7 ms·

I'd pay extra to keep the person in front of me from being able to recline.

by jghn 1y ago

kstrauser 1y ago
The person in front of me slammed her seat back in a recent flight and it made me yelp in pain. I’m tall and my knees were nearly pressed against the seat before she pounced. I started bouncing my knees to try to get comfortable. The person’s kid turned and said “you’re shaking my mom’s seat.” “Yes. It’s mashing my legs.” “Could you stop?” “No. Tell her to straighten up.” “Oh.” She did, and I stopped. I do get that she just wanted to relax a little. She wasn’t trying to be mean. But wow, how the awful design of that plane made her reasonable desire to rest in her seat physically painful for me.
- raw_anon_1111 1y ago
  I am five four as is my wife. I can’t imagine being tall and not paying for seats with more legroom.
  - saltcured 1y ago
    How would you feel being charged extra for a seat that permits short people to be safely transported?
    - JumpCrisscross 1y ago
      > safely transported? We’re talking about comfort, not safety. (I am struggling to find any reported injuries from reclining accidents.)
      - collingreen 1y ago
        Focusing on this instead of the point (how would you feel if X happened to you instead) feels very corporate America. We're talking about safety, not comfort! They can survive on low oxygen under the plane so put some seats down there!
        JumpCrisscross 1y ago
        > Focusing on this instead of the point (how would you feel if X happened to you instead) I’m 6’. My partner is 6’ 7”. I’d prefer to not have to pay extra for more legroom. I’d also prefer to not pay for anything else in my life. Conflating safety and comfort in the context of an airline is incredibly disingenuous. I’m as safe as I’m miserable flying middle seat economy. I’m also in that position because I preferred to spend my dollars on something else.
      - saltcured 1y ago
        Comfort crosses over into safety when it changes the odds of DVTs in the legs etc.
        JumpCrisscross 1y ago
        > Comfort crosses over into safety when it changes the odds of DVTs Do we have any evidence this varies based on reclining and leg room relative to height? If so, you absolutely have a point, possibly legally under the ADA.
        deleted 1y ago
        [deleted]
      - ranger_danger 1y ago
        My knees regularly get agonizingly crushed from reclining seats, enough that I have screamed. At one point it was so bad I even bought a device that prevents the seat in front from reclining, until they got banned. Also got a macbook pro screen crushed from a reclining seat once... nobody cared.
        JumpCrisscross 1y ago
        > My knees regularly get agonizingly crushed from reclining seats, enough that I have screamed Was there injury? Was your ability to exit in an emergency impaired? If so, there might be a safety issue. Being in non-injurious pain is uncomfortable and annoying and it sucks, but it's not fairly characterised as a safety issue any more than getting a neck crick from a lack of lay-flat seating counts as a safety issue.
    - raw_anon_1111 1y ago
      By the end of the year, my wife and I will have flown over a dozen times - mostly domestic and short flights. I never pay for the cheapest seats nor do I fly budget airlines.
      - kstrauser 1y ago
        Congratulations on your wealthy status. You do understand that not everyone can do that, as evidenced by the fact that airplanes have a very small number of extra-comfort seats compared to basic economy seating?
        raw_anon_1111 1y ago
        Not wealthy at all. We downsized from a big house in the burbs to a condo 1/3 the size in state tax free Florida, we have one relatively cheap car that was 2/3rd the median price of a new car in the US, and we churn credit cards for points and use a few other tricks.
  - jmward01 1y ago
