What's the etiquette here?

[KitKat1985]

Did a 9 hour night flight last night with family, including two young children. DD2 (2 years old) was over-tired and struggled to settle to sleep on the plane, so in the end would only sleep in my arms.

Man in the seat in front of my puts his chair into full recline mode meaning that I am completely squished. In-between his chair and DD2 on my lap I can barely move and don't sleep all night.

So what is the etiquette with chair reclining on planes? I have to admit I never do it as I don't think it's fair on the people behind, and I know DH also hates it on planes when the chair in front of him is reclined (he's 6'3 so has barely any legroom as it is). I spent half of last night wanting to ask the man in front if he could please put his chair back up, but wasn't sure if I was being unreasonable since he is obviously allowed to recline his chair also.

Unfortunately people are free to fully recline their seats. I believe it's common courtesy to check or ask the person behind if they mind, particularly if going for a full recline. In your case I probably would have spoken up given that you had a sleeping child on you, but he probably would've ignored you anyway.

I think it's perfectly acceptable to fully recline on a night flight, not so much during the day.

He is entitled to recline your chair. Why didn't you swap seats with one of your children or your husband if it was an issue?

I feel very stressed and panicky when the person in front of me reclines their seat but I accept people will do it on a night flight.

I really can't stand it on a day flight though.

Yay a reclining seats on a plane thread.

Always a split on MN. I am in the 'no' camp. There's little enough room as there is.

@MaryBoBary Why didn't you swap seats with one of your children or your husband if it was an issue?

1. Because it would have meant waking the children up (and it had taken ages to get them to sleep in the first place).
2. The people in front of DH were also reclining their seats anyway so wouldn't have made any difference!

I'm not a fan of daytime reclining but overnight it's fair enough.
You can't expect him to give up chance of sleeping however irritating it is.

I think you have to suck it up. You can recline your chair.

I wish seats were not able to be reclined. I almost never recline mine and I have done many long flights (14+ hours). It makes me feel so squished and claustrophobic when the person in front does but unfortunately the functionality is there and people are entitled to use it.

Perfectly reasonable to recline on a night flight or during a long flight when the cabin crew dim the lights. Short haul flights should have the recline facility disabled imo, only an arsehole would recline their seat on a daytime holiday flight to Greece or wherever.

This is why I always book the front row os seats .
No one to recline back on me

I think on any long haul flight it's to be expected, but it should always be upright during food service until trays have been cleared.

I think it's ok on a night flight, when the person in front of you reclines the only way to make up the space is to recline yours as well. As you stated you always keep yours upright so unfortunately you had minimum space available.

Air travel is so shit.

I think it's inconsiderate irrespective of the length or timing of the flight. That being said, no 'rules' were being broken. If you'd have asked him to put his seat up you'd more than likely received a refusal and there is nothing to be done about it.

Unfortunately most folk recline on a longhaul night flight. I try to choose a back row so I can put mine back without disturbing anyone.

I think seats should only be partially reclineable in economy and not at all on day flights. There just isn't space.

Really bugs me when people don’t put them back upright when food is served. Never understand how they can eat at that angle anyway 🤔

Sorry but on a night flight everyone is trying to grab as much sleep as they can, so pretty much everyone reclines.

I never recline my seat either as I can sleep with it upright! I would however have reclined my own seat in your situation to give myself more room if it was that uncomfortable.

Why didn't you just recline your own seat? It was a night flight, I bet 99% of the plane seats were reclined.

You could have reclined too to give you more room. Seats recline for a reason, its silly not to use them.

Why didn’t you recline your own seat? Or sit in your DD’s seat?

Daytime or nighttime, passengers are free to recline their seat.