Scott Mayerowitz reports that a United flight was diverted today when a fight broke out onboard. One passenger was using the ‘knee defender’ to stop the passenger in front from reclining their seat.
The flight from Newark to Denver diverted to Chicago, where the TSA deemed it “a customer service issue.” The flight continued to Denver and arrived 98 minutes late.
The fight started when the male passenger, seated in a middle seat of row 12, used the Knee Defender to stop the woman in front of him from reclining while he was on his laptop…
A flight attendant asked him to remove the device and he refused. The woman then stood up, turned around and threw a cup of water at him, the official says. That’s when United decided to land in Chicago. The two passengers were not allowed to continue to Denver.
Is reclining your seat (in coach) is a right or a privilege?
- Is it something you’re entitled to do independent of the wishes of the passenger behind you? Or something you do only to the extent it doesn’t inconvenience them?
- What if you want to sleep and they want to eat or work on their laptop?
The problem can actually be worse in domestic first class if the seats there have greater recline but only marginally more legroom. (I’m still happier in first class than coach, even when the passenger in front of me reclines! And some American seats recline into the seat’s own space, making this a non-issue.)
Ironically, in today’s incident the passengers were seated in economy plus — with extra legroom!
I believe that reclining is the passenger’s right.
- The seat reclines (except on Spirit and Allegiant!)
- You control your own seat.
In an environment surrounded by masses of people it’s even nice to pretend no one else exists.
It’s even better to take politeness into account.
- Don’t recline during mealtime.
- Try not to recline unless it serves a real purpose.
Do you need to recline if you aren’t trying to sleep, and you don’t have back issues? If you do need to recline, try to recline less rather than more.
The Knee Defender is a rubber clamp that an airline passenger can use to prevent the seat in front from being reclined. It hasn’t sold well, and was initially banned by American and Continental and now by all major US airlines. The fact that the device was banned tells me there’s a norm against preventing passengers from reclining their seats.
Interestingly, a real fight broke out over the use of a knee defender and the government doesn’t ban it – the airlines do. And yet the mere perceived annoyance of inflight use of cell phones is spurring the government to action, fearing that airlines won’t manage the issue well themselves (even though it’s legal in much of the world without fights breaking out).
I was once in coach flying Cleveland – Los Angeles. I paid a young child, with mother’s consent, $5 not to recline her seat. I got four hours of work on my laptop as a result, a great investment of $5. In that case the initial allocation of property rights belonged to the child and we found a Coasian bargain.
So is reclining a right or a privilege? How do you handle reclining your seat?
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I hAte people who recline. They certainly wouldn’t lean over a couple inches into the space of their seat mates. So why should anyone think they have a right to lean back into the extremely limited space allocated to me.
I think LH has the best policy – you can recline any time outside of meal service
Definite right. I paid for the ability (or the option) to recline my seat, and should be able to do so without issue. Coincidentally, I am typing this aboard an American Airlines red-eye flight, where I have chosen NOT to recline my seat as I am in an exit row and am working (or currently distracted) on my laptop.
I’m 6’1′ I’ve never had a problem with the person in front reclining. What do you lose, an inch of seat pitch? Gah.
I think Spirit has the solution. Take our the recline mechanism. Problem solved. I was on a regional jet where my knees were already up against the back of the seat in front of me when the seat was in the upright position. The guy in front of me kept huffing and throwing himself against the seatback trying to get it to recline. It was a full flight so I offered to change seats with him but he declined. He eventually gave up on trying to make my legs shorter.
I agree with Ben Hughes in regards to seats that recline (in exchange of your own knee space).
I think if the seat can recline, you can recline. Whenever someone in front of me reclined his seat, I would recline my seat too. I thought that’s what everyone did? I really hope the guy with the laptop did not have his own seat reclined!
A better title for this article would have been “Does a passenger have a right to use equipment not allowed by the airline, and what happens if they do”.
