My last International trip in coach was in Sept of 2000. On the return leg from TPE - SFO (Taipei, Taiwan to San Fran) I was in row 68c in a 474. The guy in from of me refused to unrecline his seat during meal service. The FA asked him when serving meals. When the FA came around again, I asked the FA to ask the guy again, and he flatly refused and said XXCS!@# NO! I nicely thanked the man from behind in the most sweet and courteous voice I possess. Nothing worked. This is a very LONG flight, and sadly very painful. I am about 6'1", and most of my height is in my legs. It was rude of him!

I always make it a point not to recline my seat during meals. That means if the person in back of me is eating, even if I am done, the seat stays up! I will then only recline after asking the person behind if he would not mind. I know this is not necessary, but it is polite. At times I am told no problem, and once I remember I was asked if I could not go all the way back. Each time I have found people to be very accomodating and very appreciative.

Just a thought!

I guess I am going to side w/ dhacker on the issue here and it is not b/c I too am a member of the long leg club.

I don't like it when people in front of me recline and I will never recline. Plain, simple and end of sentence.

I do like however watching the battle of the reclining seat and chexfan's knees. The knees are so far undefeated.

I think I would like to see most of you in a steel cage match on the WWF. The winner gets an extra dose of Ritalin. The few posters in this thread who are not included... you know who you are.

At 6'3" and 220 lb. I overfill a coach seat (when I can't get an upgrade). However, I seldom have a problem with recliners. Seems that when I am seated in some of those short pitch coach seats, the distance between my back and my knees is such that the person trying to recline finds that their seat doesn't go back. After trying for a few times, they generally give up and I can relax my legs under the seat without having a seat back in my face.

I'm going to post this here, though its relevance might be questionable. I don't have children so I can't speak to all of these issues with authority. But I recently saw something on a flight that made me more mad than a seat kicker, a crying baby or a drunken passenger.

I was on a commuter NWA flight from Minneapolis to Lincoln a few days before Christmas. In the seat in front of me was a couple and their three year old (a guess on age). The child was very interested in the lights and vents and was playing with them above both their seats and the seats in front of them. The parents attempted to control the child, but he was obviously pent up and full of energy. The father grabbed the child and tried to hold him down physically. As you can imagine, this made the child squirm more. The father kept telling the child that he couldn't disrupt the other passengers; this sounded good to me as the flight was at midnight due to delays. The child did not want to be restrained, the father did not want to release him. The result: The father began spanking the child. When this produced crying that would not stop, the spanking turned to slaps across the face that hurt ME just from watching. I wanted to grab this guy and ..... slap him a little bit. I went from being ticked at the kid to fuming at the father.

The reason for this story? Perhaps the things that annoy us to some degree annoy and embarass the parents to a greater degree. And, just perhaps, there is a tradeoff whereby the other alternative is far worse than the action taken. Would you rather have a child kicking your seat or crying? Both bad, but perhaps that is the choice a parent is faced with. We'll never know. Compassion and an attempt at understanding would be key.

As business travelers, we often think that the skies are all ours and everyone should cater to us as business travelers. If you doubt that, you've not read more than a dozen posts in this BB. Reality is that we share the skies with leisure travelers, people traveling for the first time and people traveling under dire circumstances. My philosophy is make the best of it, suck it up and get on with your life.

The soap box is now available for rebuttal.

I try to make it my policy to never recline the seat during daylight short haul (upto 3 hours) flights since I am a believer in "what goes around comes around". Despite travelling mostly in 1st class bulkheads on domestic AA flights I still don't recline since I wouldn't want anyone else to recline into my lap on a daytime flight. I just try to put myself in the situation of the person in the seat behind me and think how I would feel if it was me back there. Since the pitch is tight especially on MD-80's then it would be almost like pinning the person behind me to his/her seat which in turn will cause frustration and retaliation.

On long haul trans-oceanic flights I do recline but if not asleep I try to lift my seat if the person behind me gets up to go for a walk. In return I have noticed that I never get "kneed" in my back no matter how tall or large the traveller behind me might be.

During meals I prefer to sit upright not that it makes any difference since front cabin has in-armrest tray tables but I still believe it is polite to sit up rather than lay down while dining. It's probably more appetising for the person behind me to look at the back of my seat rather than enjoying the full view of my messy hair while having his/her meal.

I'm gonna go out on a limb here but.....when I was a child, we would often take trips to Montreal or New Brunswick (the Canadian province) from Connecticut. Well, you're looking at a drive anywhere from five to 12 hours. How did my parents keep their sanity and prevent my brother and I from killing each other? Dramamine..... My mom was nurse so she really did not want us to get car sick, or so she said.

