I'm 6'2, and I, like some others, try to be courteous by never reclining my seat all the way back, looking behind me to see who is sitting behind me, and putting my seat fully upright during meal service. (I'm the kind of guy who insists on getting to a movie theater early just to get a seat so whoever decides to sit behind me has a choice not to!), but on long haul daylight flights, it is annoying when the person in front of me decides to recline his/her seat back all the way when it really isn't necessary, but yes, I have figured out a way to strategically place my knees in a position where the person cannot recline. The person then gives up and things the seat simply doesn't work, then I go back and put my legs under the seat and stretch out, but always closely keeping alert if he/she tries it again. It works every time, and I know some might find it mean, but otherwise my legs would be spread in a manner as to impede on my neighbors space so I guess it's a trade off...

i don't much recline the seat, as i'm a little thing and don't need it. however, my seat-kicking policy is pretty firm:

young kids (2-4 or so) suck up and deal. any attempt to deal with this only creates more problems.

older kids (4-12 or so) try to deal with it politely without dragging the FA into it. generally, i revert to "suck up and deal."

One you're over 12, if you kicka my seat, i ask politely that you stop. Twice. After that, i'm all over the FA to put miscreants in their place.

i just hate the people who think it's amusing in some strange way to kick seats. it's disrespectful to the person in front of you. it's disrespectful to the airline (cracking the back of a seatback is not as cheap a fix as you might think), and it's just noxious.

(I dupilcate-posted. Kick me. )

[This message has been edited by gwendolynaoife (edited 02-10-2001).]

PAUL PALMER of course it takes more muscles to frown than smile. That's why I usually do it; my schedule doesn't allow for any other kind of work out so I walk around all day looking like the opposite of those 70's smiley faces.

Let me give my opinion on this matter.

I believe in nice things happen to nice people. I also believe in (and this is probably a negative side of me but I have difficulty changing it): I deserve respect and politeness, I will not tolerate rude people.

With this being said I have not yet had any unpleasant incident with any rude person in the air. When some elite member comes in from coach before take-off and places his large carry-on in my business overhead bin, he first put it in, then looks at me and shows that he does not think that I (19) should be in business, then he asks if I need the overhead bin. The man is wrong and maybe a little rude - but since I don't have carry-on it isn't worth bothering, wrong as he may be. I let him. Who cares.

Another example: having just boarded a terribly hot flight (temperature - not attractive) I look at the people boarding. A dangerous-looking hillbilly enters. My mind goes: please, let him sit ANYWHERE but in the seat next to me. Of course he has the seat in the middle next to me. He has his girlfriend with him. I think, Oh no. He looks out the window at take-off - he keeps looking (at me I think). Then he asks could I keep the window open a little while longer, it is his first flight. The sun is shining in at me, it is very uncomfortable. I say Yes. Five minutes later he has watched enough. I close the window, he is happy, I am happy - I have a pleasent flight.

Generally: If I see the person in front of me is going to recline, I block with my knees so they cannot do so. It usually works. I think this is okay since it is not feeling that good when I have the frontseat on my knees - probably unhealthy too. If I can, I do recline, but I do it slowly, and of course never at melas: it's difficult to eat as it is in coach already, the last thing I need is even more space between me and the food.

HOWEVER: Usually I go to sleep as fast as I can. The only way I can really endure flying coach. I can sleep even if not reclined but nicer of reclined of course. If sleeping is difficult: I take some pills. I normally don't take pills but since being awake in coach for more than 1-2 hours is pure torture to me, I really don't mind.

Very nice! You made his first flight an enjoyable experience. What did you give up? Five minutes of comfort. An excellent trade.

I linked to this post from one in the Delta forum - maybe a little late in the game to comment, but I didn't see this mentioned before:

We have taken our son on many flights, and during a few of those we have put him into his carseat for safety. The problem is, his legs stick out of the car seat and are directly against the seat in front of him. No-where to move. So, we apologize in advance to the person in front, and try to minimize his movement, but kids aren't always trying to kick the seat when they bug you, sometimes they just can't help it.

Children are very flexible. If you duct tape thier ankles to thier ears, they tend to stop.....

Why do you put him in the car seat? If he's old enough to be able to kick with some force, he's probably old enough to be able to sit in the seat with just the lap belt.

