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AIBU?

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Original poster

Airplanes and reclining seats

336 replies

MrsCampbellBlack · 14/07/2011 11:29

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.

OP posts:
BupcakesandCunting · 14/07/2011 14:03

Apparently, as long as you've paid your money, you can be an entitled dick.

Probably the same type of people who when they get to their holiday destination, proceed to talk very loudly at the waiters then get all huffy when their demands for egg n chips with a dollop of Heinz are not met.

M0naLisa · 14/07/2011 14:03

and that is actually where you would apy for more leg room

ScarletOHaHa · 14/07/2011 14:04

I would also like to fly with Cunting Airlines.

We took a Thomson flight when my DS was aged 1 and we were not allowed to pay for an extra seat and he HAD to stay on our lap.

It is very irritating when people recline their seats. We took an 11 hour flight to Vegas and had seats against a partition. They did not recline but those in front did and it was very annoying. People that recline their seats the second they take their place are annoying. Airlines cram took many people onto planes and so the seating arrangements are very badly designed and uncomfortable.

Hope one day to be on a transatlantic Business Class flight.

NoobyNoob · 14/07/2011 14:07

Bupcakes - your post is so utterly generalised it's hilarious.

Probably the same type of people who when they get to their holiday destination, proceed to talk very loudly at the waiters then get all huffy when their demands for egg n chips with a dollop of Heinz are not met.

So, because I like to recline my seat to get comfy - you think I'm the above?

How pathetic and patronising.

kickassangel · 14/07/2011 14:09

look, everyone knows that when you fly it's a miserable experience without enough room. you also know that seats can and do recline. go with the expectation of that, then if it doesn't happen, you're onto a bonus.

personally, i find that seats recline so little that i can barely tell whether the person in front has done it or not - and i often fly with dd (and have done since she was little) on long & short haul flights, with me looking after all the hand luggage & food etc, so know how crowded it can get.

flying is public transport, and i no more expect any luxury from it than i would from going on a bus, underground etc, beyond the fact that we get a seat.

even if in first class, business etc you should just accept that you are in a crowded public space & embrace the range of humanity that you will encounter on your journey (slightly tongue in cheek). i expect to put up with people who recline seats, have too much hand luggage, spend ages faffing to sort out bags, can't even get their own bag into a locker etc. i also expect them to put up with crying children, and snoring people etc it's just a fact of travelling. if you don't like it, stay home/

bubblesincoffee · 14/07/2011 14:12

No, you can't just ask for extra leg room seats and expect to be given them for nothing.

The last flight I was on was Monarch on the way back from Egypt, so about 5 hours. We travelled as a group, and one very very tall guy in our group was foced to pay forty pounds each way so that he could even fit in the seat.

On the same flight, one of our group is tetraplegic and has to have his seat reclined. He's also quite tall and he just doesn't balance at all when the chair is upright, even with a strap round his chest. The girl that was sat behind him moved to the empty seat behind my dh, then asked me to ask him to move his chair forward. I said no (dh is tall and does have circulation issues, but I would have said no regardless) so she went to ask the steward to get him to move it forward. He rightly said no, and told her that she was also welcome to put her chair back if she wanted to. She was not happy. But I could have kissed the lovely steward who had just watched my dh lift 4 heavily disabled people onto their seats and figured he had the right to put his chair back.

I didn't put mine back, because I didn't feel the need to, but if someone does, then that's up to them.

We do all have choices, and of course someone with a baby has as much right to travel as someone tall, but we make the choice to do that knowing that plane seats recline. So don't go bitching about it when someone choses to do something that makes them more comfortable with a very good reason! It's not being inconsiderate to decide you don't want to end up with back and knee pain at the end of a five hour flight ffs, it's common sense!

ifancyashandy · 14/07/2011 14:15

Under 4 hrs and daytime? No reclinining.

Over 5 and evening? Reclining.

Also, I've only ever flown scheduled, never charter, and if I'm paying around £600+ for a ticket, I'll recline if I want to BUT only after food had been served and cleared.

