Airplanes and reclining seats

[MrsCampbellBlack]

So on flight with infant daughter on lap and woman in front keeps reclining her seat leaving us with very little space to even breathe. Not surprisingly DD gets a little ahem upset and screams loudly - god so loudly! Woman in front does lots of tutting.

Stewards asked her to put seat up but she reclines it as soon as they go away.

So am I mad to think she was being incredibly inconsiderate or is it just part and parcel of plane travel.

Other passengers utterly charming and Airplane staff agreed she was a nightmare but nothing they could do.

Can I just point out again that if the disability warrants it, you can have the seat reclined the entire time, even before take off.

I have seen it happen with my tetraplegic friend on Monarch and Thompson on numerous occasions. Only once was he forced to sit upright for takeoff and landing. We have been travelling with him at least twice a year for about 5 years now, so that adds up to quite a few flights. He really is safer with the seat back, if you could see his positioning when the seat is upright, you'd know what I mean, but it's hard to explain. He's a tall guy, so usually can't bring his knees and bum forward which would lean him back more, because there is already so little space.

Pumpkincarver - I thought you meant once the wheels had left the tarmac, not completed its climb :o

Recliners on short haul flights are very very unreasonable and selfish!

I regularly fly between Vienna and London on BA or Austrian Airlines (a mere 2 hour flight) and people are usually civilised enough to sit upright. Recently some idiot reclined as soon as the seatbelt sign was switched off

Also last time I had the good luck to have a row to myself. Was v pleased until half way through the flight some lady came and plonked herself down on the end of my row, immediately sprawled herself and fell asleep, blocking me into the aisle so I could not get out to go to the toilet. When she woke up she started cracking lame jokes marking her own as even more of a tw@t.

very late, but anyway
"No, it won't kill me to be upright for a few hours, but unless a person is particularly tall it doesn't do them any harm to feel a bit squashed for a few hours either."

It can though - DVT is a real danger for squashed, tall passengers.

YANBU. She could have asked you first if you would mind her putting her seat back.

Not all flights have upgrade options. If you're on a package holiday or budget airline there's only cattle class. These are the particular flights when everyone should be extra considerate of each other because they are on the whole an uncomfortable experience for all.

Now it's been suggested though, I for one would opt for sedation. Wake me up when we're through passport control.

Gonna get me one of these sweet babies Mmmm

This thread has really made me nervous now...I'm flying with my 6m old next month. A 3hr flight...now scared of all the recliners who shout at you and call the staff and complain about you and tut at your DC screaming....s**t, might cancel until she is 18!

NOT!! And I hope she kicks the seats and makes a fuss...Ha ha! I pay for my seat and for my daughters flight so everyone else who has done the same just has to deal with it...flying is not meant to be comfortable, it's transport.

I was on a five hour flight one time and was desperate to sleep. A woman was sat with a baby on her lap behind me, with her partner next to her. I turned round and asked her if she would mind if I reclined because I was desperate to get some sleep. We agreed to swap places. Problem solved.

I'm sure I've posted on a thread like this before, but the last time I flew (day time flight) the person reclined his seat so far that couldn't pull down my tray fully, the TV was about 2 inches away from my nose and when went to go to the loo I had to postion my body at the same angle as his seat back in order to ease myself out, holding onto the back of his seat to help myself do so.
He was the only person to recline, that I could see and i was getting lots of sympathetic looks from other passengers. In the end the only solution for me to was to recline my seat a little (even though I didn't want to as I find reclining uncomfortable) and apologise to the man behind me for doing so, but he could see what the problem was.

My favorite flight was coming back from Helsinki. There was a english girls choir on board who sang the The Sound of Music when we took off, it was beautiful and we had delightful swedish toddler triplets in front of us to play with all the way home. Wish all flights could be like that

Unfortunately most flights seem to get stuck behind a recliner and we end up in the pack of cards situation.

If a baby was sat behind me, I would certainly not recline my chair out of consideration...as its hard enough with little ones on a plane without someone taking up more room.

I hate threads like this because it is SO obvious that nice polite considerate people would think it utterly unreasonable to recline their seat in a cramped plane for a short flight.

Loathe the 'why should I care about who's sitting behind me' answers.

My son (6'3" and knee injury on holiday) was forced to sit in a tiny space by some idiotic recliner in front - actually it was that woman off Green Wing and her equally twuntish boyfriend.

I'm afraid I disagree with those who say airlines should either forbid reclining on short flights or have seats that don't recline...
I don't think we should give up the potential added comfort (eg in situations when the seat behind is empty or person behind agrees / doesn't mind). For me it's losing the battle to the twats.... and I'm not prepared to give up just yet!

Some people have NEVER reclined their seats and never would? Really?

So if you were flying through the night on a long haul flight, they dimmed the lights and EVERY OTHER PASSENGER reclined their seat to go to sleep you would just sit there upright would you? Why??

I'd only ever recline my seat if the person behind was sleeping, and when they woke up I'd tilt it back up.

To all the 'it's my right to recline' posters, what a bloody miserable and selfish world it would be if everyone thought like that!

Its AEROPLANE, not airplane!

Ooh I got a message deleted by Mumsnet on this thread. I've never managed that before!

Presumably reported by one of the insistent seat recliners.

I was surprised at that Butterbar- I saw your post before it got deleted and I don't remember anything offensive

12 hour flight, grumpy man in front reclines asap and ignores me when i ask him to move it when the food arrives. i swap seats with dd,2 years old and he asks me to stop her kicking his chair, i ignored him.

It was perhaps very slightly offensive by MN standards, castigating seat recliners in general as selfish [insert fairly mild epithet here].

Have seen much worse.

Well I said twat earlier and my post is still there, so it must have been worse that twat

sorry - worse THAN twat