Crewed Talk: Don’t Bring the Seat-Reclining Wars to a Flight Near Me
Sarah Steegar September 02, 2014
If you were to have looked at what’s trending online over the last couple of weeks, you’d think “Reclining Seats” was the name of a hot new boy band. It’s all the rage.
While FlyerTalk debates the issue regularly, it was taken to a new level when a passenger recently used the Knee Defender — that plastic gadget that blocks the seat in front of you from reclining. What happened is not surprising — a fight ensued that diverted the flight. What happened next was exactly what I predicted: Sales of that device are about to shoot up. And they did.
Then there was a second flight diversionover reclining within the same week. Then it really blew up, and I discovered there is a real group of people that firmly believe there is an etiquette rule that goes like this: “Don’t recline. Ever. No exceptions.”
My Problem
Aside from the fact that they are just making that up out of thin air based on their own personal desires (seeing as how there is an actual airline policy, and that is not it!), what really bothers me is the kinds of comments I’m seeing from some in this camp. Comments that read like, “I will make it my personal mission to kick the back of your seat every time it looks like you’re just about to doze off,” and “One woman who banged my knees didn’t sleep a wink for 17 hours. I made sure of it.” This is just a quick paraphrasing from a look at a few articles across the Internet.
But, yeesh! I’m getting a headache just thinking about having such passengers. Traditionally, I approach passenger conflict like this. I know the “flying cage” can make people weird. I’m understanding. I’ve broken up in-flight fistfights without calling the cops. But those days are probably over thanks to the attitudes above. Here’s what I have to say to all those commenters: don’t bring your premeditated conflict onto my plane. Cause I am not in the mood.
My Answers
I hate that the cabin crunch makes people uncomfortable. It makes the crew feel cramped too! (Just note the demeanor of crews working 757s to Europe.) I don’t have an immediate solution, but — listen up! — I do have two hard rules for dealing with seat back conflicts on my flights:
1. Do not buy the Knee Defender. It’s not just a jerk product, it is an utter waste of money. Several airlines have put out statements that they are explicitly prohibited, and those that have not do have policies against any device that “disables or potentially damages” airline property. All the Knee Defender does is announce, “I’m rude and looking for trouble.”
2. If you can’t at least attempt to resolve a disagreement on the plane with a polite request to/discussion with the other person, I, the flight attendant, will not be on your side, end of story. (Note: you definitely need me on your side.)
I’m on Team Considerate Recliner: pay attention to the person behind and make thoughtful calculations. If it’s a shorter flight and they have their computer out and/or are above-average sized and you’re feeling like a nice person, maybe decide to leave it up. If it’s a long flight or you just really feel like you need to recline today, darnit, give them a polite notice or glance back and recline slowly so they have time to adjust accordingly. No slamming back with abandon, and yes, that is as far as it goes. No need to hurl your body against the seat back repeatedly. There’s not a secret knock or anything to make it tilt further.
If you are cramped and totally against people reclining, I’m sorry, but that’s all I can say. As far as my power is concerned, the seat backs are made to recline. Make your case to the person in front of you, sure, but you must do so in a way that does not include touching, threatening or aggressing anyone in any way. If you do, you will not be getting more legroom. You’ll be getting an early landing and a big Buh-bye.
There’s only one real way to get airlines to give you more legroom. Buy the heck out of tickets for carriers’ “Plus” Economy seats. And never ones on thecrampiest — and most profitable! —airline around (Spirit, by the way, has non-reclining seats). If the extra legroom seats keep filling up, the airlines will keep adding more. They might cost a little more, but they’re cheaper than the fines for diverting a flight!
[Photo: iStock]
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1StRanger, I have to agree with you. In the US, FA's (and quite a few other "enforcement professions") are very quick to "enforce" authority without looking at defusing situations / negotiation. In the UA incident, yes the guy was a jerk, however was a diversion really the only option? What about moving the non-recliner to another seat, doing a swap with a pax who doesn't care (throw in a free bottle of wine and I'm sure you'd get a volunteer, and a $30 bottle of wine is certainly going to be cheaper and quicker than a diversion). Certainly have words with the offending pax once on the ground, but in the air, I would have thought keeping things calm would be priority number 1. Oh, and the wine example, I know of several people who have swapped seats for various reasons on other airlines in the world, and a bottle of wine from Business / First was typically offered to say thank you. Also on the recline / no recline debate, outside of meal times (when most airline policies state everything should be up) that's the risk you take when flying in the lower classes. If you really have important work to do pay for business / first. I typically don't recline on short haul (aka an hour or two), however anything longer, my seat will go down. Before one of you non-recliners state, but I'm tall and you'd be crushing my legs, my response is simple, I'm hardly the smallest person in the world (very few people are taller than me), I have dodgy knees / legs, and yet I have no problems if the pax in front of me wants to recline.
I see yet another issue in those stories: the behavior of the FAs. I wasn't on those flights, so, I can only speculate, but I would share the very unhealthy trend that I've observed in the past year: Many FAs are very aggravated recently (about last two years. and especially in 2014.) Three times in 2014, on UA flights, I observed situations where FAs were very fast to jump the gun and threaten a passenger. Even if two cases one can argue that the passenger was in some verbal argument (albeit very polite), in the 3rd case, passengers were shocked how unprovoked that threat was. I won't get into details, as those are not relevant here, but the point is that in the recent time, FAs of at least some of the US-based airlines are very aggravated. And this is not reflected just in those cases. On both flights of my round trip to BsAs in August, I was shocked how rather unfriendly several UA FAs were (I am not even talking just unwelcoming). Several passengers were also shocked how FAs served the so-called breakfast, literally shoving the tray onto the tray tables. I am not sure what is the cause for this trend, but it is there and it is not healthy for the industry. (I suspect it is the consequence of the numerous new regulations introduced by the airlines that strain both passengers and the FAs. But I also suspect there is more to that story, and it might be due to the post-merger changes that make FAs unhappy. - I mean CO-UA, merger, while also the more recent AA-USair merger may have had an effect.) Aggravation is contagious. If the FAs are calm and logical, they actually have better control over the situation and have stronger authority in the views of the passengers.When their first argument is that regardless the published airline rules, they make the final decision in each and every situation, that's doesn't help creating amicable atmosphere during the flight. So, unless airlines will resolve the causes of the FAs's aggravation, I expect flight diversions and incidents happening in the near future for a variety of reasons, and those reasons are not the intrinsic cause but rather a trigger for the symptoms of a deeper problem.
Youse guyz do not get it....this is where it is headed.... Eastern had smoking zones vs non smoking boston to Newark man had reservation for smoking, given non smoking had a fit, stewardess would not do anything. I was in process of getting someone to switch to help the poor guy out. fist fight between man and stewardess...broke her nose pretty bad... the above simply have not flown long enough to see the longer term consequences of their thoughts, although not bad at all.
All these incidents could have been avoided if the flight attendant simply confiscated the knee defender devices. Explain they are against airline policy, take them away and give them back as the passenger leaves the plane. Passenger doesn't cooperate, they are told they will be arrested at the destination for failing to comply with crew instructions. Give some compensation to the impacted passenger that wanted to recline, then charge the knee defender passenger to fund it. Make the compensation triple the price of the fare paid by the impacted passenger. Problem will get solved quickly.
This is quite simple. One side of the plane has reclining seats, the other has non-reclining seats. The airlines can make more money through advance seat selection and everyone is happy.