    there is such a thing as reasonable accommodation for reasonable body types. That being said, the enemy here is airlines, not other passengers. The thing that makes me angry is how well airlines have turned this discussion from 'we just destroyed your comfort and provide horrible service' to 'it is the other passengers that are terrible people and you should get angry at them'
    - tayo42 1y ago
      Alternatively we would all be paying extra legroom price for seats then though.
    - raw_anon_1111 1y ago
      Should they also rearrange seats so 600 pound people can fly or just keep making them pay for two seats? No the 600 pounds is not hyperbole
      - jmward01 1y ago
        'reasonable' is the keyword here. I do not expect an airline to provide medical care on a flight but I do expect some level of accommodation for people with medical issues. We have crosswalks that acknowledge the blind but streets that are still far from perfectly accommodating for them. There is no 'perfect' but there is reasonable accommodation and there is a discussion what 'reasonable' is and what a 'reasonable' accommodation for extreme bodies are. I personally don't find it objectionable to require two seats to be purchased for someone that is that far away from average, but there is a discussion to be had for sure. For instance, how common is it? If it is pretty uncommon then just providing two seats, without extra cost, is probably the easiest thing for all parties involved since special cases are expensive. But now we are, again, playing the airline's games. 'blame the outlier', 'blame a passenger', 'blame security theater'. In the end they want us to blame everyone but them for the terrible service they provide. I have been stranded twice out of the last 5 times I flew because they didn't make their schedule. One of those times I had to sleep on the airport floor and had no compensation or even an 'I'm sorry' from the airline. Their bad, unprofessional and unacceptable level of service needs to end and the core of the problem is the airlines. Not the passengers.
  - Someone1234 1y ago
    You can't imagine that being tall doesn't automatically make people wealthy? On the last flight I took, an Economy+ seat with more legroom, was over 250% more expensive. It came with no additional perks, just legroom.
    - raw_anon_1111 1y ago
      Flying is a privilege unless it’s an emergency. I pay for all sorts of conveniences when I fly. I alsopp think parents of small children shouldn’t be able to buy seats where they can’t choose their seats forcing others who did pay for the right to choose their seat to have to move.
    - kstrauser 1y ago
      Thank you! I was on a business trip. I could have paid an extra $500 out of pocket over the tickets the company paid for. I wasn’t asking to be super comfortable in the cheap seats. I just wanted to get from A to B without being hurt.
  - kstrauser 1y ago
    I’m 6’0”, just run of the mill tall, not basketball player stratospheric. The notion that someone within 1 standard deviation of the mean should pay extra not to be in pain is ridiculous.
- satisfice 1y ago
  Your discomfort is not, in any way, her problem. Suck it up, dude. I’m sorry you are too tall for your budget. I need to recline or else I have terrible back pain. However, if someone asks me nicely I will switch seats with them or otherwise try to consider their happiness. So, ask nicely. Don’t thrash like a trapped chicken and hope to annoy people into submission.
  - JumpCrisscross 1y ago
    > Your discomfort is not, in any way, her problem Eh, there is a polite and impolite way to recline a seat. It’s fair to complain about incourteous fellow travellers.
    - satisfice 1y ago
