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It's pretty common airline ethiquette to put your seat upright when the food is being distributed and people are eating.
by tziki 9y ago
It's pretty common airline ethiquette to put your seat upright when the food is being distributed and people are eating.
- toomuchtodo 9y agoSitting in a Google talk once, the lecturer said "If your policy doesn't exist in code, it doesn't exist." I'd like to think that analogy applies in social situations as well. It'd be nice if people would exhibit kindness and etiquette in social situations, but in the case of airlines, better to enforce it through mechanical design [+]. [+] As jonp mentions "With newer planes, the seat's pivot point is above the knees of the person behind.": https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16022774 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16022774
- tedunangst 9y agoThe airline does enforce it. While people are eating, they tell you to keep the seat up.
- totalZero 9y agoThis is not true for the USA companies. Where a policy has been stated regarding recline, that policy has been "there is no policy" and "we get involved only if passenger safety becomes an issue." On the many flights I have taken, I have only seen a flight attendant do something once (aforementioned), and I'm not able to find a Lufthansa policy that backed her actions up.
- nemo44x 9y agoI'm not sure a complex mechanical device is a requirement. The airlines could mention before takeoff that it's proper etiquette to not fully recline your seat until after the meal waste has been collected and to not recline during service. This doesn't physically stop someone from reclining but it certainly sets a social expectation of them and empowers a flight attendant to respectfully ask the patron to decline their seat when it is inappropriately reclined.
- totalZero 9y agoI agree. Considering that people who fly are often travelers from dissimilar home cultures, with some going airborne for the very first time, if there is an expectation of refraining from a seemingly permitted behavior, that expectation ought to be made clear.
- debaserab2 9y agoThere’s all kinds of ediquettes and social contracts that exist without being technically enforced upon people. It’s not lord of the flies. People are capable of being okay to each other. Side note, as also mentioned, raising the pivot point means that instead of my knees being crushed the person in front of me is now resting in my lap and has removed the space I had to work or read. It didn’t fix the problem, it just moved it.
- always_good 9y agoThe thing is that by depending only on social etiquette, then you're giving disproportionate power to those who don't care or those who entitle themselves at the expense of those who are considerate. That's not the behavior I think society should reward.
- sopooneo 9y agoLaws and rules will never be adequate on their own. In my opinion, in the human realm, what is written down is only a shadow of what is needed for us to get along. The rest, the "unwritten rules" are what actually keep everything functioning.
- domador 9y agoIf people are awake, sure. However, when flying, sleeping seems like a more basic need than eating, and one that should get higher priority. I think if someone is sleeping when they hand out the food, they should not be woken up in order to straighten their seat. (The higher priority I'd give to sleeping is not only due to the flight itself, but also to the general overhead related to flying: getting up early, driving to/from the airport, spending a lot of time in lines, hauling heavy luggage around, etc.)
- eximius 9y agoThen the only reason I have been polite is because I was hungry.