I think the best setup would be what cathay’s regional product has, whereby reclining moves your seat slightly forward, and does not impede those behind you. Each person is free to do what they wish with their own allocated space instead if taking away from others.
What Leslie said. It’s your right to recline, but not during mealtimes and, if you do want to recline, signal it to the person behind you. I tend to reach my hand to the top of the seat as that both signals I’m going to recline and allows me do so slowly and partially if I wish.
Why not actually talk to the person behind you? Before reclining, stand up, look behind you, and see what kind of person is there and what they are doing. Then, ask them if they would mind if you reclined. Or at least tell them that you need to recline and apologize in advance, give them a chance to move liquids off their tray table, etc.
If I feel the need to recline, I always ask the person behind me if they mind, or if they would rather I didn’t. If it’s a small child behind me, I ask the parents, who are usually fine with it, since children need less space. I make sure that my daughter asks the person sitting behind her before doing it, too.
Since we have to share the space, asking is just common courtesy. And if you ask, you will teach others to ask as well, both on that flight and future flights.
I know when I buy a plane ticket – it’s to accommodate the guy’s laptop behind me and not for my own comfort.
I will just pour my coke or beer all over his laptop end of discussion. Or wait until we disembark and hit him in the mouth it matters not .
The problem: People should be courteous and mindful of others. People are not courteous or mindful of others.
Long term, Ben Hughes nailed it. Replace the seats with ones that recline from the bottom. No more passenger confrontations.
Short term, I’ve been thinking long and hard about how to educate my fellow passengers on the potential medical problems their lack of courtesy might afford. Probably the most socially appropriate is to try speaking with the person in front if they’re reclined or trying to recline into your knees. Next up is speaking with the FA about changing seats or requesting the person in front to cease in their reclining attempts.
To those who say “boo hoo for you,” consider this: You are an extraordinarily rude person.
To those who say that tall people should buy better seats: I don’t disagree, except that airlines appear to have made seats for a smaller percentage of the population than they should. My knees hit the seat in front of me and I’m 6’2″. Now take a look at male height distribution: http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=male+height+distribution
My 6’2″ height is within ONE standard deviation of the mean. That means I’m in the middle 66% of heights for men, yet I STILL hit my knees on the seat in front of me. That means there are a lot of people that airlines didn’t consider in designing their seats and placement.
Some comments here make no sense…”I hate recliners they are *insert derogatory name* because they recline into my space.” Then they go on to say “I recline if the person in front of me reclines.” So it appears the trade off for you is, if someone makes you uncomfortable, at that point you are willing to do the same to another. I rarely recline, and if I do so it’s a slow move back and not very far, just enough so that it doesn’t feel like my body is more forward than straight up, but how big are some of you people that someone reclined in front of you makes you go into fits of rage? Coughing saliva on people? Really? Recliner bad, spitting on people ok? Someone stated he has learned to be quick so that his laptop screen doesn’t get broken. Why would you put your laptop in a place that the screen could get smashed? Then you’d blame it on someone reclining not your stupidity for placing your valuable in a place, known to you, that it has a high likelihood of being damaged? It’s called a LAPtop. Use it on your lap. Might not be as comfortable your tray table, but it won’t get smashed. Seems like a starting place to me. All you mission critical flyers with spreadsheets, charts, graphs and whatnot’s blame everyone else for your lack of comfort and ability to use your seat as your flying office. Airlines don’t say, hey, come fly our office in the sky, but they do say, recline and relax. So what gives you the right or option to punish others for your personal decision to use your seat as your office? I don’t use my laptop on planes, does that make me better than you? Should I ‘hate’ all laptop users? Should I spit at you until you get the point that your screen is glowing to brightly for me? Oh wait, you fly a lot for work so nothing you do is ever annoying to another passenger. I think you all need to realize that when you purchase a ticket, you are committing to spend a couple hours + of your life with a couple hundred people that aren’t going to get the memo on your likes and dislikes before the flight. As someone above said, if you were really that important to the company, they’d flight you business/first. I think complaints about right/wrong in economy is just a way for you all to try and feel superior in a class of service you feel makes you not superior. If you want your own dedicated space, pay for it, it’s available.
