Time to stop seats having the ability to recline?
 

Ok, admittedly a bit of a rant. :mad:

I flew to Sofia in Club Europe from Heathrow on Sunday morning and returned today. On both flights the person in front reclined their seat fully, for pretty much the entire duration of the flight. This had a seriously negative impact on my comfort and journey, particularly when food and drink was involved. On my outbound flight, i was eating my breakfast when, after he had clearly finished his, the 'gentleman' in front suddenly and abruptly recline his seat causing me to spill food on my lap and knock my orange all over my tray. He turned around and said a very unapologetic sorry and went to sleep. Pretty similar experience on my return flight today, although no spillage, i just didn't have enough room to enjoy my flight and have some space to do some work and watch a film.

When the seat in front of you is reclined, you get very little space, even in club europe. It's incredibly frustrating and annoying. When the seats are upright or only marginally recline, the space is decent. On both my flights i would have had more space with which to work, eat and watch a film in an economy seat with the seat in front up right.

Personally, i do not recline my seat on a plane, coach or anything other mode of transport if there is someone behind me and it will impact on their journey. I find it incredibly rude and selfish. Now i know if the seats recline then a passenger has the right to use this facility. I learnt many moons ago that to expect a basic level of manners, respect and decency from other human beings is far too much to ask, so maybe it's time that BA simply removes the ability to recline a seat in all cabins on short journeys which will annoy a few selfish and rude people and benefit the vast majority?

Thoughts?

Will end this by saying my sweet and sour seafood thingy ma bob and rice on the return flight was excellent as was the cabin crew member [name removed].

I agree wholeheartedly.

I think your complaint should be with BA, not the passengers. It is BA who designs the Club Europe cabin, decides pitch and opts for the seats to recline.


As long as BA puts a recline button, I don't see how you can fault a paying passenger for using it.

Did you read my post? :confused:

I stated in my post that if the seat has the ability to recline then a passenger has the right to use it, which is why i have said BA should remove the ability to recline all seats and as such my complaint is with BA. BA is not responsible for the basic manners and decency of their passengers. Although i have noticed cabin crew asking passengers to have seats upright when food and drink is being served, but mostly in economy i think.

I'm simply asking other passengers if they agree with my stance.

The eternal question.

I recently flew on a ridiculously low fare for a holiday, and was stuck in Y for 3+ hours, which was fine for what I paid. Twenty minutes after takeoff, the man in front of me reclined, essentially forcing me to do the same. I checked the gentleman behind me, and he was asleep, so I gently reclined without waking him.

Half an hour later he awoke and began repeatedly kneeing my seat back., which I ignored. He, of course, had been reclined the whole time.

I ran into him on the train on the way back to the city, and he regaled me with his sob story about the person in front of him who had so rudely reclined without asking.

He didn't recognize me, but his wife did, and she blushed quite floridly. :D

We are all in this together, so we must just get along.

I don't agree that the ability to recline should be removed, because often there is no-one behind, which means there is no-one to affect. Or, even if there is someone behind, that person is fast asleep in a reclined state and there is no way it would affect them anyway.

Some people's rudeness should not be to the detriment of others. By removing the ability to recline, it not only affects rude, inconsiderate people but those who are considerate. If we set everything for the lowest common (or even uncommon!) denominator, where does it stop? Ban Skype in the lounge so that people can't talk without headsets on their iPad? Ban Internet in the lounge altogether except for emails so that people can't download large files?

However, there should be an etiquette-based rule that the seat must be put upright during meal service if there is anyone behind you, or the person behind minds having the seat reclined into him for a reasonable reason (trying to work on his laptop but there is no space to open it, or is tall and has his legs against the seat back etc).

I do not mind if someone reclines into me as long as I still have enough space to do what I want to do. I do not find it rude if someone reclines towards me, except during meal service, although I do not recline unless there is no-one behind me or it's not possible for me to adversely affect the person behind me for whatever reason.

Buy a private plane.

Just thought I'd get that response out of the way :p

The interesting thing for me is that if i had a crystal ball and could know that the person in front of me would recline their seat, in club europe, for a large % of the flight, then i wouldn't be buying a club europe seat, i'd be in economy.

Club Europe should mean that a passenger has a good amount of room to enjoy the flight at all times and when the seat in front is reclined, this is simply not the case. For me thats unacceptable for a business class product.

I do have another Club Europe booking but after this latest experience i'll be saving myself some money and going in economy in future.

I think this is your pet peeve, so you are looking for an excuse to have it bother you more than it should. You categorized the passenger as giving an "unapologetic sorry". Again, your clouded perception. The recline in the seat in front does not affect the tray. How much seat pitch did you lose? One inch? Recline your seat and regain that inch.

I am not a psychologist and my comments should not be a substitute for psychological advice.

One person doesn't like reclining , therefore BA should stop seats reclining to satisfy that person

Um, no, I don't agree. If you want to gain the lost space back, simply recline your own seat

When you called recliners, ''selfish and rude people'' I thought you were complaining about them. :confused:



As is always the answer with these types of threads, many will agree and many will disagree. I disagree with your suggestion for BA and your characterization of recliners, but I won't pretend that my views are shared by all.


It is probably worth noting that very few carriers have eliminated recline in Y, and I can't think of any that have done so in a premium cabin.

In the OP's defence, it can actually affect the drink if the tray table had not been drawn forward, the meal tray is placed close to the seat back, and the glass is at the back of the tray.

When the seat is reclined, even though the tray table stays where it is, the seat back angle against the tray table increases and it can hit the top of the glass, topping it over.

I have had it happen, although I did not have anything spilt as I quickly grabbed the glass.

Then I suggest that the complaint you should make is to BA for the lack of seat pitch. However, this is the norm in European business class. I do not find any different with LX, LH etc. All of the seats recline.

I have a solution for you.

Book Wizzair instead of BA. Most of their seats do not recline, and if I remember correctly, they fly between LTN and SOF.

Did you at least get a non E seat this time?

Yes please.

I genuinely don't understand how anyone can think _/_/_/ is more comfortable than _| _| _|, particularly at mealtimes.

I don;t think it will happen though. So in its absence, I would settle for a ban on reclining during mealtimes, and encouragement for people to ask, or at least warn before they recline, and to do so slowly.

I remember one easyJet flight where I flinched, such was the ferocity of the seatback flinging itself it my face 15 seconds after rotation. Some people just can't be trusted with the responsibility of something as simple as a reclining seat.

unfortunately it doesn't work. Because your knees are attached to your backside via your thigh bone your knees remain in the same place when your seat pivots just behind the bum. If, like me the place where you knees are happens to be just below the tray table then when the person in front reclines then your table won't go down. More importantly it becomes difficult (impossible on some airlines like CA domestic) to remain seated with your legs out forward. So you have to shuffle into a sideways position and put your legs in the aisle, or in our neighbours space.

In hundreds of flights I have yet to meet anyone, any single person, who has even checked how big the person behind them is, let alone ask if I mind! I'm totally fed up with airlines allowing one person to make several people behind them totally uncomfortable for negligible benefit for the person in front. On one occasion the recline was so severe I ended up with a knee injury that too took nearly 4 months to sort out.