MrsKravitz · 14/07/2011 14:16

I have flown a LOT and have decided over the years

  1. dont fly cattle class (I wish)
  2. dont fly when fat (I did when heavy once and it was so uncomfy)
  3. not reclining on short hops
  4. no reclining should be allowed until all meals are cleared away
BupcakesandCunting · 14/07/2011 14:21

"So, because I like to recline my seat to get comfy - you think I'm the above?

How pathetic and patronising."

Pretty much, yeah.

So you might not do what I said in my piss-takey post but by definition you are a tad selfish/entitled so it would more than likely follow that you are selfish/entitled in other aspects of your life. How it manifests itself, I have no idea.

Kladdkaka · 14/07/2011 14:21

I don't understand this thread. If someone wants to recline their seat they're selfish and inconsiderate for imposing their wants on the person behind. If the person behind doesn't want the seat to be reclined, imposing their wants on the person in front, they're not selfish and inconsiderate. Confused

KittyBump · 14/07/2011 14:21

YADNBU I never recline and i always have some arrogant bugger in front of me who wishes to fly with their head in my lap.
This is such a fundamental

KittyBump · 14/07/2011 14:22

indicator of being a twat!

NoobyNoob · 14/07/2011 14:23

Bupcakes, my love - you know nothing about me, yes?

So I really do think you need to stop with the other sweeping accusations about other areas of my life.

Appreciated.

NoobyNoob · 14/07/2011 14:24
KittyBump · 14/07/2011 14:24

i don't think I could knowingly be friends with a 'recliner'

MrsKravitz · 14/07/2011 14:25

Also being a frequent flyer...it is considered bad manners to be a full recliner

bubblesincoffee · 14/07/2011 14:27

Kladd you are SO right. Double standards at it's best on MN!

MrsKravitz · 14/07/2011 14:28

Its worse now screens are all on seat backs.....I cant see the screen when it is an inch in front of my face

bubblesincoffee · 14/07/2011 14:29

Then put your seat back too MrsKravitz.

Insomnia11 · 14/07/2011 14:33

If you recline your seat in economy it makes you an ARSE. End of. They should either keep the seats fixed or not put so many in so that the seats can be reclined. In the event of the latter happening we would probably be waving at pigs through the aeroplane window, so until then, no reclining.

mayorquimby · 14/07/2011 14:33

Ah it's one of those things that splits opinion. I'm not mad on reclining seats and it does annoy me, but that's the way the airplane is designed and the seats are intended for that use. And as is pointed out if you just recline your seat also then you get back the room you just lost.
I think people who recline are selfish and entitled but equally I'd imagine they think people who complain about them reclining or dig their knees into the back are equally as entitled and selfish because I'm now trying to impose my weirdly subjective ettiquette that you shouldn't recline seats on them when they never agreed to this ettiquette and I can just as easily recline my seat if I want more space.

MrsKravitz · 14/07/2011 14:34

Sorry, I stand by that being bad flight etiquette. Full recliners are twats. Well known fact. And Ive been flying for 45 years.

BupcakesandCunting · 14/07/2011 14:38

The argument about reclining your own seat = regaining the space you lost due to idiot in front is of no use to those of us who consider our neighbour's comfort. Just because someone has made me uncomfortable I'm not going to inflict the same kind of thoughtlessness onto someone else.

Chen23 · 14/07/2011 14:42

for me it would be a question of who is going to be inconvenienced / discomfited more.

if i was in front of someone who had a baby on their lap then I wouldn't think of reclining ( Biscuit too oohjar who said they would regardless as "who or what is behind me is beyond my control" Hmm )

If my back was fucked and the person behind me was a jockey or a small healthy child then I probably would.

Dragonalley I've never found premium economy to be worth the money, the benefits hardly seem worth it; if I can't afford to upgrade to business then I usually don't bother.

shmoz · 14/07/2011 14:43

''Full recliners are twats''

Unless you're upstairs on a 747 in first. Mmmmmm. And the masses in prem-ec and cattle are made to give way for your disembarkation. Most civilised Smile