To Paul who complains about the petite passengers who recline. A little FYI for you: petite passengers hit the pillowtop on the seat at exactly the wrong spot. It pushes our heads forward and is extremely uncomfortable. I recline one click for this reason alone. If the seat back was straight we wouldn’t have to recline. One click is the difference between misery and comfort.
FYI, United banned the use of the Knee Defender on all its aircraft more than TEN YEARS AGO (around Feb. 2004).
(And as mentioned in the article above, all major US airlines have banned it.)
Anyone who tries to use one onboard and is requested to remove it by a flight crew member (as was the case here) should follow crew instructions. The fact that Mr. So-and-So actually refused to do so speaks volumes. 🙁
@Lorraine Big people who complain about petite passengers don’t even consider us human beings. Otherwise we would have not to explain — repeatedly! — that we are real live actual human beings with the actual ability to feel physical and emotional pain. I’ve been told straight up to my face that only large men get bad knees. In what universe? Bullies always preferentially pick on smaller people. I’m a petite woman myself, and at times I am literally pushed around by these guys. I try to stay in first/business, but you still get pushed and shoved sometimes at the gate etc. It definitely gives you a dark view of human nature.
From the sound of it, this bully got on this flight planning to start a fight all along. And when the FA told him to put away the knee defender, he defied her. So this is a problem individual from the get-go.
Too bad the woman put herself in the wrong by over-reacting. But you don’t know how many times she’s had to take the same **** from some thinks-he’s-God jerk. Maybe she finally just got pushed to the limit.
I am six foot four. If I am sitting behind you in coach, and you put your seat back, you will break my kneecaps, and I’m not being metaphorical here.
Knee defenders are obnoxious, but people who insist on slamming their seats back are far worse.
I think we overuse, and misuse, what is and is not a “right”. To me, a right is a sacred thing. Right to life, liberty, pursuit of happiness, etc. Those are rights. You cannot take them away. Spirit would have to allow reclining seats if the ability to recline was truly a right.
Now, I don’t usually care if you do. I once had a giant of a man in every way who reclined on me, but due to his height and mass I felt like his head was under my nose. That is the only time I’ve been uncomfortable with the person in front of me reclining.
I tend to think that reclining is completely rude and selfish. I have more sympathy to the passenger getting reclined on than I do the passenger doing the reclining. The recline is such an insignificant thing for the one doing the reclining, but a big deal to the person behind. This may just be my own personal experiences and biases, but my reclining has added exactly 0.000% to my comfort level. Sometimes, it actually is less comfortable to me.
So, really, what the hell are we fighting over?
That guy who used a banned item, and acted like a selfish ass and total disregard for rules, flight attendants and other fellow passengers, should be banned from flying.
If not, what will he do next? Lock the trays of the other tables cos he cannot stand the smell of food? Lock the toilet doors cos he cannot stand people visiting the toilet next to his seat?
I cannot see how his actions are defend-able.
I’m a recliner and I don’t feel guilty about it. If the seat has a recline feature, I’ll be using it. Actually a few interesting arguments ended up in the comments of a post I wrote a couple years back… Do Passengers Have a Right to Recline? http://justanotherpointstraveler.boardingarea.com/2012/04/18/do-passengers-have-the-right-to-recline/
My wife is 6’2″ tall but the majority of her is leg (36″ inseam). Even pressed into the back of her own seat her knees press into the seat in front of her. When that seat reclines into her she’s stuck. The best course of action is to ask for the seat to be upright, and usually people are accommodating. Knees pressed into that reclined seat, or constant bumping in an attempt to annoy the person to put it upright never works.