      No there isn't "a polite and impolite way to recline a seat." All ways are polite. You are just making shit up. Why do so many smart people think that correct behavior is whatever makes intuitive sense to themselves and everything else must be wrong? NOBODY HAS EVER CONVENED A SUMMIT ON RULES FOR RECLINING AIRLINE SEATS, DUDE. There is no council of elders. There's just us. Either you're a pluralist, who understands that the world has lots of different kinds of people in it, that we don't all agree, and somehow we must get along without resorting to violence... or you're part of the why we aren't getting along. As I said in my original comment. There are no rules. But there is empathy. Empathy is a gift. It's a choice. Thank you for choosing it. But it's not my right to demand it from you. My comfort is NOT your problem. And it's so strange to be downvoted when I say that, because if my comfort is your problem, then you all should be upvoting me so that I will feel good about myself! Every downvote proves I'm right. (sort of)
  - ghusto 1y ago
    > Your discomfort is not, in any way, her problem. Suck it up, dude. I’m sorry you are too tall for your budget. This is the reason the majority of people have to suffer rules created for the lowest common denominator. Jesus Christ.
    - 1y ago
- rkomorn 1y ago
  I don't recline my seat, partly out of respect for the person behind, but mostly out of not wanting to have to deal with someone with your kind of attitude. It's not the person in front of you's fault that the little bit of comfort the feature built into the seat she bought offers her is inconvenient to you.
  - kstrauser 1y ago
    I think that’s pretty much what I said, right? She wasn’t a demon. It’s not her fault the seating was arranged so horribly. I wasn’t angry with her. And yet, the distance from the back of my seat to the reclining back of hers was shorter than the length of my legs, from rump to knee. It was physically impossible for me to put my legs together and I was physically in pain. I was annoyed with the airline, not the woman who just wanted to get a little more comfortable.
    - acaloiar 1y ago
      It's exactly what you said. You're not crazy :)
    - rkomorn 1y ago
      You're right, my bad.
- JumpCrisscross 1y ago
  > I started bouncing my knees to try to get comfortable This is as obnoxious as slamming the seat backwards.
  - kstrauser 1y ago
    I apologize for not writhing in pain according to standard.
    - JumpCrisscross 1y ago
      Both of you had opportunities to communicate and didn't. That's fine. Nobody thinks clearly when uncomfortable. But reflecting on what happened, it should be obvious that talking to the person would have not only solved the situation sooner but also more maturely than throwing a tantrum by kicking someone else's seat.
      - kstrauser 1y ago
        Dude. I literally cried out in pain and was writhing to find a way to get comfortable.
Marsymars 1y ago
You can carry cash onto the airline and if the person in front of you reclines you can offer them cash to not recline. Or auction the cash to swap seats with someone who has someone in front of them who will accept cash to not recline.
- JumpCrisscross 1y ago
  The solution to being picky about other people reclining is to pay for a better seat. (Front cabin or exit row.)
  - exe34 1y ago
    he just gave you another solution which might also work for a lower price.
    - JumpCrisscross 1y ago
      > he just gave you another solution It works at scale about as well as people slamming back when they recline. It’s not a bad idea, and I’d endorse recommending it. But it isn’t as reliable as paying for a better seat.
- dingnuts 1y ago
  what do you do when the person in front of you takes the deal and reclines anyway? Sue to get your money back?
  - Marsymars 1y ago
    Pay by the hour. Or dump your apple juice on their head and claim accident.
  - deleted 1y ago
    [deleted]
  - satisfice 1y ago
    No longer patronize her seat unreclining business.
JumpCrisscross 1y ago
Isn’t that what this is? A WestJet economy seat now comes with a guarantee that the person in front of you can’t recline.
vinni2 1y ago
Just pick a seat behind a non reclinable seat.

