Welcome to FT ^ and to your first belligerent post here .
2 inches more than E+ on the 320! And even in E+ recline doesn't matter much anymore.

The A320 sports 38" pitch in F - if one get's one's knees jammed there, one did something wrong .

That is hilarious. I was in F cabin seat 2C on the *spacious* 757 the other day, and the guy in 1C jams back and forth like described by OP. In spite of the FA asking him to please keep his seat upright for takeoff (we were taxiing). In cramped quarters like a 757 F cabin, I generally don't recline at all out of respect for the pax behind me's comfort.

Not just b/c he kept spaz reclining all the time, but this guy's generally annoying demeanor in the cabin and loud personal habits would have warranted the "air vent" treatment for sure.

On most short flights I recline almost immediately on "wheels up" and take a short cat nap on climb out. If I'm in E or E+ most times I pretty much leave it there so it's not an issue later. If I see a business person trying to work behind me on a lap top I make room.

Moderator Note
This thread on seat reclining is not specific to United. There have been a number of threads exploring this subject in its new home, TravelBuzz. Please note, that most of the recent threads have been closed because of the excessive heat of the discussion. We'll let this one open for awhile subjecto to "good behavior". Thanks for your understanding. Ocn Vw 1K, Moderator, United and TravelBuzz.

I have been on LH, and when the food service is underway, the FA made the people who were reclined put the seat up, saying, in German "No recline during food service out of respect for others"

I am always cognizant of my recline in narrowbody F. It's still fairly close quarters up there: when the person in front of me reclines, I usually have to move my knees to make room. It's not awful, but it's definitely something to consider. That said, I usually will slowly recline an inch or two after the meal (if there is one).

In Y, I don't recline at all on the vast majority of my domestic flights...I just know how painful it is for the person behind me. Every now and then, if I sneak a peek at a very small person or a child behind me, I might recline an inch or two. If I'm in Y, the seat behind me is almost always the most-desirable E- seat, so unfortunately it is never empty. (17F on the 757, for example.)

I recline after dinner on overnighters. I do believe that's a generally-accepted etiquette: when dinner is taken away, most of the cabin reclines. I don't see a problem with that.

On LH flights last July (CLT-MUC) the FA's asked politely, in English, those w/ even slightly reclined seats to "Please put your seat upright, just for the meal service". Tight seat pitch in Y, 32" or maybe just 31", but they made the best of it....

On a UA flight to Frankfurt, saw a situation where a lady fully reclined immediately after takeoff, such that the guy behind here had no room for his dinner tray. He asked the FA to have the lady bring her seat up during dinner, but the FA did not want to "wake" her. The guy was stuck. I think I would appreciate the LH approach.

I will always recline slowly so as not to destroy someone's laptop or knees, but I will always recline (except during mealtimes). I won't ask permission to do so, but will generally cooperate with someone who nicely requests some accommodation by compromising on the amount of recline.

Thanks for this post. It gave me a good laugh - the "snapping the latop screen off." (I realize it's a serious matter) But some people do abruptly drop their seat back so quickly I actually wonder if the seat might break and collapse backwards alltogether.

Sometimes the seat won't recline until you push back on them hard, and then they snap back. Sorry, blame the seat, not me.

My seat, my choice. Choose a bulkhead if you don't want someone reclining in front of you.

I am one of those people who tends to be a bit more considerate of those behind me, whether in F or Y. I rarely recline on a shorter flight and when I do, its only slightly.

On a flight from DFW to ORD yesterday in F and the short person in front of me, flung her seat back and slammed my laptop screen onto my hands. Just goes to show that just because you fly in the front, does not mean you have class.

I don't usually recline on domestic flights, but have started traveling more internationally (MRs). Last week ORD-DUB I looked at the passenger behind me before I reclined to make sure I wasn't going to take up too much of his space.

I always like to say "just because you can, doesn't necessarily mean you should".

I have unfortunately had the "auto recline" seat a fair number of times on UA. It's really annoying, IMHO.


Hmm, good to know... as I have had a laptop damaged by a rapid-recliner before. They managed to recline so quickly it caught the top of the screen in the top of the traytable "slot" and broke the screen's housing and damaged the hinge (fortunately didn't break the screen itself!) I try to position my laptop so that it's not possible for that to happen, but in some Y seats, even with the laptop as far from the seatback as possible, a quick recliner still hits the screen.


I've been in F before when the FA would walk by and ask the person to put up their seat, and they'd do so. Then as soon as the FA had gone by, they'd recline again. (And it was clear they were deliberately reclining, and not just a victim of a broken, "auto-reclining" seat.) They also put their feet up on the armrest of the people in front of them.

I may not like all the seat rules for taxi & takeoff/landing (for example, the headrest on the typical domestic F seat on UA hurts my neck and back when it's pushed fully down for those occasions), but I follow the rules nonetheless.


Me, too. At 6'4"+ and as someone who has had his knees crushed several times by pax (worst was a guy who asked the FA to get me to move my legs when my knees prevented his full recline in an E- seat--I told the FA, WHERE THE HECK DO YOU EXPECT ME TO PUT THEM? ), I tend to be pretty considerate of the person behind me. I glance back to see if they're tall or working, etc., and if so, recline slightly or not at all, vs. a full recline.

Oddly enough, you will find this to be an uncommon courtesy, which seems far outweighed by those indignant at the very thought that your knees might somehow prevent them the full recline of the seat they paid for, and what a terribly inconsiderate jerk I might be for asking them not to do so.

You can almost set your watch to the monthly reclining threads.