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Is it okay to recline your airline seat?

Is it okay to recline your airline seat?

  • Yes

    Votes: 40 70.2%
  • No

    Votes: 12 21.1%
  • Other, please explain

    Votes: 5 8.8%

  • Total voters
    57

kenny

Super_Ideal_Rock
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We've discussed this before but did you see the new development in the news? :-o
http://www.usatoday.com/story/todayinthesky/2014/08/26/knee-defender-fight-united-flight-diverted/14609109/

Seems a woman wanted to recline her seat but the man behind her installed a lock thingie onto her seat so she couldn't.
Flight attendant asked man to remove lock, but he refused.
Words were exchanged.
Woman threw her water in the man's face. :angryfire:
Pilot decided to make an emergency stop to eject the two 48-year old immature brats.

I thought as long as seats can recline they may recline and I must just tolerate it as yet another sucky inconvenience of flying as cheaply as possible.
I guess I could buy a first class ticket, or not fly.

But apparently as personal space shrinks, as airlines cram more seats into coach, people are panicking.
Perhaps they need to modify seats so they don't recline any more.
Perhaps it is time for reclining seats to go the way of mandatory retirement age of 32 for the mandatoraly single, young, thin and pretty stewardesses.
 

Dee*Jay

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I'm with you Kenny, if it's permitted by the airline then I'm allowed to do it. That being said, I do always look behind me and see if the person is working on a laptop or exceptionally tall, in which case I just don't do it, and even if they aren't either of those things I still ask if they mind if I recline. I only wish people in front of me would exercise the same level of courtesy, but it is what it is.
 

movie zombie

Super_Ideal_Rock
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Jan 20, 2005
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11,879
sure you can, but do realize that when I get up to use the restroom i'm going to be pulling on your chair back and bumping the hell out of it to get up and out of my now reduced space...... it is hard enough to get up when the seat in front of me is upright but I try and do so w/o inflicting my movement on the passenger in front of me. with it reclined i'm a sardine trying to escape. and of course I have the bladder of a mouse so i'm going to be getting up often.
 

kenny

Super_Ideal_Rock
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Publicity from this incident will cause sales of 'Knee Defenders" to ... take off ... pardon the pun.



Yesterday I could not even get into their website; their servers were overloaded.
More of these in the sky means more altercations and this conflict is going to come to a head like a festering boil with the media fanning the flames.

Recline now, because soon you won't be able to, IMO.

screen_shot_2014-08-27_at_8.png
 

mayerling

Ideal_Rock
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Could you imagine transatlantic (or similar travel) without reclining seats?
 

kenny

Super_Ideal_Rock
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mayerling|1409155463|3740153 said:
Could you imagine transatlantic (or similar travel) without reclining seats?

I get your point, but imagine a transatlantic flight with the seat in front of you reclined. :knockout:

That's the problem with this thing.
It goes both ways.
 

ForteKitty

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Oct 7, 2004
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Many airlines have seats that glide forward as you recline back. Meaning you lose your own knee space as you recline (unless the person in front of you do the same), and you don't collapse on the person behind you. I much prefer those seats. Also, when I get up, I always push off on my own seatback instead of pulling on the one in front of me. It offers more support and I'm able to get up in one swift movement and continue to have that support as I walk out, instead of pulling on every seatback on the way out. Don't most people do that?
 

isaku5

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If you want to keep so-called 'cheap seats', be prepared to suffer the consequences. After several shorter flights with our knees tucked under our chins, we swore that we'd never do it again. First class or business would be our only options; however, when time had passed and memories had faded, we checked prices before confirming. We said to each other, " It's only a three hour flight, we can handle that". Not so..., unless we can afford to fly with one and only one carrier. Almost needless to add, but I will anyway, we aren't taking any long flights.

Are there any folks here that remember Ward Air? Those were the days, my friend; roomy seats for an extra $30. each way, dining on real china dishes, and proper wine glasses for the complementary beverages. The food was as wonderful as you'd get in a four star restaurant.

They had to declare bankruptcy because the 'bottom line' was in the red. Too bad. :((

You know, we would have paid almost whatever they asked just for the privilege of having a seat where we could actually cross our legs, but passengers can be fickle and they'll just head for the cheapest flight. DH and I just want comfort and if that is offered at a reasonable price, we're there. :praise:
 

kenny

Super_Ideal_Rock
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isaku5|1409158173|3740191 said:
If you want to keep so-called 'cheap seats', be prepared to suffer the consequences. After several shorter flights with our knees tucked under our chins, we swore that we'd never do it again. Fist class or business would be our only option; however, when time had passed and memories had faded, we checked prices before confirming. We said to each other, " It's only a three hour flight, we can handle that". Not so..., unless we can afford to fly with one and only one carrier. Almost needless to add, but I will anyway, we aren't taking any long flights.

