6 ms·
Is it OK to recline your airplane seat? Some travel experts say no
- elmerfud 3y agoI think this article says the right thing. Sometimes it is, you have to be mindful of others around you. I know that's a rare concept in the USA especially. Everyone only thinks of themselves then gets mad when that attitude is turned around on them. As a frequent flyer, who's 6ft 220lbs, on those rare occasions I don't get a first class upgrade I try to be very mindful of others around me. Not just reclining the seat but trying to keep my arms crossed in front of me to avoid encroaching on the person next to me. Because the simple fact is shoulders are as wide or wider than many coach seats. People who reclining their seats during food or main drink service need to be spoken with by the flight attendants. I've never seen it happen here in the US but nearly every Asian flight I've been on during the food service they'll tell you to put your seat up. After cabin service and the lights go down for resting then it's less of a problem because everyone is now reclining. Always consider how your actions effect others, even if that other person is rude. It seems to be in fashion to hate on Christianity but this simple concept of do unto others as you would have them do unto you is a concept that transcends religion and time.
- refurb 3y agoI know that's a rare concept in the USA especially. LOL, come to Asia. I look forward to traveling back the US because people are so considered of others compared to Asia. But yes, I agree. The Asian airlines are really good about telling people to "put your seat up so the person behind you can eat their food".
- elmerfud 3y agoOh well yes the concept of a queue or a line in Asia seems to be not a thing. Especially if you're standing and giving a small amount of personal space to the person in front of you. They take that as an invitation to cut in. On the other hand, typically the cultures are non-confrontational so as a person from the US I just get loud and be like what the fuck are you doing. They realize their mistake and sheepishly moved to the back. Very much a different cultural concept because most of the time no one else will say anything they just deal with it. I think in the US if you cut in line you might get shot or at minimum start some sort of physical altercation. And people just generally know this so they don't do it.
- ESTheComposer 3y agoI don't understand you, this post completely contradicts your original one. Why make a snarky remark about how people from the US don't understand being mindful of others while at the same time commenting on how people in Asia don't seem to be mindful of others when it comes to lines, and then straight up saying that people in the US are mindful of that very same thing?
- conductr 3y agoYou recited the golden rule then proceed to explain your apparent joy in going full Karen on these people
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- pfannkuchen 3y ago> in the US if you cut in line you might get shot or at minimum start some sort of physical altercation Not sure if this is the reason. In Germany I don’t think you can expect to get shot or get into a fist fight, but I think people cut even less than they do in the US.
- ESTheComposer 3y ago> I know that's a rare concept in the USA especially. Everyone only thinks of themselves then gets mad when that attitude is turned around on them. I don't think I've ever been to a country where this isn't true, so not sure why you're singling out the US.
- gabeio 3y ago> I've never seen it happen here in the US but nearly every Asian flight I've been on during the food service they'll tell you to put your seat up. It sounds like they are from the US, so they are actually talking about their own experiences in their own country. In that sentence didn't state that part, not sure why.
- ESTheComposer 3y agoYeah I get they're probably American but in their first experience they basically put down the US and in the same sentence imply other countries know better than us unmindful Americans, while also commenting in another post that the same Asian countries they praised have no concept of mindfulness when it comes to lines and that Americans do, and that they just go and yell in the Asian folks' faces if they dare cut in front of them in line. Just seems like a weirdly hypocritical thing and also that they might be jumping on the "US is uncultured" bandwagon that you see on Reddit and other social media these days
- vore 3y agoWhy did you keep bringing the culture war into your post? You can just say you don't like it when people recline their seats during drink service without grinding your axe like this.
- grepfru_it 3y agoYou should keep your arms to yourself, but middle seat always gets both arm rests. This might mean an elbow sticking an inch into your space. Window seat gets a window, aisle seat has the aisle. Middle seat is screwed, so give them the arm rests
- rodrigosetti 3y agoI’m reclining my seat
- pnpnp 3y agoAgreed. If people are getting bumped too harshly with seats, maybe the seats are the problem - FTA: Elliott puts the blame for such incidents mostly on airlines. By effectively selling a seat space twice — to the passenger directly in front of the seat as well as the person immediately behind it — carriers have left it to passengers to duel over precious cabin space.
- happytoexplain 3y agoI don't understand why people jump so quickly to having an attitude about things like this. I can't quite delineate the category I'm talking about into which this topic falls, but it's essentially requests of the form "would you consider not..." that put people into this state of non-commensurate snide defiance. I too want to recline my seat, and sometimes do, but I understand what I'm doing. I do it slowly. Sometimes I ask them if it's OK (e.g. they're using their tray). I don't get the tendency to treat every detail of the world as a binary me vs you.
