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I am so surprised that the consensus here is that reclining your seat is a no no. It's so odd since the seats are MADE for reclining. Before reading this thread, my thought would have been that "If we weren't supposed to recline, the seats wouldn't have the recline button". I will definitely keep this in mind, and try to avoid reclining more than a little unless it's a long flight (most of my flights are short) and I want to sleep. I would do it slowly to avoid any slamming, but I wouldn't ask the guy behind me (I'm not going to sit bolt upright to try to sleep just because the guy behind me says no). I do have sympathy for the tall people, but having been on flights over 10 hours long, I can't imagine trying to do that sitting straight up.
Well, obviously this one is going to separate the tall from the small. At 6'7", you can guess which side I fall on. At minimum, PLEASE turn around and let the person know you're going to recline the seat. PLEASE! I cannot tell you how many times I've had my knee slammed, and I mean 'make a grown man cry' slammed into by people who seem to think that reclining the seat has to happen at Mach 2 in order to get it fully extended.
The last one nearly caused the plane to turn back around. I was in the aisle seat (my wife next to me in the middle. Bless her) and I had myself situated so that my left knee was kinda behind the middle seat, just catching the corner. The lady in front of my wife dropped her seat back so hard and so fast that I yelled and slammed her seat back forward as hard as I could, purely reactionary (not vindictive). Apparently, her husband (seated in front of me) took that as some act of aggression towards his wife, because the next thing he did was drop his seat into my lap. So now my left knee is pinned and my right isn't doing much better. I yell at him to get his seat up (and yes, some expletives are dropped but keep in mind I'm WRITHING in pain) all the while banging on his wife's seat because my knee is being tortured. He drops the whole 'It's my right' line (with some colorful language of his own), and the next thing I know the flight attendant is jumping in the middle like a referee.
It used to be if I got the ticket desk early enough, the kind attendant behind the counter would take one look at me, have a heart, and give me emergency row or exit row. But the airlines, in their insatiable desire to squeeze every last penny from your pocket, have figured out that they can charge extra for that basic act of kindness and humanity, so now I have to pay extra for that, too, and that's assuming any is left when I buy the ticket.
God, I hate flying!
Mike
Wow, I'm only 5'8" (with long legs) and my knees always get smashed. Sometimes I feel like a butterfly pinned in a collection. I can't move, I can't reach for my book that is under the seat, I'm just trapped. i can't imagine how difficult it must be for the people who are much, much taller when it is torture for me..
I've had a few times when I've screamed outloud in pain as someone jams their seat back into my arthritic knees, however nothing as dramatic as Mike's story. Why don't people just turn around and check before they push their seats back as far as they go, as fast as they can go?
Maybe the flight attendents should announce that at the beginning of every flight. Check first, then slowly put your seat back a little.
I fly a few times a year, and though I consider myself to be generally well-mannered, it never occurred to me that I ought not to recline my seat. They only recline 3 or 4 inches anyway, so I barely notice when the person in front of me does it. In fact, I can barely feel a difference in my own seat, so sometimes don't even bother to recline.
Perhaps seats on other airlines on which I've not flown recline more fully? I'm really confused here!
If you are too tall/fat/whatever to be able to fit into a seat as it is configured (which includes the option of the person in front of you using the built in recline) then either book a seat in first/business or fly a carrier that allows you to pay a bit extra for more leg space. This is not rocket science, nor is it rude to use the functions of your seat--including slowly reclining.
It's no different than using the IFE. The seat offers recline, feel free to use it.
Reclining does little to improve on the tight conditions and the poor ergonomic design of the seat but substantially detracts from the experience behind a reclining seat: tighter conditions, injured knees, loss of table surface, scalp in face, etc.
I'm 6'2 and never have a problem with recliners? I don't care if someones reclines theirs back and I do the same. When I fly alone I take an isle seat when I fly with my wife I take the window seat and sit on an angle after take off.
I used to fly every month for business and I've got to say I've always reclined my seat BUT I do it in stages to give warning to those behind and not during any feeding times.
I'm not small at 6'2 and have had my knees hit a few times not to mention my head/shoulder from people walking up and down the isle. My argument is with the airlines who've turned planes into cattle cars with little thought to anything but your credit card # and how much they can squeeze out of you for nothing.