Given a plane crash (very unlikely to begin with), it's unlikely that it would be bad enough to cause injury with only the lap belt, but not bad enough to cause injury with a car seat.

The extra trouble to drag the car seat through the airport, on the plane, etc., isn't worth it. After all, staying at home (with padded walls) is safer, so why not just do that instead?

When my son was getting a little too big to hold on a lap, I bought him his own ticket (50% off until age 2 for domestic flights), and used the lap belt. It worked just fine.

My wife got an inconsiderate parent/child combo back a few years ago on a flight from LAX-ATL. The young mother had a child about the same age as my two year old. My 6 year old and I had put up with him for quite some time. When he started throwing food over the seat towards us, I started to get irritated. My wife, in the seat ahead of me, realized what was happening and traded with me. The mother then stood the kid up on her legs, allowing him to bounce backwards onto the back of my 6 yr old's seat, repeatedly. My wife (she's so slick) timed the motions of the kid behind him and at the right moment, hit the recline button to bring my son's seat to the full upright position (it was only slightly reclined). This was enough to send the kid heading to the floor. He wasn't hurt but it stopped the ridiculous behavior. Oh, BTW, the older sister behind me had also insisted on kicking my seat back for some time, too.

So my opionion is...
The back of the seat, being part of the structure supporting your body is YOURS! Same for the lower portion, too. The tray table is not part of your seat.

As most of you know, the rules are simple. Don't do anything to the back of the seat in front of you that you wouldn't want someone to do to yours. Look before you recline and don't recline just to recline.

Remember, we're all in this (compartment) together. Show some respect and manners and air travel would be so much easier to endure.

Oh, I missed this one the first time around, and it's probably a good thing. I would have been right in there with those getting ugly and it would have gotten uglier.

I'm 6'5" and I have had my share of reclining problems.

Normally, I do try to avoid them by upgrading or booking the second exit row (since the first exit row can't recline), but that's not always possible.

One time I was stuck in a middle seat in the middle section of a DC-10 and the person in front of me reclined rapidly with no warning, but probably never reclined her seat again after I actually screamed out in pain by having my knee smashed by the bottom of the tray table. It really did hurt. I also totally smashed the palm pilot in my carryon bag because my foot had to shoot forward so quickly to free my knee.

It's just not always an option to recline. The seats have a recline because there are redeyes and light load flights, but you have to give up some things when flights are full. Assuming we get to return to 2-carryon bags each, you'll notice that the plane can't possibly hold 2 pieces of carryon for every passenger so you don't have an absolute right to that either.

I never recline my seat more than a few degrees if there is someone behind me. In fact, on long duration flights, I do make sure that I only choose flights on which I can be assured of an upgrade to business, and I always book a row with a bulkhead behind me so that my recline doesn't affect anyone else. Even with United's additional space in business, my flight would be ruined if I had to worry about making the person behind me uncomfortable because of my recline.

The golden rule is absolutely the one to follow here. Besides, unless we're talking sleep, it actually makes the ride more uncomfortable, so why is it so important to you recliners?

So you could have placed your legs under the seat in front of you the whole time, but you choose not to, not because of the length of your legs, but because you don't want the back of the seat in front of you leaned back. I've always thought this to be the heart of it.

Don't like reclining seats? Complain to the airline. They install them.

Simple courtesy seems to resolve this problem in most cases: just ask the person in front of you not to recline if there's a good reason not to. However, sometimes the person in front of THAT person reclines and it's the only way for them to get some room. Reclining seats make getting up to go to the head difficult depending on the amount of recline, and when they're asleep, gymnastics are sometimes required to get by them from the window seat without crushing the sleeper next to you.

Courtesy usually works, and if moving to another seat is not possible, remember that an attitude of 'live and let live' is preferable to getting steamed over something as relatively insignificant as this issue. And maybe that person in front of you has a back problem (a large percentage of people do) and may need that recline to ease or avoid pain.

In the wake of 9/11, I take subjects like these with a healthy dose of reality. If this subject deserves 3 pages at a time when much more pressing issues are out there, then perhaps it's a good sign we're getting back to normal. Now, anyone up for discussing if the toilet paper should go over or under??

I'm sorry -- but I can't spare a square; I don't have a square to spare.