AIBU to recline my seat on a night flight?

Fine to recline but never until after food service.

As the PP said, you had the right to recline your seat on a long haul night flight and she was out of order in her behaviour.

That’s the only bit that’s relevant and why you reclined your seat is important only to you. Asking people to be more kind because you have children indicates a sense of entitlement even if that’s not the case.

As long as not reclined when they are trying to eat then its fine. I personally don’t recline anymore as I know its annoying but when you’ve got a small child on your lap that’s different.

Air Transat

Shes obviously being unreasonable kicking and shouting however I think it would be polite to ask, or atleast inform the person behind you that you are about to recline your seat.

You could have waited until the dinner service had been completed then reclined

DH and I are quite tall. It's a real pain when the person in front reclines their seat. Straight onto our knees! But it's their perogative, so other than buy an expensive seat you're stuck with it.

Yep, it's quite common to have day then night or vice versa on a single sector...

It's even possible to go day>night>day again on some polar routes....

As for Perth-London and the forthcoming Sydney-London......
..

Meal service first. Then it’s fine to recline.

This. I’ve done a fair bit of long (and short) haul flying. People reclining in front of me has never bothered me. I’m 5ft8. So I know I’m not as tall as a tall man but I’m not short. The chair at most comes back a couple of inches. I’ve often booked the back row as well that doesn’t recline. I’d much rather have no one behind me kicking my chair than have a reclining seat. All these posts saying about people’s heads in their laps and the TV screen 2 inches from their noses etc. How?? Whenever I’ve been in a reclining chair it barely moves! I’m certainly not laying down so my head is in someone’s lap!

She sounds deranged. Don’t give it a second thought op, seats with reclining buttons are there to be used.
I do mine on a night flight after meals have been cleared away but don’t during the day. I do still accept that people may decline during the day!

@SmudgeButt- what airline was it that the seat moved back alllll the way?. The average recline is 2 inches and just the top part moves so wouldn't be anywhere near your knees.

I have very strong feelings about people who do this on short daytime flights but it's completely normal at night. You just need to check that the person behind isn't still eating etc.

I had this, night flight back from Mexico. I waited until they cleared the meal then reclined, ready to sleep, and the woman behind punched my seat forward and yelled “I’m not having that”. I didn’t want to engage with her as she had been drinking and had already had a slanging match with cabin crew about something else. (She had apparently been to an AI holiday with family and fallen out with them all and didn’t want them sitting near her on the flight!).
I asked cabin crew if I was OK to recline and they told her in no uncertain terms that if she touched my seat or made a noise about it again, they would have police meet her off the plane at Manchester.

Yes plus some day flights are also overnight flights such as Singapore due to the time difference.

Agree, surely if they shouldn’t recline then the same it goes for the row in front of them and so on — then everyone is prevented from reclining! If you don’t want the back row, most airlines allow you to select another in advance.

I also think it’s fine to recline on a day flight after the meal is cleared. Some daytime flights are 10h plus, time difference can be significant and a short nap helps you master the jet lag.

It never takes long before the "don't recline on a daytime" pops up but it's nonsense on many longhaul routes.

For example if you leave the UK westbound late PM in the summer heading for the US West Coast you are daylight all the way...which can be 2,3 or even 4 AM on a UK body clock....and there are plenty of similar routes...

As @Fends says there are also a significant number of connecting pax on many airlines/flights whose body clocks are Lord knows where.

No. Night flights are what reclining seats are for.

Agree no one should violently shake the chair, irrespective of whether the recliner has small children or not.

I'm agreeing the OP was in the right, but didn't need the small children qualifier.

Why are they arseholes if they are using their paid for seat as it’s been designed to be used?

How do you know the other passengers aren’t on connecting flights? Day and night are pretty much irrelevant for many long haul travellers

Recline on night flights after food served , don’t recline on daytime flights
Kicking and shaking your seat is unhinged though whatever time it was!

I'm shocked by some of the posters who believe that reclining your own chair (after the meal has been served and cleared of course) is inconsiderate. This is literally the reason why the seats have this functionality. Why would anyone not recline their seat on a night flight? If you are that tall that a reclined seat infront of you would cause such an issue then clearly you need to book the ones with extra leg room?

What would you have done if she had politely asked you to move the seat forward a bit? No shade, just interested.