- jerpint 3y agoWhen I use my laptop on the tray, if the person in front reclines their seat quickly and I’m not paying attention, there’s a good chance they’ll crack my screen
- czbond 3y agoOnly safe way is to have angled towards you enough at all times to get pushed down, but not caught, if they lean back.
- nikau 3y agoIf only there was a class for business people doing business things on their laptops with more space...
- recursive 3y agoThen why is the button there? It doesn't make sense for their to be a button that you should never press. I'm not buying it. People say reclined seats cramp their knees. I don't understand that. I'm 6'. The pivot point of the seat back aligns directly with my kneecaps. It makes zero difference at all to my knee space when the seat in front of me reclines. Maybe I have short shins. I've never asked for permission to recline, nor has anyone asked it of me. This seems fine.
- mattwad 3y agoIt really depends on what type of plane and airline you are on, though.
- trws 3y agoI’m 6’7”. It makes a difference. On most flights I don’t worry about it because I arrange to be in a position where I have more room or can fold my legs under the seat (people sometimes get upset when my feet reach all the way to the kick bar under their seat for some reason), but if I’m stuck in regular economy in a middle seat, I could be inconvenienced or even injured by someone reclining roughly.
- wheels 3y agoI'll just throw out that until relatively recently, a lot of airplanes still had ashtrays. Antiquated seat design doesn't imply a set of rules. "If I'm not supposed to smoke, then why's there an ashtray?" Seat design has been largely static while people have gotten bigger, seats have gotten closer, and laptops have become a thing. On cheap European flights, they mostly have removed the buttons. I personally only ever use the button if nobody's behind me.
- AYoung010 3y agoI’ve heard that the continued presence of ashtrays isn’t a vestigial design feature so much as an intentional holdover, so that anyone who breaks the “no smoking” rule still has a safe place to put out their cigarette.
- bkorte 3y agoI've almost had my laptop crushed a few times by people reclining. I don't hate it if they're actually sleeping, but otherwise it's just frustrating to be behind someone reclining.
- grepfru_it 3y agoThis is the fault of the airline for making such a crappy design. Or in other words, don’t hate the player.. hate the game
- happytoexplain 3y agoYou can hate the game and also be careful about the consequences of your actions in the badly designed game.
- grepfru_it 3y agoI don’t know you have a laptop behind me. I bought a flight ticket. My seat can recline. I don’t need to ask for permission. Consequently, it’s your property and you know the trays are not designed for laptops. Ergo, the onus is on you to protect your equipment. I would suggest looking at the faulty design and then adapting your approach accordingly. The player is playing by the rules, you gotta hate the game (the airlines) for pitting the two of you against each other instead of against the hilariously bad design
- wj 3y agoI agree with the article that it would be nice to give the person behind you a heads up. I am always worried about my laptop being broken when someone slams their seat back. At the same time it is really difficult to use my laptop then because my keyboard ends up so close to my chest.
- tesseract 3y agoI feel like it used to be (I'm thinking 1990s or so) the norm that basically everyone reclined starting from the first in-flight announcement, except for mealtimes. Come to think of it, didn't those announcements from the pilot often specifically invite passengers to recline? I am curious why, and when exactly, sentiments around this apparently changed so much. Was it tighter row pitches that prompted the shift? Widespread ownership and use of laptops?
- nick0garvey 3y agoAirplanes fit a more people into the same space than they used to.
- djkivi 3y agoLean back, relax, and enjoy the flight :)
- happytoexplain 3y agoMaybe this is a case of not noticing something until you know about it, but I swear I've never heard of the danger of laptop screens being crushed by a reclining airplane seat, then it almost happened to me last week for the first time, and now I see three top comments in this thread with the same concern.
- emodendroket 3y agoMaybe I'd feel differently if I were a frequent flyer (though I kind of doubt it because I used to be a 5-days-a-week train rider) but I feel like trying to use your laptop on a flight is for the birds anyway before this comes into play. It's just so awkward and the minute someone wants to get up it's a pain. I'd rather content myself with something I can hold in my hands or the in-flight films.
- happytoexplain 3y agoI appreciate preferring other options, but I haven't experienced your frustrations. I love getting work done on the plane. It's too close to me for sure (I've only flown coach), but not so much that I mind it in chunks of a couple hours.
- emodendroket 3y agoThen why can it be reclined at all?