While the seat thing is bad what's way,way worse are all those people (you know who you are ) who think that everyone loves their cologne/perfume as much as they do and so should gag on it all the way to their destination and maybe,just maybe get to smell like it FOR FREE for the rest of the day like those scratch and sniff magazines.
I can't count the headaches I've gotten from the combo of 20 different scents doused on people creating something akin to a toxic cloud.
I must be considered a rude person then, because even at 5'0" tall I always recline my seat back. The person in front of me has their seat back, so I will do the same. It is incredibly uncomfortable to be squished in that tiny little space, and I am a bit claustrophobic and hate flying anyway, so yes I will do whatever I need to do in order to prevent a panic attack. I'm sorry if this upsets other people or causes them to think I'm rude, but smaller people need the space too. Of course I always feel a little guilty doing it, especially if the person behind me is very tall, but in an already uncomfortable situation, I will place my own comfort and sanity over a that of a stranger. Sorry.
YOU'RE claustrophobic? At 5'0"? OK, turn around and look at what you just did to the person behind you and tell me how their 'claustrophobia' is doing. And I could get the 'save myself before others' mentality if it were some 'life or death' situation, but we're not talking about the last life jacket on the Titanic here.
And I don't get the argument some bring that 'The seat reclines so I'm allowed' or 'it's my right'. I have a car that can easily cruise at triple digit speeds all day long. Doesn't mean I do it. And 'right'? It's not a matter of 'rights', it's a matter of physics. Your seat and my knee cannot occupy the same space at the same time.
But you know what really chaps my ass (And really, this is more a rant against humanity than it is against flying)? I was raised to be a kind, considerate person. To hold doors open for folks, to help the stranger get that item off the top shelf in a grocery store, to look out for others, to just be a good person. But honestly, I'm not really sure why my parents bothered because it seems like most people out there are the rudest, cruelest, 'f*** you I'm more important' jackasses I've ever met, and there's more of them everyday. I really wish I could just flip that switch in my head where I could be as much of an absolute a-hole to people as others are, because at 6'7" and 300lbs, I'm pretty sure I'd be good at it. But I can't, so I'll sit in the seat with one kneecap partially dislocated by your seat and the other being banged into by the drink cart every 5 minutes. Hope your flight went well at the expense of making mine just a bit more miserable.
YOU'RE claustrophobic? At 5'0"? OK, turn around and look at what you just did to the person behind you and tell me how their 'claustrophobia' is doing. And I could get the 'save myself before others' mentality if it were some 'life or death' situation, but we're not talking about the last life jacket on the Titanic here.
And I don't get the argument some bring that 'The seat reclines so I'm allowed' or 'it's my right'. I have a car that can easily cruise at triple digit speeds all day long. Doesn't mean I do it. And 'right'? It's not a matter of 'rights', it's a matter of physics. Your seat and my knee cannot occupy the same space at the same time.
Reclining the seat is legal in every state and country. Speeding is not.
Quote:
But you know what really chaps my ass (And really, this is more a rant against humanity than it is against flying)? I was raised to be a kind, considerate person. To hold doors open for folks, to help the stranger get that item off the top shelf in a grocery store, to look out for others, to just be a good person. But honestly, I'm not really sure why my parents bothered because it seems like most people out there are the rudest, cruelest, 'f*** you I'm more important' jackasses I've ever met, and there's more of them everyday. I really wish I could just flip that switch in my head where I could be as much of an absolute a-hole to people as others are, because at 6'7" and 300lbs, I'm pretty sure I'd be good at it. But I can't, so I'll sit in the seat with one kneecap partially dislocated by your seat and the other being banged into by the drink cart every 5 minutes. Hope your flight went well at the expense of making mine just a bit more miserable.
Mike
Maybe you should spent the extra $50 and buy a seat with extra legroom, rather than expecting the world to revolve around you.
Had someone do that to me on a flight this past weekend, very painful flight. To make matters worse, the metal/wire frame of the seatback pocket was digging into my knees.
Another inconsiderate thing is sometimes I try to get work done on my laptop while on a plane. When someone reclines their seat, I can't open my laptop enough to even see the screen.
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) who think that everyone loves their cologne/perfume as much as they do and so should gag on it all the way to their destination and maybe,just maybe get to smell like it FOR FREE for the rest of the day like those scratch and sniff magazines.