(If anyone here has ever taken Dramamine you'll know that it prevents motion sickness because you're so knocked out).

Yes, that sometimes works, unless you're in the window seat and/or the space next to you is taken by another passenger. The aisle sometimes works, but there you are usually jolted by the other pax and the ubiquitous service tolleys. I long (pun!) for the day when the seats do not recline in coach.



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Time..... is on my side.

"Let's get ready.... to RUMBLE!!!!" Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!!!!!!



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Time..... is on my side.

There are several ways around this. Being an elite level member, I have always found airlines accomodating to blocking 1 seat next to me- whether beside, in front or behind. You may wish to request this. You can't ward off anyone around your seat, but you can request a less crowded seat in the plane to get in more work or rest.

If kids kicking the back of your seat bother you, take the last row in the plane. If you don't like the possibility of doing dental work on the guy in front of you, take the first row if possible.

Here's a real kicker (no pun intended, ha ha)
Airlines will reserve the first part of their coach section for families and others requiring special assistance. Keep this in mind when you think that just because you are the front of the plane, you are with other elites and among the first to deplane after landing.

Now here's a question I have, I use upgrades to get away from these problems of space but find kids flying in First class who are twice as rambunctious. They are chase each other in the hall and climb over the seats. And they are smart too because they will do this quickly while the FA is going back towards the galley. Any suggestions?

I have very long legs and when I am relegated to coach it is very painful to have someone recline into me.

A few suggestions that have been made are not always possible. It was suggested if you have long legs just use miles/certs whatever and upgrade. There are only so many upgrade seats available so this is not always possible. It was also suggested to have the seats around you blocked. This only works when reserving. Once it is in the gates hands they can issue boarding passes for any seat they want. Some gate agents may try and issue blocked seats last but does not always work.

So to all of you who say they'll recline no matter what, be prepared to have my knees putting dents in your back and moving around. I have as much right to be as comfortable as coach allows as you do. It is not my fault I have long legs.

worldbanker, isn't this why the overhead bins to seat ratio is so much more generous in first class! Kidding only folks.

I have to disagree with the notion that a lot of airlines put families with kids in the front part of the coach section. I have read several articles lately that airlines are putting families in the way-back.

I don't think its about "your rights" at all. This is not some constitutional issue. People here have said that I paid for it and therefore I am going to take it ALL. For those people, your beef is not with other passengers (they're just as bad off as you are) but rather with the airline(s) that created the situation.

Wouldn't a better policy/philosophy be: Be Polite. That means recline or don't but if someone asks something reasonable (i.e. put chair up during meal service) try to accomodate the request. That doesn't mean bend over backwards such as keeping your seat up 100% of the time during a night flight.

I should also mention that sometimes you can use your seat as a tatic. For example, I usually keep my seat upright. However, I remember one time where some kept hooking and unhooking the tray table and just generally was pushing on my seat. Well, I reached the limit of my tollerance so I just suddenly and quickly reclined me seat. The person was none too pleased but getting the (empty) tray table into his lap sure gave him the message.

My other norm is that until "bed time" or as soon as the guy in front of me reclines (like a domino effect), I won't recline (above example exlcuded).

One of my pet peeves is the people who use my seat as a handle. Try holding on to the overhead bin if you need some physical contact. Leave me alone!

I had a similar thought. It seems to me there have been a lot of posts regarding peoples "rights" to armrest, space, extra seats, etc. In essence, the questions all boil down to courtesy and/or the lack thereof. The answers to most of these questions should have been learned long ago. The only real insight that might be garnered here is how to diplomatically deal with discourteous passengers. I sincerely hope (no accusations here) people are not looking for a justification for their own rudeness.

Another comment on the use of the term "rights". In this age of self-entitlement, the term is quite often over used. Rights are not something that are owned. They are something that is loaned or given to you. A driving instructor once explained to me the seeming semantic, but major difference. Your inalienable rights were given by God, your right-of-way driving is yielded to you by other drivers (hopefully ), and the right of the government is derived from the consent of the governed.

<Stepping off moral and intellectual high horse> In practice, I seldom recline my seat because I've found it increase my back pain after the flight. If I do, I check with the person behind me. Occasionally, I do ask the person in front of me to put their seat up a little, or while I eat. If all else fails and the person insists on putting their head in my lap, "my" air vent usually goes on full blast directed at their head and I come down with a mysterious cough. Passive aggressive and petty as it may be, I at least get some sense of revenge. The only thing that really upsets me is when people recline their seat all the way, then lean forward to eat, read, etc.

Anyway, happy trails (vapor?) to you, and hopefully we all can maintain a little civility despite our uncomfortable surroundings in the air.

Freefaller12k