To refuse to un-recline dd's plane seat...

[MerryMarigold]

Dh reckons I am. I reckon I am not.

So, long haul flight. Up at 3am to get to airport. 2 flights, 4 hour transit, bit of a hideous trip.

Anyways, on second flight, dd aged 5 FINALLY falls asleep. Thank God. Recline her seat so she is more comfortable and will hopefully sleep longer. 5 minutes later lady behind pokes my arm and asks me to put the chair up. Not very politely. I tell her my dd is asleep. She says she can't open her table with the chair reclined. (I have done this many times, so know it is entirely possible). I kneel on my chair and help her open table. Says she can't see TV screen. I adjust TV screen angle for her. She then proceeds to kick Dd's chair several times, whilst I get annoyed but decide to ignore.

10 mins later drinks come round and she speaks to the air steward in local language. He says to me. "Can I raise the seat?" and I tell him dd is sleeping. He says, "I'll do it gently" and just leans over me and does it. Thankfully she didn't wake up and managed to sleep in a contorted way for a lot longer.

I am usually the sort of person who doesn't stick up for myself and who doesn't like putting other people out (I didn't recline my own chair for the entire 9 hour flight as her large dh was behind me). I was very tired, I think that's why I was a bit arsey. I am also not being PFB. I have 3 children, but the others were not as tired and were fine.

Dh said it was her 'right' to have the seat up at least until the food is cleared up (this is probably at least 3 hours into the flight as it's a long flight). I said, "Says who?" Does her right to eat more comfortably trump my dd's right to sleep more comfortably?

So who is right?

Mutley77 Being kicked from behind by a small child is massively, massively rage inducing and irritating. I'm not surprised the "stupid old woman" was cross. Whenever we go on holiday DD always gets a seat kicker behind her and I have often had to ask the parent to ask their child to stop kicking the seat.

On an flight once a mother declined her child seat all the way back. I couldn't get my tray out or watch tv. I was too shy to speak up but the air hostess saw my distress and told the rude mother to pull the seat up.

Why do the seats have to decline so far? It is not fair.

This is a subject on people will never agree. There are reasonable people and there are entitled people. Depends which side you're on as to who are the entitled ones I guess

And I really struggle to see why anyone needs to recline on a short flight and am glad that so many airlines are now making that impossible.

Long haul is different as I think most people agree, especially at night and not at mealtimes.

Having just done 3 long haul flights in 5 days this topic is close to my heart. As I have already said I never recline my seat despite being tall as it is so inconsiderate for the person behind me. I do realize not many people are considerate.

On one of the flights there was a woman in front of me who had 3 seats to herself. Great! She proceeded to lie down across them, great. Not so great when she then reclined them all. No way lady. I remonstrated. She got arsey but did put them back up. Unbelievably selfish. And small children never need a seat reclined. Not ever. I will continue to ask them to be put up. If necessary I will involve crew who are always happy to make that happen.

Yanbu, you've paid for the seat so I can't see why you shouldn't use it?? If dd needed to sleep then that's what the recline is for. I agree that it's annoying when people recline on daytime/short haul flights but if someone wants to sleep then it's fine!

Well, I have Lon legs and having a seat reclined all flight in a long haul flight is hell, my knees are pressed against the front seat (particularly if you are traveling with miserable Delta).

To be honest, I am very assertive and I wouldn't ask the front passenger to un recline their seat but, if they refused to dot to let me have my food, I would be ballistic and ask the attendant to sort you up. You can drink, watch TV and read when the front seat is reclined but you cannot eat.

DS is in long haul flights regularly and has been since he was 11 month old, IMO, he doesn't have any rights over the other passengers, they already do enough with putting up with him during the flight (and I tell you so as the mother of a well behaved kid, who as any other kid needs to walk the aisle and go to the toilet at least every hour).

YABU.

And aggressive and entitled.

5 year olds sleep anywhere and the apparent right of your child to have a seat reclined means that that woman was probably pinned into her seat by a chair in her chest. I do not allow my children to recline seats on planes nor do I do so myself.

I have been on the receiving end of someone's refusal to move a reclining chair and it was very distressing.

In my case, I had 8 month DS2 on my lap. The chair was pushed into our chests pretty much. I actually didn't complain because I'm not like that but the lady whose chair it was complained that DS2 was kicking her. Given that her chair was literally against his legs, how did she think that this was preventable other than strapping his legs down.

A very unpleasant situation.

Yes, we should all buy first class seats with beds or fly our own private jets as some posters seem to imply but in the real world, given that we've all paid quite a lot of money in any case to fly even cattle class, a bit of consideration for other passengers would not go amiss.

YABU.
1)It's seats up during food service
2)a 5 yr old is small and flexible and doesn't need the set reclined to sleep and this was proved by the stewardess who put the seat up.

Angeltulips a child under 2 isn't legally allowed their own seat and bassinets are only for very young babies. On a busy flight Airlines won't allow a spare seat to be left without a valid person checking in.

I dont see the need to recline nobody did on my last 6 hour flight. It becomes like dominoes and if in the last row seats dont recline so you are stuck. Dh is 6 2 and couldnt sit in his seat when we were in that position and the stewards wouldnt do anything about it. We were first to book in on way back and got extra leg room and paid extra on our lsdt flight for him to have the room.
They should ban reclining seats

VSeth. An under 2 is allowed their own seat. Dd had one four times when under 2. It just costs considerably more as a baby on a lap is about 10% of an adult fare not 90%.

We were travelling for work so her seat was paid for, I dint think I would have paid for it although it was nice that she had heaps of space. She just had to sit on my lap during take-off and landing.

Yes YABU.

Deets shouldn't be reclined while drinks of food are being served.

Fucking he'll OP, how tall is your 5 year old DD? Why on earth would you need to recline her seat? If I'd been sat behind her I'd be kicking the seat until it was unreclined.

YABU.

At least the airline staff sorted it out.

I am another who would much prefer if seats didn't recline at all.

Bloody annoying!

Was this on some cheap airline? My last flight (12 hours BA) the person in front put seat right back just after takeoff. But I could still eat and watch screen (though took a bit of getting used to that close).

Inconsiderate as imo you can lean your seat back, but it doesn't need to be for the whole journey, when you wake up move it forward a bit. But it didn't bother really.

Really, seats should only be reclined during a 'night time' portion of a flight when there is no food and drink and everyone is expected to try and get some shut eye.

I actually really hate people (generally tiny won one who DONT even need to) who jump on the plane and smash their seer back on a 5 hour day time flight.

Yabu
Much comfier for the child to rest sideways on a scarf / blanket on the seat rest anyway.

Yabu

Your child was already asleep when you reclined the seat, so a completely unnecessary (and inconsiderate) action on your part.

I hate people who recline, it's so anti social, and if it was a 5 yo I'd be pretty pissed off.

Yabu, and took the piss. A 5 year old does not need that much space. Poor woman, and your dh wad right.

You need to change your attitude op. Good on the steward for moving the seat back.

I thought it was standard to have the up right seat when the food comes.

I can't believe the OP has been called aggressive when this woman repeatedly kicked a child's chair.

I'm a fence sitter on this one by the way. Airplane etiquette is too complex for me!

YABU. Reclining seats during a meal is just bad manners and selfish.

The part where you kneel in the seat and help. I can imagine that was very irritating to the woman.