I'd pay extra to keep the person in front of me from being able to recline.

by jghn 1y ago

I'd pay extra to keep the person in front of me from being able to recline.

The person in front of me slammed her seat back in a recent flight and it made me yelp in pain. I’m tall and my knees were nearly pressed against the seat before she pounced. I started bouncing my knees to try to get comfortable. The person’s kid turned and said “you’re shaking my mom’s seat.” “Yes. It’s mashing my legs.” “Could you stop?” “No. Tell her to straighten up.” “Oh.” She did, and I stopped. I do get that she just wanted to relax a little. She wasn’t trying to be mean. But wow, how the awful design of that plane made her reasonable desire to rest in her seat physically painful for me.

raw_anon_1111 1y ago
I am five four as is my wife. I can’t imagine being tall and not paying for seats with more legroom.
- saltcured 1y ago
  How would you feel being charged extra for a seat that permits short people to be safely transported?
  - JumpCrisscross 1y ago
    > safely transported? We’re talking about comfort, not safety. (I am struggling to find any reported injuries from reclining accidents.)
    - collingreen 1y ago
      Focusing on this instead of the point (how would you feel if X happened to you instead) feels very corporate America. We're talking about safety, not comfort! They can survive on low oxygen under the plane so put some seats down there!
      - JumpCrisscross 1y ago
        > Focusing on this instead of the point (how would you feel if X happened to you instead) I’m 6’. My partner is 6’ 7”. I’d prefer to not have to pay extra for more legroom. I’d also prefer to not pay for anything else in my life. Conflating safety and comfort in the context of an airline is incredibly disingenuous. I’m as safe as I’m miserable flying middle seat economy. I’m also in that position because I preferred to spend my dollars on something else.
    - saltcured 1y ago
      Comfort crosses over into safety when it changes the odds of DVTs in the legs etc.
      - JumpCrisscross 1y ago
        > Comfort crosses over into safety when it changes the odds of DVTs Do we have any evidence this varies based on reclining and leg room relative to height? If so, you absolutely have a point, possibly legally under the ADA.
        deleted 1y ago
        [deleted]
    - ranger_danger 1y ago
      My knees regularly get agonizingly crushed from reclining seats, enough that I have screamed. At one point it was so bad I even bought a device that prevents the seat in front from reclining, until they got banned. Also got a macbook pro screen crushed from a reclining seat once... nobody cared.
      - JumpCrisscross 1y ago
        > My knees regularly get agonizingly crushed from reclining seats, enough that I have screamed Was there injury? Was your ability to exit in an emergency impaired? If so, there might be a safety issue. Being in non-injurious pain is uncomfortable and annoying and it sucks, but it's not fairly characterised as a safety issue any more than getting a neck crick from a lack of lay-flat seating counts as a safety issue.
  - raw_anon_1111 1y ago
    By the end of the year, my wife and I will have flown over a dozen times - mostly domestic and short flights. I never pay for the cheapest seats nor do I fly budget airlines.
    - kstrauser 1y ago
      Congratulations on your wealthy status. You do understand that not everyone can do that, as evidenced by the fact that airplanes have a very small number of extra-comfort seats compared to basic economy seating?
      - raw_anon_1111 1y ago
        Not wealthy at all. We downsized from a big house in the burbs to a condo 1/3 the size in state tax free Florida, we have one relatively cheap car that was 2/3rd the median price of a new car in the US, and we churn credit cards for points and use a few other tricks.
- jmward01 1y ago
  there is such a thing as reasonable accommodation for reasonable body types. That being said, the enemy here is airlines, not other passengers. The thing that makes me angry is how well airlines have turned this discussion from 'we just destroyed your comfort and provide horrible service' to 'it is the other passengers that are terrible people and you should get angry at them'
  - tayo42 1y ago
    Alternatively we would all be paying extra legroom price for seats then though.
  - raw_anon_1111 1y ago
    Should they also rearrange seats so 600 pound people can fly or just keep making them pay for two seats? No the 600 pounds is not hyperbole
    - jmward01 1y ago
      'reasonable' is the keyword here. I do not expect an airline to provide medical care on a flight but I do expect some level of accommodation for people with medical issues. We have crosswalks that acknowledge the blind but streets that are still far from perfectly accommodating for them. There is no 'perfect' but there is reasonable accommodation and there is a discussion what 'reasonable' is and what a 'reasonable' accommodation for extreme bodies are. I personally don't find it objectionable to require two seats to be purchased for someone that is that far away from average, but there is a discussion to be had for sure. For instance, how common is it? If it is pretty uncommon then just providing two seats, without extra cost, is probably the easiest thing for all parties involved since special cases are expensive. But now we are, again, playing the airline's games. 'blame the outlier', 'blame a passenger', 'blame security theater'. In the end they want us to blame everyone but them for the terrible service they provide. I have been stranded twice out of the last 5 times I flew because they didn't make their schedule. One of those times I had to sleep on the airport floor and had no compensation or even an 'I'm sorry' from the airline. Their bad, unprofessional and unacceptable level of service needs to end and the core of the problem is the airlines. Not the passengers.
