Is it OK to recline your airplane seat? Some travel experts say no
cbsnews.com
cbsnews.com
This entire article is just journalists, "etiquette experts," and transportation market analysts sharing their opinion, which is no more relevant than your opinion or that of the person sat behind you on a flight.
They might as well have quoted me: "I've flown many dozens of times, reclined every time, and not once caused any trouble."
People say reclined seats cramp their knees. I don't understand that. I'm 6'. The pivot point of the seat back aligns directly with my kneecaps. It makes zero difference at all to my knee space when the seat in front of me reclines. Maybe I have short shins.
I've never asked for permission to recline, nor has anyone asked it of me. This seems fine.
Seat design has been largely static while people have gotten bigger, seats have gotten closer, and laptops have become a thing. On cheap European flights, they mostly have removed the buttons. I personally only ever use the button if nobody's behind me.
> "The airlines are intentionally selling that space to the person in front of you and to you, so it's just incredibly disingenuous of the airline," he said. "I understand why they like leaning. It's more of an airline issue because they're cramming seats so close together and pitting passengers against each other.”
The button’s there so that passengers buying the ticket feel like they have additional room. And while that’s somewhat true, that passenger is taking space away from the passenger behind.
So there is this shared space, and passengers are left to fend for themselves to determine who has rights to it.
> Then why is the button there? It doesn't make sense for their to be a button that you should never press. I'm not buying it.
I'm of course cheekily quoting you back to yourself, but I'm sure you get the point:)
And then the passenger behind can take that space from the person behind them, etc. I don't see the issue.
I know there are a few rows where the seats can't recline, but it's on the airline to make adjustments to accommodate that.
Then why not leave them all reclined, and not have a button? The only way that everyone has equal space is if everyone agrees to keep their seat in the same position.
I think the point of this article is that the airlines are using the button as marketing, but it has only caused problems not only between customers that don’t agree in which position to use, but also for the flight attendants that have to deal with the resulting drama.
Some people may choose to sit up straight.
I feel like some people are over-optimizing for "every passenger must have equal space at all times."
Perhaps. For me though, not reclining means feeling physically sick. The seat pushes my head forward, which in turn makes me curl forward, compressing my stomach, which makes me feel ... sick.
The worst turbulence has never given me nausea. The seat on an upright position does. Every time.
It also gives me back and shoulder pain.
Some of this can be mitigated by putting a pillow or a folded jumper behind my lower back but it's not good enough. Also, that presses my knees against the seat in front. Which gives me other kinds of pain and discomfort. And eventually makes me feel sick.
The article answers that question. The airlines sold the space twice and shifted the problem to the passengers to fight over it.
The button gives the illusion of comfort, but without mentioning that this comfort comes at the expense of others.
i always try to get the aisle seat so i can keep my legs in the aisle, and only have to curl up in an awkward position when the cart comes by.
but i do fit in any seat, even frontier, ryanair $50 plane seats, even on 14 hour econo flights by uncomfortably bearing a variety of postures and regular stretching breaks.
that's just life.
When I don't spread my legs, my knees touch the seat in front. If the person in front tries to recline, they feel resistance, they push more. No move. They slam into the seatback. It hurts me and it doesn't let them recline.
When I spread my legs to avoid the backseat in front, now this is the vicious part... Their seat can recline, but if they lift their armrest, the back of the armrest jams into my knee, with force amplified by leverage. Really painful.
Nowadays on longhaul flights I lean over and apologize ahead, sorry sir/ma'am, if you feel resistance when you recline, it's because your seat is hitting my leg, please don't use force. Some are unhappy. If so I apologize for the inconvenience but I don't control the length of my legs.
Basic courtesy would require you to check that it's safe to recline.
I was on a flight this weekend in economy. In front of me was a man over 6 ft and he could not leave his seat to go to the bathroom because the person in front of him had fully reclined. That person fully reclined because the person in front of her had fully reclined. It was physically impossible for him to contort his body out of the seat.
It isn't on Allegiant, Norwegian and Ryanair seats. They're fixed-position; saves weight, maintenance costs and prevents arguments.