Are there any folks here that remember Ward Air? Those were the days, my friend, roomy seats for an extra $30. each way, dining on real china dishes, and proper wine glasses for the complimentary beverages. The food was as wonderful as you'd get in a four star restaurant.

They had to declare bankruptcy because the 'bottom line' was in the red. Too bad. :((

We have only ourselves to blame for how much coach sucks now.
The overwhelming majority of us shop by price only. (Why should we pay $459 if we can get to NY for $454?)
Any airline that tries to hang onto anything nice is at a competitive disadvantage.
That's why all coach service is like WalMart, shitty but cheap.
 

momhappy

Ideal_Rock
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Mar 3, 2013
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4,660
Absolutely, it's okay to recline your seat. Having a seat in the reclined position directly in front of me has never bothered me. If someone is bothered by it, then buy a business class or first class plane ticket.
 

Calliecake

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I have no idea how an average sized or larger person can possibly be comfortable sitting in an airline seat. It's literally the only time I'm happy I'm short, I have asked the person behind me if they minded me reclining the seat. If they did, I would not recline the seat out of common courtesy. I do feel the passenger had the right to recline his seat.

My husband travels all the time for business and I can only imagine how angry he would be if his flight had been diverted because two adults acted like these two did. It will be interesting to see if the airlines change any rules because of this incident.
 

AprilBaby

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Yes it's permissible , but as a tall person, I hate it. As for buying business class or first class, usually out of my price range.
 

Circe

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It's the domino effect. I generally don't recline my seat, but if the person in front of me does ... I kind of have to, out of self-defense, because otherwise, squished, and, no, I am not noble enough to take one for the team to accomodate the guy ahead of me and/or the guy behind me. I don't resent the neighbor immediately in front of me if this happens (I assume s/he has been domino'd as well). However, the person at the very front?

That person can suck it.

Or, more precisely, the airline can. I'm all about blaming the system and not the individual, and while we may lament the cheap bastards who "make" airlines do things like cut legroom, charge plus-size passengers for additional seating, add a surcharge for every single piece of luggage ... nonsense. They're turning a profit. They're just killing the goose that laid the golden egg by making air travel such a shoddy, unpleasant ordeal. At this point, I'm seriously considering taking an ocean liner the next time I have to go overseas. Bleurgh.
 

mayerling

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kenny|1409157069|3740168 said:
mayerling|1409155463|3740153 said:
Could you imagine transatlantic (or similar travel) without reclining seats?

I get your point, but imagine a transatlantic flight with the seat in front of you reclined. :knockout:

That's the problem with this thing.
It goes both ways.

If it's a transatlantic flight, I'd be reclined too.
 

azstonie

Ideal_Rock
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3,769
I never recline my seat when flying. I think its hard on the people directly behind you, I don't feel like it gets me more 'space' to do it, and I personally HATE having someone's scalp and hair close to my face when they recline their seat. Gross.
 

ForteKitty

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Joined
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Messages
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mayerling said:
kenny|1409157069|3740168 said:
mayerling|1409155463|3740153 said:
Could you imagine transatlantic (or similar travel) without reclining seats?

I get your point, but imagine a transatlantic flight with the seat in front of you reclined. :knockout:

That's the problem with this thing.
It goes both ways.

If it's a transatlantic flight, I'd be reclined too.


We fly Air New Zealand (economy) from LAX to London. If the person in front doesn't recline and I do, there is so much space I can't watch my shows. I can't even reach the seatback with stretched fingertips. We never fly U.S. airlines for long hauls. They suck.
 

zoebartlett

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Dec 29, 2006
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Dee*Jay|1409154176|3740131 said:
I'm with you Kenny, if it's permitted by the airline then I'm allowed to do it. That being said, I do always look behind me and see if the person is working on a laptop or exceptionally tall, in which case I just don't do it, and even if they aren't either of those things I still ask if they mind if I recline. I only wish people in front of me would exercise the same level of courtesy, but it is what it is.

Me too. I feel funny reclining my seat because I'd be intruding on the person's space behind me, so I usually don't. On the rare occasion that I do, I ask first, and even then I don't recline much.
 

texaskj

Brilliant_Rock
Joined
Aug 31, 2010
Messages
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Well the fat bastard in front of me didn't have any problem slamming his seat all the way back the minute we were in the air a few weeks ago. He was rewarded with a New York Times swishing his head for the entire flight.
 

sonnyjane

Ideal_Rock
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Jul 13, 2008
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2,476
AprilBaby|1409164227|3740255 said:
Yes it's permissible , but as a tall person, I hate it. As for buying business class or first class, usually out of my price range.