- Someone1234 1y ago
  You can't imagine that being tall doesn't automatically make people wealthy? On the last flight I took, an Economy+ seat with more legroom, was over 250% more expensive. It came with no additional perks, just legroom.
  - raw_anon_1111 1y ago
    Flying is a privilege unless it’s an emergency. I pay for all sorts of conveniences when I fly. I alsopp think parents of small children shouldn’t be able to buy seats where they can’t choose their seats forcing others who did pay for the right to choose their seat to have to move.
  - kstrauser 1y ago
    Thank you! I was on a business trip. I could have paid an extra $500 out of pocket over the tickets the company paid for. I wasn’t asking to be super comfortable in the cheap seats. I just wanted to get from A to B without being hurt.
- kstrauser 1y ago
  I’m 6’0”, just run of the mill tall, not basketball player stratospheric. The notion that someone within 1 standard deviation of the mean should pay extra not to be in pain is ridiculous.
satisfice 1y ago
Your discomfort is not, in any way, her problem. Suck it up, dude. I’m sorry you are too tall for your budget. I need to recline or else I have terrible back pain. However, if someone asks me nicely I will switch seats with them or otherwise try to consider their happiness. So, ask nicely. Don’t thrash like a trapped chicken and hope to annoy people into submission.
- JumpCrisscross 1y ago
  > Your discomfort is not, in any way, her problem Eh, there is a polite and impolite way to recline a seat. It’s fair to complain about incourteous fellow travellers.
  - satisfice 1y ago
    No there isn't "a polite and impolite way to recline a seat." All ways are polite. You are just making shit up. Why do so many smart people think that correct behavior is whatever makes intuitive sense to themselves and everything else must be wrong? NOBODY HAS EVER CONVENED A SUMMIT ON RULES FOR RECLINING AIRLINE SEATS, DUDE. There is no council of elders. There's just us. Either you're a pluralist, who understands that the world has lots of different kinds of people in it, that we don't all agree, and somehow we must get along without resorting to violence... or you're part of the why we aren't getting along. As I said in my original comment. There are no rules. But there is empathy. Empathy is a gift. It's a choice. Thank you for choosing it. But it's not my right to demand it from you. My comfort is NOT your problem. And it's so strange to be downvoted when I say that, because if my comfort is your problem, then you all should be upvoting me so that I will feel good about myself! Every downvote proves I'm right. (sort of)
- ghusto 1y ago
  > Your discomfort is not, in any way, her problem. Suck it up, dude. I’m sorry you are too tall for your budget. This is the reason the majority of people have to suffer rules created for the lowest common denominator. Jesus Christ.
  - 1y ago
rkomorn 1y ago
I don't recline my seat, partly out of respect for the person behind, but mostly out of not wanting to have to deal with someone with your kind of attitude. It's not the person in front of you's fault that the little bit of comfort the feature built into the seat she bought offers her is inconvenient to you.
- kstrauser 1y ago
  I think that’s pretty much what I said, right? She wasn’t a demon. It’s not her fault the seating was arranged so horribly. I wasn’t angry with her. And yet, the distance from the back of my seat to the reclining back of hers was shorter than the length of my legs, from rump to knee. It was physically impossible for me to put my legs together and I was physically in pain. I was annoyed with the airline, not the woman who just wanted to get a little more comfortable.
  - acaloiar 1y ago
    It's exactly what you said. You're not crazy :)
  - rkomorn 1y ago
    You're right, my bad.
JumpCrisscross 1y ago
> I started bouncing my knees to try to get comfortable This is as obnoxious as slamming the seat backwards.
- kstrauser 1y ago
  I apologize for not writhing in pain according to standard.
  - JumpCrisscross 1y ago
    Both of you had opportunities to communicate and didn't. That's fine. Nobody thinks clearly when uncomfortable. But reflecting on what happened, it should be obvious that talking to the person would have not only solved the situation sooner but also more maturely than throwing a tantrum by kicking someone else's seat.
    - kstrauser 1y ago
      Dude. I literally cried out in pain and was writhing to find a way to get comfortable.

Marsymars 1y ago

You can carry cash onto the airline and if the person in front of you reclines you can offer them cash to not recline. Or auction the cash to swap seats with someone who has someone in front of them who will accept cash to not recline.

JumpCrisscross 1y ago
The solution to being picky about other people reclining is to pay for a better seat. (Front cabin or exit row.)
- exe34 1y ago
  he just gave you another solution which might also work for a lower price.
  - JumpCrisscross 1y ago
    > he just gave you another solution It works at scale about as well as people slamming back when they recline. It’s not a bad idea, and I’d endorse recommending it. But it isn’t as reliable as paying for a better seat.
dingnuts 1y ago
what do you do when the person in front of you takes the deal and reclines anyway? Sue to get your money back?
- Marsymars 1y ago
  Pay by the hour. Or dump your apple juice on their head and claim accident.
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
- satisfice 1y ago
  No longer patronize her seat unreclining business.

JumpCrisscross 1y ago

Isn’t that what this is? A WestJet economy seat now comes with a guarantee that the person in front of you can’t recline.

vinni2 1y ago

Just pick a seat behind a non reclinable seat.