Why can’t the airline proactively offer a taller person an E+ seat? I doubt my wife would take it when we fly as a family but the option would be nice. And yes, we’ve paid for E+ seats in the past but it’s an unfortunate added expense when there’s really no other option. But the devil’s advocates who typically post to these things will castigate me for thinking this way, which is too bad.
If we all looked out for each other we’d all be better off. If the person who wants to recline looked first and saw the person behind on a laptop there could be more understanding and choose to not recline. If the person behind noticed a lot of squirming and discomfort he/she could tell the person in front that it’s ok to recline. Communication will avoid ugly confrontation.
So I think the majority on this thread agree that you should be able to recline your seat. I’d probably agree, because it is a normal function of the seat. The seat should be put back up when people are eating and/or when you go to the bathroom. If the person in front of me does not remember to put their seat up when they go to the bathroom, I sometimes reach through and helpfully put it up for them- maybe they forgot.
I don’t understand the idea of asking the person behind you- if asked, I would always say no, I’d prefer that you did not recline.
What about knees in the back- acceptable? The reality is, if you recline and I sit normally, my knees will be pressed into your seat, and I will shift occasionally, poking you in your back. I think it’s fair, and the normal cost of reclining, though the woman in front on my last flight gave me a dirty look.
It’s a stupid question.
A better question would be: does a passenger have the right to punch out the a-hole sitting behind them who is attempting to disable their seat’s functionality?
I say yes, oh yes, and hell yes. Throwing a cup of water is for pussies. Any idiot behind me attempting such crap is gonna get the snot beaten out of him. Go ahead and throw me off the plane afterwards, I don’t care, somebody has to strike a blow for justice. I’ll take one for the team.
Yay for Janice.
As for Bethany: When I fly in *cattle class* which is to damn often, if I want to get some work done, or read a book, or otherwise use my laptop in my seat I will! I used my hard earned money to pay for MY SEAT so if the person in front of me doesn’t like it…perhaps he/she should of picked/bought a better seat. Stop the bitching! Some of you frequent flyers have become so spoiled getting things for free you think everyone should cater to you! What a joke!
Anyone who wants to do violence to me, and those like me, is welcome to try. You will probably find you won’t enjoy the experience.
I love leaning back in my chair at work, or at home. When there’s no one behind me whose space I’m invading.
But invade someone else’s space, and you’re a jerk. The fact that the airline has enabled you to be a jerk doesn’t make you the least little bit less of a jerk.
Leslie, if someone trying to recline into my lap had a back problem or some kind medical reason for needing to do so, I would certainly appreciate having that explained to me so we could work out a compromise rather than incessantly banging into my knees and creating a medical condition for both of us.
If explained to me, I could offer to switch seats so they can be behind me and recline into the lap of someone else. And of course, that would give me free reign to recline guilt-free.
Though it should be said that unless I’m in F/J, I have a strict no recline policy, a “don’t do unto others” kind of thing.
Jason made a good point about Economy Plus. Reclining is less of an issue with a 34-35″ pitch. I can’t imagine a five hour transcon or a 10+ international flight with my seat in the upright position because someone behind me took it upon himself to decide whether or not I should recline. This works both ways. If you want to recline, great. If you don’t want someone to recline into your space, great. You have the option of upgrading your seat. They even make an announcement before departure, if you want to upgrade to economy plus please see an agent or a flight attendant.
The space we rent when we fly is the area of our seat, which runs between the two arm rests (or arm rest and window-wall, if a window seat) and from your seat back to the un-reclined back of the seat in front, plus the floor area, under the seat in front. We are renting that space, in which the seat in front of you reclines. It was not an issue for seats to recline into our rented space years ago, before airlines became cattle cars, since there was sufficient space for the recline and your legs.
Unfortunately new non-recline seats were not considered as current seats were moved closer together eliminating the previous amount of leg and recline space.