- happytoexplain 3y agoThe seat does not know the state of the human behind it. This is how lots of things work: Tools let you do things. That doesn't mean you never, ever have to think about how and when to use them.
- emodendroket 3y agoSeems irrelevant if it's outright never appropriate. Tools should generally be designed to make it difficult to do things that are never or almost never desired.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- JaceLightning 3y ago#no
- serial_dev 3y agoJust as a side note, I hate it when people make up "etiquette" in their mind, treat it as real rules, and get mad at you for breaking it. Unless there's good reason (very old person, person with disabilities), I'll recline after letting you know and checking if I don't crush anything on your side (a skull, laptop, or food). During lunch, the personnel will tell us to sit upright, anyway, otherwise the trays are unusable. There is also a chain reaction element to it. Even if originally I was sitting upright (I really prefer it this way for short 2-4 hour trips, which is most of my flights within Europe), if the person in front of me reclines, I'll recline, otherwise I'd be about 10 cm away from the other person's head, and no matter how nice his or her shampoo is, I ain't smelling it the whole flight, even if your favorite CBS travel expert says otherwise.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- TheLoafOfBread 3y agoIf you want to behave like 5 years old don't be surprised that people behind you will behave like 5 years old too and start just kicking your seat.
- nosefurhairdo 3y agoThis is just rage-bait. It's a headline designed to elicit clicks and frustration because everyone already has an opinion and nobody is going to change their mind. This entire article is just journalists, "etiquette experts," and transportation market analysts sharing their opinion, which is no more relevant than your opinion or that of the person sat behind you on a flight. They might as well have quoted me: "I've flown many dozens of times, reclined every time, and not once caused any trouble."
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- iandanforth 3y agoRemember, it's not about you, or the person reclining their seat. Both of you are in the same plane and are being forced into conflict by the airline. You're on the same side, and the party to blame is the one reducing seat pitch repeatedly year after year. The only reason the recline button is still there is that it would clearly call attention to the fact that seats don't have room to recline anymore, which would shift people's attention to the actual culprits. https://www.cntraveler.com/story/airline-seat-sizes-safety-risks-op-ed https://www.cntraveler.com/story/airline-seat-sizes-safety-r...
- yafbum 3y agoWell no, if you believe that airlines as an industry are simply responding to incentives in a competitive marketplace, passengers are also responsible for being so much more sensitive to ticket price than to legroom...
- elif 3y ago6'5" and i have NO problem with you reclining your seat. yea i've had my knees hit with a seat, yea i've had my drink spill a little. this is not an assault though.. this is a minor inconvenience not worthy of discussion. i've had worse wounds inflicted intentionally by flight attendants ramming me with their cart to prove a point instead of waking me up and asking politely. that's a very low hill to die on but still higher than this one.
- wdb 3y agoAlso like that they often get pretty annoyed when you accidentally kick the seat. Don't think it's a problem to recline your seat as long you don't do it during feeding time or the whole 14 hour flight (had that happen). I can't complain much. I am the person who can't sleep on planes so will wander around the plane; talk to the staff; or have the light on the whole flight etc
- jasonboyd 3y agoWhat the airline industry has done is amazing. Had they fixed the seats in place so they could not move at all people would be directing their ire at the airlines for the cramped conditions. Instead, they let you recline your seat one inch and, incredibly, passengers are angry at each other rather than the airlines. It is stunning, the industry created an issue and then found a way to make passengers blame each other rather than the airline. I don't know if there is a name for this tactic but there should be if there is not.
- stby 3y agoWhat the article doesn't mention, maybe because it's not a global thing yet, is that non-reclining seats have been introduced in the last year. On flights within Europe I haven't had a reclining seat in ages, no matter whether flying on an LCC or flag carrier. I don't think there was any uproar about that change.
- cassianoleal 3y agoI've recently flown LHR->CDG and back on one of those lovely Brazilian Embraer jets that are flying all over Europe. Seats definitely reclined.
- mieses 3y agoAt least the button on the seat works, unlike usb-c and thunderbolt hubs. Lots of amusement if ever software engineers get control of that button.
- coffeedan 3y agoThis is an opportunity for more airline upcharges: * Reclining seat: +$50 * Seat behind a seat that can’t recline: +$75 * etc (90% joking, 10% terrified this could happen)
- sashk 3y agoEnable seat reclining after someone behind you paid $75: +$175
- da39a3ee 3y agoYou buy a ticket to a reclining seat. You have no obligation to act morally; it is legal to recline. End of story.