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.

The chair reclines why shouldn't I use it?

Oh cripes. This sums up the mentality of chair recliners. The chair reclines and it's a novelty so I will recline. Ooh look! A little bell to ring for the air stewards! I'll just give that a little buzz even though I don't really need to, but they wouldn't put in a bell if they didn't want us to ring it, would they?

I hate plane passengers, for the most part. If I'd won that bloody rollover the other night, I would have launched Cunting Airlines. An airline for non-cunty people (ironically) You can fly on my airline if you promise not to recline seats on flights less than 4 hours, not to harrass the staff for your gratis cup of tea (like the loon in front of me did for an hour straight) and if you generally don't behave like Mariah Carey even though you flying on a budget airline. Welcome aboard!

Yes - we couldn't go on the extra leg room bit because of having a baby on my lap.

Oohjar - you sound utterly delightful

And to have travelled business class would have been an additional £2,400 for our holiday - a bit much really as flight would have been fine and always has been fine in the past with my other dc's (have 3) as have actually never had anyone do this before when I've had a baby on my lap - I must have been lucky I guess.

"maybe you should have paid for another seat for the kid"

Babies have to be sat on an adult's lap. Well, this has been the case on every occasion I have flown with DS as a baby. He couldn't have his own seat unti 2.

Bupcakes - I love you

Yes - I was certainly under the impression that DD was too little to have her own seat - wasn't just a matter of 'saving money' - it wasn't offered as an option.

What Bupcakes said.

It's just about general civility, people.

I love you too, MrsCB. How are Tabitha and Marcus, btw?

If we're going to penalise the correctly-sized because planes are designed and populated mainly by munchkins, then we definitely need to charge the fatties for all the extra fuel needed to keep them in the air.

Eating all the pies - ecologically unsound.

Aeroplanes are generally unpleasant places to be in; smelly, cramped, full of entitled dicks. Just take a look behind you and say to the person sat directly behind you, "Hi, would you mind if I reclined my chair?" Smile at them. They will most probably say "Carry yourself on, thanks for asking!" They might say "actually, I've got a nine-month old on my lap and I can't feel my own legs. Do you mind not? Here, have a humbug though, for landing" They will smile back. You might consider that actually, having your seat back by an extra two inches is doing sod all for your comfort but is making life VERY uncomfortable for the person sat behind. Politeness is the way forward.

I am considerate on flights. I dont kick the back of the seat in front of me every few seconds. I dont keep pissing about with the elasticated pocket on it and pinging it or lifting the tray up and down. I dont get up every couple of minutes, gripping and jolting the seat in front to help me get up. I do however, recline my seat, if I want to be comfortable, as the seat has a reclining function that I have every right to use.

Or just garrotte them with the headphone cable.

Prays Squeakytoy isn't on my next flight

As I'm sure she prays she's not on mine.

Show me where it is written!

This right, that is. And where your desire to be 7 degrees further from the vertical trumps your fellow human's right to not having their knees crushed.

Was your DD kicking her seat? DH once sat all the way from Miami to Heathrow with a small child kicking the back of his seat. He reclined his seat to try to reduce the swing.

I'm sure she didn't btw. Just reminiscing about my good fortune not to get that seat...

"I do however, recline my seat, if I want to be comfortable, as the seat has a reclining function that I have every right to use"

You know when you're in the passenger seat of a car, do you position your seat into a semi-reclined position? Must you be semi-lying down whilst in a car? Does that two inches of reclining really add to your comfort? Or is it because you have the "right" to use it and you're darn well going to?

I do think politeness and civility are key really - to pretty much every area of life.

I tried and pretty much succeeded in ensuring my children were good on the flight - no kicking or annoying anyone apart from DD's screams which I really couldn't control.

Because I was being polite to the other passengers but not everyone cares about other people more about their own entitlement clearly.

DD was most certainly not kicking her seat - lordy there was no room for her to move her legs - not that I'd have let her anyway.

If a chair is reclined, it actually gives slightly more knee room for the person behind, because the chairback is now at an angle.

Which airline is this? I have yet to travel on a plane where you can recline the seat by more than half a centimetre!

I feel your pain though. I hate air travel with babies, DD used to scream for hours on end and I tried everything to console her. There were always a few passengers who were completely enraged by it. On one particular flight I started crying along with DD.

You know when you're in the passenger seat of a car, do you position your seat into a semi-reclined position? Must you be semi-lying down whilst in a car? Does that two inches of reclining really add to your comfort?

I certainly do not have the seat upright, and yes, because I have sciatica, that two inches of seat recline on a plane does make a lot of difference.

Ha ha it might give more knee room but that is cold comfort when you are examining in close detail the back of the headrest of the seat because it is right in your face.

squeakytoy that is just bollocks.

You're short, aren't you? I can tell.

See - it works in that situation!

Of course it's rude btw (under normal conditions, not in the middle of a night flight across the Atlantic).

Even my year 9 PSHE class can see that sometimes your rights have to be balanced against someone elses!

Seat kicking would make sense you know

Because up until now, I've had trouble believing this woman would recline her seat and spend three hours sitting upright, reading a magazine.

That's got to be the most uncomfortable 3 hours of her life, but perhaps it was marginally more comfortable than being dug in the back with her seat upright?

She sat upright in the reclined seat?