My husband is 6'5" and hates flying with a passion because of the legroom issue. It greatly limits where we go for vacations. The farthest we have gone is Hawaii (6 hours) but he won't do anything longer than that and I can't fault him. As far as first class, we've looked into it, but usually if a coach ticket is $300, a first class ticket is $1,000, and that difference is big for us.

I'm a weird one in that I don't like reclining my seat because I'm most comfortable either completely upright or laying down flat. The miniscule recline a plane seat offers actually is less comfortable for me. You should try to sit behind me on a flight haha!
 

anne_h

Brilliant_Rock
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I had no idea it was even remotely inconsiderate to recline one's seat until I heard about this incident. I thought it was completely normal to recline! lol Mind you, I'm on the petite side, so it didn't automatically occur to me that larger people might be physically squished by a recline in front of them.

I'll be in the "right to recline, but polite to check first" camp.

Anne
 

sonnyjane

Ideal_Rock
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anne_h|1409189095|3740486 said:
I had no idea it was even remotely inconsiderate to recline one's seat until I heard about this incident. I thought it was completely normal to recline! lol Mind you, I'm on the petite side, so it didn't automatically occur to me that larger people might be physically squished by a recline in front of them.

I'll be in the "right to recline, but polite to check first" camp.

Anne

I mostly don't care if the person in front of me reclines however I REALLY dislike when they decide to do it right after I put my tray table down and get my drink because it causes it to shake/spill... :angryfire: :angryfire: :angryfire:
 

Kaleigh

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Is it okay yes. My luck I get kids that it's up /back up/ back.... :rolleyes:

Or the dude that reclines, passes out right after we take off. And I feel squished the whole flight. I am small... But his snoring that close to me ?? YUCK!!! :-o :knockout:
 

luv2sparkle

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I hate it when the people in front of me recline their seat. About the only time it doesn't bother me is if it is a really early morning or late night flight and people are going to sleep. Then I try to sleep too. It doesn't seem like reclining really does that much for you, even to sleep. It reclines about three inches. I can sleep in the sitting position. It invades the seat behind more than the benefit it gives me. I always feel a little claustrophobic on flights and the reclining seat makes it a little worse.
 

distracts

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I don't understand why reclining the seat is a problem. It doesn't recline low enough to affect my knee space (or my husband's - and he is six and a half feet tall so his knees are right up against the seat, but the lower part doesn't move much - it doesn't affect him any more than sitting in coach did to begin with), and where it does move more at the top, it doesn't affect my tray table or anything... I guess maybe if you had a big laptop open it may interfere with the screen but otherwise I tend to think if the seat reclining bothers you, you need to take a chill pill. Or buy a first-class ticket. And if you aren't willing or able to pay for the extra space? Then just suck it up and deal - don't make it bad for the guy in front of you just because you can't handle it.

However... I am 5'3" and 120 lbs so I fit neatly into the airline seats to begin with. Though I am often sandwiched between people on either side who are so big they each take up a quarter of my seat space. :nono:
 

Kaleigh

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I am of the camp of asking, or looking is it okay to recline my seat... Someone behind me may be working...

Flying first class, unless you are in row one, you're ok. BUT who can afford that these days.....
 

swingirl

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Why are the seats made to recline if it is rude to recline them? That's like saying it's rude to use the restroom or the light or the air outlet. They are all options the airlines give to make the passenger comfortable and everyone gets there own (except a few seats that don't recline). I use all the comforts that are offered.
 

kenny

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Kaleigh|1409195663|3740520 said:
Flying first class, unless you are in row one, you're ok. BUT who can afford that these days .....

Almost a quarter of us can afford to fly first class.

12% Sometimes + 5% Usually + 7% Always = 24%

screen_shot_2014-08-27_at_2.png
 

texaskj

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kenny|1409196516|3740525 said:
Kaleigh|1409195663|3740520 said:
Flying first class, unless you are in row one, you're ok. BUT who can afford that these days .....

Almost a quarter of us can afford to fly first class.

12% Sometimes + 5% Usually + 7% Always = 24%


Or the company can afford it. That's how my dad always got into first class.
 

mayerling

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kenny|1409196516|3740525 said:
Kaleigh|1409195663|3740520 said:
Flying first class, unless you are in row one, you're ok. BUT who can afford that these days .....

Almost a quarter of us can afford to fly first class.

12% Sometimes + 5% Usually + 7% Always = 24%

Yes, I guess PSers are a bit more comfortable in terms of money than the general population, given how much we spend on bling.
 

lknvrb4

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azstonie|1409175042|3740366 said:
I never recline my seat when flying. I think its hard on the people directly behind you, I don't feel like it gets me more 'space' to do it, and I personally HATE having someone's scalp and hair close to my face when they recline their seat. Gross.

My thoughts exactly!
 
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