I do not think seats should recline on today’s crowded flights, until they are replaced by non-recline seats. Since seats are still capable of reclining, I do not think people should recline, at least without asking if its OK for the person behind to give up some of their rented space.
It is similarly not OK for the person in front to place their bag or some of their possessions under their seat since this is the rented space of the person behind. That space is for your feet, unless you chose to put a bad in that rented space.
The space we rent when we fly is the area of our seat, which runs between the two arm rests (or arm rest and wall) and from your seat back to the un-reclined back of the seat in front, plus the floor area, under the seat in front. We are renting that space, in which the seat in front of you reclines. It was not an issue for seats to recline into our rented space years ago, before airlines became cattle cars, since there was sufficient space for the recline and your legs.
Unfortunately new non-recline seats were not considered as current seats were moved closer together eliminating the previous amount of leg and recline space.
I do not think seats should recline on today’s crowded flights, until they are replaced by non-recline seats. Since seats are still capable of reclining, I do not think people should recline, at least without asking if its OK for the person behind to give up some of their rented space.
It is similarly not OK for the person in front to place their bag or some of their possessions under their seat since this is the rented space of the person behind. That space is for your feet, unless you chose to put a bag in that rented space.
My knees press into the seat all the time and I get funny looks here and there. I tend to sit on the aisle and hope that I can put the arm rest up for the flight so that I play chicken with the beverage carts instead as I sit sideways to move my legs into the aisle. or practice some good yoga moves. Do people have a right? I’m sure legally the only right I have paid for is to be flown from point A to B (but even then that’s an in question). I have the right to upgrade for more room at a price. I’d like to think I have a “right” to a clean plane, friendly crew, snack too but I’m dreaming.
Common courtesy goes a long way – I don’t recline my seat and if you ask I generally say ok (good travel karma) but do know that I’m stuck with my knees in your back (unless I can turn to the aisle) and if others need to get out of the row, I need to pull the back of your seat to wedge out.
I’m 6’2″ – tall but short by NBA standards – and the reclined seats jam my knees. See http://jottingsbyjim.com/2011/12/18/rude-recliners/
“The space we rent when we fly is the area of our seat, which runs between the two arm rests (or arm rest and wall) and from your seat back to the un-reclined back of the seat in front, plus the floor area, under the seat in front.” I think that’s simply not correct. The space you rent is the space from the maximum recline of your seat to the maximum recline of the seat in front of you. That’s why the control over your seat back is accessible to you on *your* armrest, and not accessible to the person behind you.
I don’t know about you, but most of the planes I fly on have new slimline seats installed in the last couple of years, well after seat pitch was reduced. They were installed with recline buttons for a reason.
We accept that if you want to take up some of the seat beside you, you have to buy it. If you want to dictate the position of the seat in front of you, why shouldn’t you have to buy it too?
@Dan More
You say:
“The space we rent when we fly is the area of our seat, which runs between the two arm rests (or arm rest and window-wall, if a window seat) and from your seat back to the un-reclined back of the seat in front, plus the floor area, under the seat in front. We are renting that space, in which the seat in front of you reclines.”
Oh, is that in the contract of carriage or do you rely upon some heretofore undiscovered provision in the Warsaw Convention? I have an idea for you, Mr. Legal Scholar, next time someone reclines on you, sue them for trepass, idiot.
@Ben Hughes
Hundreds of dollars of work done? Why are you flying in economy? And why do you need a market to “emerge”? Just slip the dude a $20. 🙂
sure, you can recline if you think that is your “privilege”. but don’t be offended when the person in front of you does the same and you feel that they are intruding on “your” space…
Rich
“The space you rent is the space from the maximum recline of your seat to the maximum recline of the seat in front of you.”
This is not correct Rich. The space is dictated by logic. The first bulkhead seat has no recline seat in front of it. The last seat in front of the bathroom cannot itself recline. If rented space is the “recline” area, the bulkhead seat has a larger rented area than was purchased and the last seat gets less space than was purchased.
