Woman Gets Mad About Seat Recline — Uses The Headrest As A Footrest And Claps Her Shoes Over The Seat Ahead

A woman seated behind another passenger on a Qatar Airways Doha to Moscow Sheremetyevo flight got angry after the person in front of her reclined their seat. Instead of asking them to raise it (or involving crew), she put her feet up onto the seatback headrest, using their seat as an ottoman. That forced the passenger ahead, who was working on a laptop, to hunch forward.

She jostled the seat and even clapped her sneakers together near the other passenger’s head. Several people asked her to stop – and she refused. This lasted for 10-15 minutes, until a flight attendant finally got down next to her and firmly insisted she remove her feet.

This was all in response to a seat recline, though she was allegedly already angry after being denied an upgrade and this was part of a misdirected personal protest.

Commenters suggest that this happens “only in Russia” but it doesn’t. We’ve seen passengers use the seat pocket in front of them as a foot rest and even use someone else’s tray table as a foot rest. Recline, though, is one of the areas most likely to create conflict. One passenger actually kept their hands on the seat in front of them for eight hours to prevent the passenger in front of them from reclining.

Seat recline is important for passengers on long flights with poorly-padded seats. Recline works to distribute passenger weight and reduce back stress. Reclining is also a basic right when it’s a feature of your seat (certain airlines like Spirit and Frontier feature seats they call “pre-reclined” i.e. that do not recline).

• A passenger controls their own seat
  
• Airlines ban the Knee Defender device, which prevents recline – a device was designed to stop reclining. While their interest is prevent damage to the seat, they do not allow the passenger seated behind to interfere with the recline function

There is an etiquette to exercising your right to recline, though. Don’t recline during mealtime. Try not to recline unless it serves a real purpose (if it doesn’t actually benefit your comfort, don’t recline).

Ultimately you need to buy the space that you want, ask politely that passengers around you conform to norms, and if they don’t get a crewmember involved. You can also consider a Coasian solution: you each have an initial set of rights and they can impede on each other’s preferences, so find a (cash) bargain.