Originally Posted by
orbitmic
… and BA has listened and at least if travelling economy, as long as you sit behind row 12 on an 320 NEO or 18 on a 321 NEO you won't be able to recline nor (one further row back) the passenger be able to recline on you.
As for me, I much prefer airlines which allow recline on all flights. My "short haul" flights may well be a flight landing at 2am in LCA or at 4am in TLV in connection with some long haul so I'm among those who appreciate the possibility to recline. On very short flights (say <2hrs) I typically never need to recline myself but don't mind others doing as I know people with various back conditions or flying patters may feel a lot better as a result.
If I recline I tend to hold the seat as I do to avoid it "falling" in an unexpected way on the person behind. I do not ask for authorisation to the person behind as I don't think I need it and it would be hypocritical to ask for permission as a matter of course. Very occasionally, the person behind asks me to put the seat back. In that case, I just deal with it on a "case by case" basis depending both on the reason mentioned (or lack thereof) and of how I feel. If I'm not too tired and the person behind is of dimensions that would likely make my recline uncomfortable, I may just say fine. If I feel shattered and the person behind is not asking nicely, I may just tell them that I'm afraid to say that I am just arriving from Australia, am really tired and just want to find a more comfortable position. In many other cases, I may either propose to swap seats especially if one has no one behind or say that I'll do it half way. It's basically the same as when people ask me to lower the blind (I am a window person and like looking out regularly), when things range from sure to no sorry via "ok I'm happy to lower it half way' or I'll move to the other side (or the next row is completely free if you want!). But again, those are my ways to do it, and the starting position is that reclining is a right so if others choose to be less accommodating I don't think they can be blamed for it, just like I always say "thank you" to cars that stop at zebra crossings to let me walk because I think it's nicer to do and easy but the fact remains that it is indeed for them to stop and the pedestrians to walk.
As someone who understands rights and duties as necessarily correlative, I don't think it can be correct to say that passengers have "a right to recline". If that was the case, the airline would have a an overarching duty to enable each passenger to exercise that right, or otherwise to be in violation of it. The fact that BA are equipping planes without a recline function shows this, I think. I'd suggest it would be odd for a passenger to claim that this design choice constitutes a violation of her right to recline.
I think it's better to understand reclining in an economy seat as something that is implicitly permissible. It is the technology that renders it possible but not permissible, and, as this episode shows, there isn't any broad social consensus on if, when, and how its permissibility should be understood and exercised. This is the cause of all such difficulties.
I do accept your point that there are some context-specific grey areas between the short-haul and long-haul distinction I was rather clumsily drawing, but I think this could all be handled by making the permissibility aspect explicit rather than implicit on whatever grounds can gain overarching acceptance. I'd support BA clarifying in explicit terms (either published somewhere in one of their magazines, or through an announcement on board) whether recline is permitted or not permitted on that occasion - with the distinction being drawn perhaps, as you suggest, on the basis of the length of the flight rather than in terms of it being short or long haul.