Thanks
jfhscott said
“Oh, is that in the contract of carriage or do you rely upon some heretofore undiscovered provision in the Warsaw Convention? I have an idea for you, Mr. Legal Scholar, next time someone reclines on you, sue them for trepass, idiot.”
As explained to Rich:
The space is dictated by logic. The first bulkhead seat has no recline seat in front of it. The last seat in front of the bathroom cannot itself recline. If rented space is the “recline” area, the bulkhead seat has a larger rented area than was purchased and the last seat gets less space than was purchased.
Thanks
Dan More:
Your “logic” explains equally well why the space under your own seat is for your storage. The first bulkhead seat has no storage space under a seat in front of it. If rented space is the space under the seat in front of you, the bulkhead seat has a smaller rented area than was purchased. The only problem is, everyone acknowledges that this is not the case.
Yes, some seats are better than others. That’s true at the movie theater and at concert venues, too. Some seats are closer to the screen. Some have better acoustics. I pick a seat in the front row of the balcony knowing that my foot room will be limited so that I can have an unobstructed view. In many places in life, equally priced things get different benefits.
Your position is this: If you’re sitting in front of me, the recline space of your seat belongs to me. You have control over it and I don’t, even on the most recently delivered planes. The airline tells you when you must not use it (taxi, takeoff, approach, and landing, and in the case of some airlines, meal times). It does not tell you not to use it at other times (and may ambiguously encourage you to use it by saying “sit back and relax”). There’s a device that allows me to assert control over this piece of my space, but most airlines forbid me to use it. Yet the space is mine. That’s logic.
Rich
Thanks for your additional comments. There are some exceptions to all rules. The bulkhead seats have the room for bags, alto the airlines do not allow bags to be placed there for safety reasons. The stewardesses go out of their way to find space for those bulkhead bags, even putting them in the first class storage if there is room there. There is no seat in front of bulkhead seats because there is a bulkhead where the seats would be placed. This is the exception. The number “1” has no number in front of it. This is the exception. Things have to start somewhere and the bulkhead seat is the start of seating on economy class on a plane. The space that the bulkhead seat person has rented is that space between their un-reclined seat back and the space up to the bulkhead wall.
It is not the pricing that determines logic on flights. Prices change minute by minute. One coach seat can be priced hundreds of dollars higher than the seat next to it. It sometimes depends on the time of purchase.
The logic is that most seats, for whatever price paid, has only so much assigned room and that is the space between your seat back and the un-reclined seat in front of your seat.
If someone uses the recline, they are reclining into the person’s rented space behind. I am not stating that this should be prohibited if seats have a recline feature. I just believe that it should not be done.
Thank you
Ouch, Rich, don’t let Spirit Airlines hear you… Actually I’m shocked they haven’t ALREADY found a way to charge you for reclining mid-flight.
Throwing water and other fluids at people only became “assault” after people infected with AIDS were spitting on cops who were trying to arrest them. Spitting (usually to the ground anyway) used to be a legitimate way to get across to someone that they were such a contemptible ass, they didn’t even rank a verbal reply, and was a polite way of saying they really deserved their nose broken.
I grew up in a culture (NY state) where, if a parent refused to stop their child from screaming into my ear at a restaurant, I had to right, yes, OBLIGATION, to turn around, walk up to their table, and toss a glass of ice water into the parent’s face. They were supposed to:
a) train the child to behave, or not take them to a restaurant yet, and/or
b) take the child outside until they quieted down
I used to pay money to get from Point A to Point B without my body in throbbing pain, and without my eardrums broken. Ha, those days are gone. Now, Airline attendants get prosecuted for feeding screaming babies a mild sedative in a drink — in years past, it was expected!
