Thanks for all the replies. I'll definitely keep what you all said in mind. Cheers

Actually, I diasagree strongly with you. For the years that this disucssion has been going on on FT, many of us who feel reclining all the way is not fair, courteous, etc , have been shouted down by people using insulting and non necessary descriptions (fatty, fat slob, idiot, porker - keep searching, you'll find more) that many of us have just stopped particpating in the threads. As pitch gets tighter and tighter in Y, and there are always some rows that won't recline (in front of exit rows for example), demanding your right to recline may be legitmate, but it is often downright rude and ill mannered.

How do you feel when someone in front of you reclines fully and suddenly and ends up spilling your coffee on your clean clothes or busting your computer screen?

In much of the world, we have a lot of rights that we can excercise - most of us are reasonable and intelligent enough to know the correct, proper, and decent way to exploit these rights. Making someone angry, uncomfortable, or irritable for several hours on a cramped plane when a "little" consideration would make a difference is childlike.

Yes, you can recline fully whenever you want. If and how you recline tells us a lot more about what kind of person you are than it tells us about the person behind you.

Larry

OP reclined his seat after the person in front of him reclined into his lap. When requested, he raised his seat and sat cramped in the smallest space possible - reclined seat into him, not reclining his own seat, in coach. So, he was rude and childlike and the person behind them was perfectly right?

And I'll give you five to one odds that the complainer and boyfriend behind him had seats reclined.

I once had a woman behind me, fully reclined, whine out loud about how unfair it was that I had also reclined my seat, and that almost 6 feet tall she could barely move. I assured her that at 6 foot 2 it didn't magically get better. I suggest that reclining your own seat and complaining about the person in front of you is both rude and hypocritical.

And, being uncomfortable with confrontation, I am stressed out by both Larry and slipperyslope's disagreement and accusation to others in this thread. The kind thing to do would be to stop posting. I will be even more deeply stressed and offended by any dissenting response to this post.

It is not my intention to offend you, but my comments were not in reference to the OP. They were in reference to the comments in this thread like "I'd have told the fatso to go pound sand" and "I always recline. I cannot stand sitting in the straight up position" and " It appears that everyone here feels the same way except you."

Over the last couple of years it seems as though these bi weekly discussions on seat recline have taken a decidely nasty tone that I don't think has been the intention of the writers, but it has been construed that way by quite a few of the readers. I ws expressing my strongly held position that a little civility goes along way - even when sitting in a plane.

Larry

There is a way to end all of these seat recline discussions.

Airlines simply need to modify their planes so seats do not recline.

End of story. :D

Has anyone ever tried "If you can persuade the person in front of me to put his/her seat up, I'll put mine up?" In other words, put the responsibility for running the domino effect of the entire row on the person who wants it done. If s/he can't get the person in front of you to sit up straight, which may in turn require persuading the person in front of him/her to sit up straight, etc., etc., all the way to the bulkhead, I don't think s/he has any right to a level of comfort that one or more people in front of him/her won't have.

Regardless of one's position on recline or not, a request by someone who refuses to do that is unfair to someone such as the OP, whom the requester wants to squeeze between a fully reclined seat in front and an upright seat back.

I think I'll try it next time I'm in the middle of one of these.

Uhhhh...maybe once or twice... ;)



Why do people keep questioning the "right" to recline? The button is there, so IMHO there is no question about whether or not you have the "right" to recline.

Of course, I also have the right to talk with my mouth full, fidget while other people are putting, belch loudly, and use my cell phone in restaurants. I find all of these behaviors roughly similar to Coach Reclining. :) So if all you are concerned about is your own "rights", recline away! It's all about you and your rights, right? :p

(By the way, major props for weaving Coach Reclining and Fat Passengers into the same thread. ^ All we have to do now is integrate noisy toddlers into this and we have a TravelBuzz triple play.)

I'll try harder next time. :D

To Larrude: I apologize for referring to the "overweight woman" whose SO asked the OP to put his seat in the upright, locked position as "fatso."

I'd feel that I'd been pretty stupid.

I know it's possible for the person in front of me to recline suddenly at any time, so I position my computer so that, if the seat is reclined, the screen will get pushed toward the closed position rather than jammed into the corner of the tray table cutout. I don't put drinks so far forward on the tray table that they'll get moved by a reclining seat. The geometry is pretty obvious, so it's not hard to figure out what positions are safe. If I position my laptop so that it can get jammed, it's my own fault.

I recline slowly myself in case the pax behind me doesn't have the geometric sense G*d gave a pigeon, but really, it's up to each pax to protect his or her stuff from obvious risks.

I actually have to agree with this, really I do. There is really no point to reclining away, all you're getting is an extra inch or so in coach. Abolish the reclining "features".

also, Larrules said: "In much of the world, we have a lot of rights that we can excercise - most of us are reasonable and intelligent enough to know the correct, proper, and decent way to exploit these rights. Making someone angry, uncomfortable, or irritable for several hours on a cramped plane when a "little" consideration would make a difference is childlike."


I agree with both completely. I choose not to recline despite having that button next to me. It's not a right -- it's a BUTTON. I don't want my space invaded with somebody's shining bald head, I don't want my dining and work space invaded by some inconsiderate clod's (think of that jacka$$ that slams his seat back, then has to s-t-r-e-t-c-h to reach his tray table. Hey, genius, how 'bout just putting your seat up so we can BOTH be comfortable?) seatback, and I don't want to lean back into somebody else's comfort zone.

You'll like having me in front of you, as you can count on me not to recline into your lap uninvited. ;)

Well put SJC1K. Though unfortunately too many emotions can often cancel out the logic involved in many aspects of air travel. I am totally in accord with your statement. People need to anticipate that the chair in front of them can be reclined at any given time. Before I recline I always try to check my blindspot and make certain a laptop won't be damaged or someones 64oz fountain drink won't get knocked over, as for knee space and feeling cramped due to body mass, not my problem. RIGHT TO RECLINERS UNITE!!! :)

Recline if you want to. Everyone else does. If the person behind you is a POS or really tall, recline a bit less if they are courteous, if not .... them, they could have flown up front. there is no right answer. On a flight is one of the growing number of places where baing a nice guy means you end up getting .... on.

Can we include the weekly whine about excessive carry-on luggage too? ;)

Depending upon just how obese this lady was, she may well have been considered an unfit (pardon the pun) candidate for the exit row as she might not have been able to provide much help in the "unlikely event" of an emergency. Indeed, her bulk may have proven to have been more of a hinderance than a help.