DENPremEx

Fly Ryanair, they are ordering all their new planes with seats that don't recline and no tray tables, seat pockets or window shades. Personally, I'd rather hitchhike.

LilRhody

I have a similar approach when I am trapped in cattle class, except I first nicely ask the person in front of me if they'd mind pick their seat up a bit because they are laying on my knees (reclining back a little on a non-red eye flight is OK - reclining all the way is not). If that gets a snotty response, then it's on and I use all the tactics above.

gglave

>IMHO, they should design all coach seats so they do not recline at all.

I liked the suggestion I saw once on rec.travel.air: Arrange it so that half the plane reclined and half didn't - Then people could pick where they wanted to sit.

i.e. on a 3-3 configuration set things up so that in steerage A,B,C reclined and D,E,F didn't. So unlike the old "smoking or non-smoking" question, the new one would be "reclining, or non-reclining?"

Cheers,
Geoff Glave
Vancouver, Canada

CDTraveler

Or, for that matter some very small person's knees might receive the impact of that backward slam. When my son flies in his car seat and the person ahead of him fully reclines, the seatback actually rests on his legs.

On one NW flight (day time) the cretin ahead of my son slammed his seat back as hard as he could, hit my son with the seatback and woke him up from a nap. As a reward, the cretin got to listen to 25 minutes of howling. Unfortunately, so did the rest of us, and my son had black-and-blue knees for a week.

PTravel

I'm in the, "seats are meant to recline" camp. However, I would never knowingly cause someone else pain. If someone asked me not to recline, I'd ask why. If the reason was compelling (this will sound familiar to anyone who knows me), e.g. it would crush the requester's knees, I would comply would comply with the request. If the reason wasn't compelling, e.g. "I want to paint a mural in-flight," "I'm shooting baskets into the seat pocket," or, "it's my space and you can't be in it," I would politely refuse.

I simply do not understand people who try to jam their seats back, knowing that they are causing pain, discomfort and possibly injury to the tall passenger seated behind. Similarly, I do not understand passengers who think reclining is immoral and therefore offensive to God, and deliberately jam their knees into the seat of the poor sap who had the temerity to push the recline button.

GeorgeMont

I think there was a personal injury lawsuit a few years ago (someone will provide a link - either to the story or to snopes) about a similar situation. The story goes that the kid was kicking the seat, so to "teach him a lesson", the person aggressively reclined. Well, unfortunately, it was a bit too aggressive and the seat actually broke and went crashing back into the poor kid. I don't remember how severe the kid's injuries were, but I believe they won the lawsuit.

GeorgeMont

So is the default that reclining is ok unless requested not to? In some cases, doesn't a quick glance behind you identify that you are possibly going to crush some knees or a laptop?

Again, the safest bet is if the person you're reclining into is reclined, go for it. Otherwise, assume they are of the non-reclining variety and clear it with them before proceeding. Of course, that is only referring to common courtesy and a desire to not impose on others - it is perfectly within anyone's "right" to recline if they so choose.

PTravel

I think so, yes, unless meals are being served or the plane is taking off or landing.

You must be much more agile than I am. I cannot see behind my seat with my seatbelt fastened, and it's always fastened when I'm seating. I will not, however, rocket my seat back against just such an eventuality as you described. I put it back very slowly, with plenty of opportunity for the person behind me to say, "Um, excuse me . . . could you hold off there?"

Clear it with them? I don't think so. I don't have to ask permission to recline. As I said, I'm in the "if the airline didn't expect me to recline, the seats wouldn't recline" camp. However, as another poster suggested, everything is a matter of courtesy and accomodation. I'm happy to extend courtesies to all pax, provided they're not demanded as an entitlement and, if they impose on me, there is a compelling reason (from my perspective) for the imposition.


Ooops. I see you're the "other poster" who talked about courtesy.

I agree with this completely.

Pat89339

I am one of the non-recliners. When not in a bulkhead seat I usually end up behind a permanent recliner--no matter the class/cabin. I only have two requests to make of the reclining obsessed. First, please return your seat to the upright position when you get up to use the lav (or whatever) and second, please return your seat to the upright position during meal service.

I recognize that that some people feel an entitlement to recline, because it's there. Some are overly obsessed with armrests (I never use one either) or guzzle free booze in F/C, because it's there.

I prefer to lead a stress-free life and not sweat the small stuff. If I feel trapped or claustrophobic, I get up out of my seat and stretch my legs, hang out in the galley or some other open area on the plane. Sometimes I read my book and prop it up on top of the seatback that is in my face. I don't let life's little inconveniences rile me so that I am stirred to anger or feel the need to seek revenge on a perfect stranger for something trivial.

industry_killer

Being 6'6'' I am a non recliner unless I am reclined upon. The one problem I have is that I am mostly leg and have a short torso, so the unlucky that recline onto me just about always get the knees whether I mean to or not.

I have also been unlucky enough to have someone complain to the f/a about me and how I was restricting the use of their seat by being tall. I am sure any other time the f/a would not have said anything to me, but this time the passenger complaining just happened to be his partner who non-reving with him. The f/a actually told me I had to find a new way to sit that did not interfere with the person ahead of me and their reclining. I just laughed and said no. Both of them started mumbling in french about me and then left it alone. I did, however, get the stares of death the rest of the flight from both of them. Has this happened to any other tall folk on any flights?

goingsomewhere

I'm a paying customer. I have every right to recline my seat.

The customer behind didn't pay squat for my seat or my award seat.

I don't have to ask anyone about anything if I want to recline my seat.

If it's someone with long legs behind me and they ask me nicely not to stick my seat all the way back, I am nice enough to try to accommodate them, but I really don't have to.

GeorgeMont

Yep, just like you are perfectly within your rights to sit on the plane and fart for the entire 6 hour transcon.

chad75

This topic is like the TravelBuzz equivalent of a Cher Farewell Tour.

stut

I still find this topic slightly strange, because I never see any of the behaviour described. Is it an American thing?

On short-hauls (which I do weekly), I rarely ever see anyone recline their seat, unless it's particularly early or late, in which case there will be a couple of people who recline slightly.

On long-hauls in economy, the expectation is that everybody will fully recline after the meal service is cleared, and that's exactly what happens.

Nobody forces their seat back too far, nobody tells me to move forward. Presumably it does happen, though.

StarG

And I agree with all your points completely.