The real question is why the airlines have even set up this crazy little psychology experiment. It's probably because many years ago somebody concluded that the value of making the passenger feel like they have the tiniest shred of agency is greater than the cost of unnecessary conflict between passengers. I sure do look forward to pressing that damn button though and I've never gotten in a fight on a plane, so maybe they were right.
https://www.cntraveler.com/story/airline-seat-sizes-safety-r...
I don't know if there is a name for this tactic but there should be if there is not.
As a frequent flyer, who's 6ft 220lbs, on those rare occasions I don't get a first class upgrade I try to be very mindful of others around me. Not just reclining the seat but trying to keep my arms crossed in front of me to avoid encroaching on the person next to me. Because the simple fact is shoulders are as wide or wider than many coach seats.
People who reclining their seats during food or main drink service need to be spoken with by the flight attendants. I've never seen it happen here in the US but nearly every Asian flight I've been on during the food service they'll tell you to put your seat up. After cabin service and the lights go down for resting then it's less of a problem because everyone is now reclining.
Always consider how your actions effect others, even if that other person is rude. It seems to be in fashion to hate on Christianity but this simple concept of do unto others as you would have them do unto you is a concept that transcends religion and time.
LOL, come to Asia.
I look forward to traveling back the US because people are so considered of others compared to Asia.
But yes, I agree. The Asian airlines are really good about telling people to "put your seat up so the person behind you can eat their food".
Very much a different cultural concept because most of the time no one else will say anything they just deal with it. I think in the US if you cut in line you might get shot or at minimum start some sort of physical altercation. And people just generally know this so they don't do it.
Why make a snarky remark about how people from the US don't understand being mindful of others while at the same time commenting on how people in Asia don't seem to be mindful of others when it comes to lines, and then straight up saying that people in the US are mindful of that very same thing?
Not sure if this is the reason. In Germany I don’t think you can expect to get shot or get into a fist fight, but I think people cut even less than they do in the US.
I don't think I've ever been to a country where this isn't true, so not sure why you're singling out the US.
It sounds like they are from the US, so they are actually talking about their own experiences in their own country. In that sentence didn't state that part, not sure why.
Just seems like a weirdly hypocritical thing and also that they might be jumping on the "US is uncultured" bandwagon that you see on Reddit and other social media these days
Window seat gets a window, aisle seat has the aisle. Middle seat is screwed, so give them the arm rests
I don't hate it if they're actually sleeping, but otherwise it's just frustrating to be behind someone reclining.
The player is playing by the rules, you gotta hate the game (the airlines) for pitting the two of you against each other instead of against the hilariously bad design
Unless there's good reason (very old person, person with disabilities), I'll recline after letting you know and checking if I don't crush anything on your side (a skull, laptop, or food). During lunch, the personnel will tell us to sit upright, anyway, otherwise the trays are unusable.
There is also a chain reaction element to it.
Even if originally I was sitting upright (I really prefer it this way for short 2-4 hour trips, which is most of my flights within Europe), if the person in front of me reclines, I'll recline, otherwise I'd be about 10 cm away from the other person's head, and no matter how nice his or her shampoo is, I ain't smelling it the whole flight, even if your favorite CBS travel expert says otherwise.
yea i've had my knees hit with a seat, yea i've had my drink spill a little. this is not an assault though.. this is a minor inconvenience not worthy of discussion.
i've had worse wounds inflicted intentionally by flight attendants ramming me with their cart to prove a point instead of waking me up and asking politely. that's a very low hill to die on but still higher than this one.
If they aren't paying for you to be in business you aren't that important and can put the laptop away for the flight.
I am curious why, and when exactly, sentiments around this apparently changed so much. Was it tighter row pitches that prompted the shift? Widespread ownership and use of laptops?
I can't complain much. I am the person who can't sleep on planes so will wander around the plane; talk to the staff; or have the light on the whole flight etc
* Reclining seat: +$50
* Seat behind a seat that can’t recline: +$75
* etc
(90% joking, 10% terrified this could happen)
Elliott puts the blame for such incidents mostly on airlines. By effectively selling a seat space twice — to the passenger directly in front of the seat as well as the person immediately behind it — carriers have left it to passengers to duel over precious cabin space.