As a woman reclines her seat, it repeatedly lurches forward. The passenger behind her gives it a hard push every time she moves back. This is her “worst plane ride” but the ride is fine, it’s the person behind her who’s actually the worst.
She went to the flight attendants for help, but there’s no indication it was actually resolved. No matter what you think of seat recline, and there really is an etiquette to it, shoving is out of line.
@ameejau Worst plane ride #fyp #trending #plane #travel ♬ original sound – bobi🍏
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 a proper way to exercise 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.
There are a number of ways passengers take this into their own hands to fight recline. Recline rage is real! One woman got mad and used the passenger’s headrest as a footrest and clapped their shoes over the passenger’s head.
Another braced their hands on the seat in front of them for an entire 8 hour flight to stop that passenger from reclining. And one woman (dubbed ‘economy class Karen’) instructed the passenger in front of her that reclining is against the rules and “not allowed” on a 10-hour flight.
Start recording their behaviour and if they touch you it is assault.
How about making the last 5 or so rows of seats able to recline while the rest of coach has fixed position seats. People can book their seat preference by choosing seats at the time of reservation.
I’m a big guy (ex football lineman) and I can assure you I can not function when the coach seat in front of me reclines. I can’t exit the seat, eat a meal, drink a beverage or look at a tablet unless I hold it on top of the seat in front of me. Most of the time people just recline automatically even if they are smaller healthy adults and even children. As coach gets tighter and tighter eventually a conflict will occur as it has here. Airline seats are a joke in terms of safety design- no lumbar support for the spine, inadequate seat padding and too short (my head, neck and top of my shoulders are above the top of the seat. Each generation gets taller. New cars have been made shorter to reduce wind resistance. I can’t see traffic lights when driving a sedan so I drive a truck or a Scion XB (47″ headroom). This is just the reality now, designers will not address the changes and their clients do not want to spend the money. Until they do there will be increasing conflict as our society continues to devolve.
I had this happened to me on a short business class flight on AA years ago. I tried to recline my seat but the the man behind me would stop the seat from reclining by pushing it forward. After a few tries, I asked the flight attendant to help me recline seat, she looked at he guy behind with a stern face while helping me recline the seat. I thanked her and that was the end of it. I hope that’s the case for everyone else but it isn’t so these day with some people having a certain sense of entitlement. Most unfortunate. Being a tiny woman weighing a 100lbs, I try to avoid any kind of confrontation as much as I can. Now if I were seated in economy at that time, I am not sure if anything will be done. Having said that, I wish airlines would stop making economy seat space tighter and tighter.
I asked someone to stop reclining until the drink service was over. They complied. But it’s not always easy to stop the person in front reclining.