Oh yeah, and we also spanked our children, and they actually helped out around the house (what a flaming concept — today I have renters who make excuses about how they aren’t going to use it, while the pool is being prepared for the season, then — guess who’s in it, right on my security cameras!), and we were able to go to college knowing how to wash our clothes without them turning pink, and cook our own food without setting the dorm on fire.
I am a 5’6″ female with very short lower legs. My upper body matches that of an adult Japanese male (Mazda and Honda sports car seats fit me like a glove). The vertical position of the airline seats is not only uncomfortable for my body, it is downright painful. I bring along an inflatable pillow donut, and opt for window, to stand a chance at comfort, and I go to the chiropractor regularly, and have no medical issues with my spine. I simply am not built to the form of the average airline seat.
I have had my seat blocked after the ban, and as she went to sleep (yes, she was reclined, total bitch), I took a picture of her with my cell phone and later plastered it all over facebook. I knew for sure she was using one (other than not being able to recline), because the gentleman next to her quietly told her they were not allowed. I then pushed the call button and had the attendant remove it before the bitch was awake enough to object. I then reclined fully into her space (she did not have a legroom problem — this was United economy plus).
F*** those of you who think I don’t have the right to recline (which, BTW, is never more than a max of about 2 inches in every flight I’ve been on for years). I deserve to not have to disembark crippled and in pain. Of course, if you are crammed into the seat behind me, let’s talk, and I’ll understand, and we can talk to the flight attendant about rearranging seating for one of us. My tall father, with long upper legs, always had to get an aisle seat so he could “overflow” into the aisle, except for when the cart went by, then he’d “overflow” into the seat next to him. My employers have never allowed me to use first class, or even business class (unless I crossed multiple time zones). I HAVE to use cattle class, and I travel at least monthly by plane. Upgrading at my own expense is far too confusing for the computer system we use, which auto-books tickets and applies them to my expense acct and claim system.
I’m dead set against reclining seats. Essentially the passenger in front is making seating decisions for me. If I don’t also recline I lose the limited space I had. That is simply not fair and that is the crux of the matter. People who do that are extremely inconsiderate and probably of limited intellectual capacity. I hate them.
Put it to you this way. I don’t care what other passengers do provided it doesn’t affect me. If it affects me then there is something wrong. I haven’t done anything so why should I suffer.
Reclining is not a right, its a privilege (if there is a free seat, or a person who doesn’t mind you reclining into their space sitting behind you).
People who don’t turn and ask politely before reclining are inconsiderate. Lets consider the available evidence: the person in front is attempting to shear my legs off at the knee for the benefit of their ‘comfort’. This is a bit rude and arrogant, especially if they don’t think to ask me before crunching hard plastic into my legs. So in an attempt to turn a negative situation into a positive, I act accordingly and take the opportunity to use their reclined seat (which now has a bit of ‘give’ in it) to prop my knees on and give my feet a bit of a rest. I find it quite a comfortable position, and I’ve yet to find a passenger too heavy for me to counter the recline on. You can even turn it into an on-plane exercise.. I think my record is 20 reps before the seat was pulled back up.
In the unlikely event the seat remains reclined or the ignorant fool in front objects to my knees in their upper lumbar region, I unfold myself, step alongside their seat, look them in the eye and give them a genuine, warm smile and engage in a bit of small talk. I then sit down and prop my knees up again.
The situation usually resolves itself within a few seconds and we can all relax and enjoy the flight again.
Do any of you “get it’ that the AIRLINES are putting you in an impossible position (no pun) when the choices are #1. your own comfort/preferences at the cost of another’s discomfort, #2. there is no acceptable/approved way to resolve this, #3. pay more if that is available; suffer if it is not available, #4. there is no way to negotiate a suitable accommodation in advance with the airline’s choice of seats. #5. Your choice can have ramifications on other people, backward and forward.
And finally too many people are crammed into too small a space, period…repeatedly.
Let the airlines know; don’t just sharpen your passive-aggressive skills on random other passengers.