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Comment by 67726e | Hacker News Reader

How about you pay me to recline into my lap. I'm a tall guy. Each and every time I take a flight someone tries to recline because my lap is a seemingly good spot to rest. However given my stature I can just push their right back up into it's upright position with my knees. There isn't much to be done about that, is there?

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If you don't want to sit behind a seat that reclines you can pay extra for the first row. Or on Southwest pay extra for boarding group A.

Regardless, when you bought your ticket you buy it with the knowledge that there is a seat in front of you that reclines.

Yes, I buy a seat knowing that when I sit in the seat my knees will be up against the seat in front of me. The seat in front of me has nowhere to recline. My knees have become used to the pressure over the course of hundreds of flights. At my height (2 meters) there is little alternative. Passengers in front of me have asked me to move seats, avoid air travel and invited me to go to hell.

In my opinion, your 'right' to recline ends where my kneecaps begin.

There's no denying the geometry of it, but you are being selfish by thinking you have the right to wedge yourself in a seat that's too small for you. Just because it's the cheapest option doesn't mean it's appropriate for you.

I'm 198 cm and I only fly in first, or in an exit row if needed.

I speak as someone who is also 2m tall but who never puts his knees up against the seat in front of him (and views that as a little childish). My perspective is that the airline has made the seat-space smaller in order to make the flight cheaper, and has gifted everyone with a button which allows their seat-back to not be vertical, for the convenience of those who wish to sleep on a plane, at the expense of the convenience of those who wish that seatback to be up for whatever reason (honestly it's more an issue for me with using a laptop than it is for my legs, which can fold or tuck longways underneath the seat in front of me or stretch into an aisle or many other things).

I don't think there is either a "right" to recline nor a "right" to not be reclined on; rights are not the correct word at all. Blame is not productive here; it's a matter of perspective who is infringing on whose rights, and the truth is that we live in a negotiated world, and this is just one of the negotiations that needs be made.

I do like the idea that us can't-sleep-with-that-engine-drone-anyway folks have a laptop-column in the plane which doesn't recline, for our mutual convenience. Until that's the case I'll ask the person ahead of me politely and/or request to be reseated into an exit row.

And if its' a business trip, or the front row seats are already taken? I've been stuck in the last row of an airplane before on a last minute flight... my knees were wedged into the joint from the seat in front of me, and when they tried to recline it popped my knee cap out of position. fuck you

You paid for the recline space behind you. The person in front paid for the space in front of your face. That's obviously the deal. If you hassle the person in front, you are the problem.

You can choose to pay extra for the bulkhead/exit row if you want or need a different deal.

You paid for the recline space behind you.

Actually, if you look at the airline's contract of carriage, you paid a lot of money for, well, basically nothing whatsoever, especially in the US. You really ought to be on your knees offering prayers of thanksgiving for the fact that they let you on the plane at all once they got hold of your money; as to some sort of right to reclining space by virtue of having bought a ticket, well, that's just plain laughable.

The reclining feature doesn't go "into" your lap. No need for a ridiculous hyperbole. Either way, the person paid for that seat and if the airlines choose to put in a reclining feature, your anger should be directed at them and not attempting to harass the person merely trying to use the seat they paid for.

> The reclining feature doesn't go into your lap.

As a tall person, especially on regional jets: yes, yes it does.

Okay, if that's how you feel, there are plenty of options. Choose a different airline, take your chances that someone reclines in their seat, sit in the front row, check in earlier or pay more money. Those are all valid options.

The idea that you somehow control the right of the person in front of you to recline (a right which they actually paid money to use) is rather selfish and not a valid option.

The idea that someone gets to invade my personal space is rather selfish and not a valid option. If I don't want you imposing on me, then I will make sure that damn well doesn't happen.

Sorry, it's not your personal space. The airline you purchased a ticket on sold that space to the passenger in front of you. Don't like it? There are plenty of other options in which you can expend your energy/time/money to get a seat that suits your comfort. You don't have the right to take away what the person in front of you bought from the airline. It is stealing, plain and simple. They may choose to donate it to you if you persist, but it's their prerogative.

If you are in my fucking lap, it is my personal space. They don't have a fucking right to sit in my space and cause me suffering for a price tag. It is not stealing you fucking dense jackass.

There's stealing involved, but it's the airline that committed it. They sold the right to recline to the person in front of 67726e, and the right to be in the same space to 67726e. The right to occupy the same space was sold twice to different people, and at least one was a fraudulent sale.

You seem to be too quick to label the person in front of you 'selfish' when it is you who expects him to give up his comfort he paid for so that you can enjoy one that you did not pay for. He has no such obligations. I think someone else is being a selfish freeloader here.

Inside an aircraft, space is for sale, if you need more, pay for it, or rail against airlines to provide you better service. The person in front of you is simply collecting what he/she paid for.

To add, I'm personally not bothered by it. I find it impossible to work or sleep on flights and have chalked off time spent on airliners as a (relatively) short period of being mildly uncomfortable for the purpose of getting somewhere quickly.

Actually, I'm pretty tall. It is at the least awkward, if not very uncomfortable for someone to recline. It depends on the plane, but those interstate mosquitoes you get on flights between small cities are the absolute worst.

I know it's en vogue to treat everything as an economic exercise to show off that business course you took for your undergrad, but some things are really a matter of being a decent person. I've asked people to please not recline when it's a problem. Usually people are cool with it on the short flights where it really is a problem. Of course you sometimes get an indignant person who needs their 30 minutes of "relaxation" and that's when I push them up. If they prioritize their comfort over mine, why shouldn't I do the same.

Okay, in the same vein, maybe that person isn't a decent person. You still don't have the right to force them to not recline and calling them "indignant" shows the same kind of attitude, albeit a lesser scale, that caused the Newerk-Denver incident.

If I politely ask you to not cause me discomfort and you do not comply, that is a problem. If you think you get to cause other people suffering for a dollar, you are a fucked person.

Your anger is completely misguided. You should be either mad at the airline for selling you something that didn't suit your needs or mad at yourself for purchasing a product that didn't suit your needs. It's like purchasing the wrong size suit and going to the store and bitching at them to give you some more fabric so you can be comfortable in your too small suit. It's utterly inane.

Because you have no right to do so, you're just being a jerk. If it's such a problem for you, buy 2 seats on every flight so you can ensure the seat in front of you is empty.

They'll fill the seat anyway once you haven't checked in.

So sometimes you get a person who won't let you prioritize your comfort over theirs, and in those cases you push them up forcing them to accommodate you. You don't outline anytime where it is not a problem for you, or any time you let the other person recline.

Now maybe you just omitted these cases, but the way you are explaining it you sound like the unreasonable person who always has to have their way.

> The reclining feature doesn't go "into" your lap.

No, it tends to go into my patellar tendon. I can move my knee out of the way with just a little bit of warning, but slamming back your seat into my knees is not exactly a friendly thing to do.

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