course, as I mentioned, I'm prepared to do some surgery with a razor knife to cut it down to size if need be.

Proudelitist

This could border on turning into one of those sorts of pax (excluding teenage/co-ed girls) who walk around with their own full sized pillow!

This disease starts slowly..usually the first symptom to appear is an inflatable neck-pillow..worn while walking around the terminal. Before long it's a full on pillow.

Rebelyell

My pillow arrived from Amazon and I just wanted to follow up.

As I feared it is way too big. The width is too wide by 1.5 to 2 inches, and it should be no problem cutting an inch off of each side. However, the 12-inch "rise" is just too much. Although I claim no problems with legroom, with this wedge I am likely to have them big league.

On the other hand, it does actually do what I wanted it to do in terms of simulating a recline, and it's slightly concave, which makes it comfortable. I may take it to an upholstery place that we use and have them cut it down to a seven-inch-recline wedge. I think that would be perfect.

Or I may do nothing. Since I have acid reflux I do actually have a use for the thing. But I am going to play around with it a bit and see if I can find a way to use it to make my airline seats more comfortable.

UF92134

Try this inflatable backrest/support: You can buy it from Amazon