To recline my seat on a long haul flight?

[PiratePanda]

Just thought I'd check I was not BU.

Long haul flight in economy, 9 hours, overnight. I had my seat up for take off and landing and for meals but for the rest of the flight I wanted and needed to sleep (travelling for work) so reclined my seat.

The woman sitting behind me made an enormous fuss about me reclining my seat at all, complaining rudely to me when I reclined it, tutting and sighing loudly whenever she got up to go to the loo, kneeing me in the back apparently with intent, and hitting me quite hard and insistently on the head and shaking the chair to make me wake up in the morning well before the breakfast came round.

IWNBU was I? You are entitled to recline your seat except for take off and landing and meals, no? Otherwise why provide a recline button?

God she was rude.

No, it's not. I'd suggest it's you that has the problem if you think you can dictate when other people might like a nap or not.

Flights are dull. Anything more than about two hours and I'm going to sleep just to kill some time. Sleeping completely upright is impossible. Airlines encourage their passengers to have a relaxing, comfortable and enjoyable flight. Having a nap when you feel like it is part of that, which is why they provide (very slightly) reclining seats.

I will attempt to sleep upright if someone behind me has very long legs, because there is generally very little that those people could do to help themselves and therefore they deserve a favour. Anyone else behind me is just going to have to live with the consequences of their choices, and if I have to put up with the occasional pulling of my chair so that someone can stand up, then that's just part of being stuck on public transport.

I am slightly bemused that you would try to sleep upright if you were in front of someone with long legs (for which I'm sure DP would be grateful) but not someone who was heavily pregnant, who may be pretty much equally physically restricted if not more. Is this like some kind of bizarre "long legs are genetic so I will respect your needs, pregnancy IS YOUR OWN STUPID FAULT SO YOU MUST SUFFER" thing?. There's not really much you can do to "help yourself" not be in the last stages of pregnancy, unless you're suggesting a time machine or enforced c-sections in the airport. And yes, admittedly pregnancy is temporary so perhaps pregnant women could just not travel until they've delivered, ever, but a lot of preggoes don't have a choice.

As an aside, one of the things that was confirmed for me when I actually got to fly business class and had A BED: reclining seats make feck all difference for me in terms of ability to sleep, the only thing that actually works is lying down (though those ear/wing things help). I'll still recline on night flights if there's nobody behind me/the person behind me doesn't mind in a sort of desperate "I will try anything" manoeuvre but it's not notably better. Main problem is my head/neck position and the recline doesn't help that.

Next best thing to the bed, btw: having an entire row of three seats to myself so I could lie down sideways.

It is unreasonable to expect people with long legs never to use air travel.

It is not unreasonable to expect someone who is heavily pregnant for a couple of months to avoid air travel if it's going to be impossible for them to deal with the norms of flying. It's part of the reasonable adjustment that pregnant women can expect of their employers.

"It is not unreasonable to expect someone who is heavily pregnant for a couple of months to avoid air travel if it's going to be impossible for them to deal with the norms of flying. It's part of the reasonable adjustment that pregnant women can expect of their employers."

What, so I was supposed to say "sorry, work, can't go to this important meeting in Zurich in case someone leans their seat back on me and is a total dick about it and I can't change seats - they're entitled, you know?". I was legally allowed to fly economy by the airline and my doctor, you should perhaps take it up with them.

And, as I've said repeatedly above, I always tried to make arrangements for myself when flying long haul pregnant and the airline accommodated me, so fortunately the issue of my hideously impeding the comfort to which all economy passengers are entitled with my inconvenient bump never came up.

Not planning any more DC so I'm afraid you won't get the chance to flatten me on any future flights.

Why would I need to take it up with them? I've never been bothered by people reclining their seats, even when pregnant.

If you have a problem with it, then it is yours or your employers responsibility to deal with it. It is not the responsibility of the random person who ends up in front of you.

So as it never came up, except for the time it did, then what's your issue?

leedy you need one of these. Best travel pillow I've ever had. Gives great neck support and can be turned backwards if you are the type of person who's head falls forward when sleeping.

They are by a company called Cabeau, they are an American company so quite pricy to get shipped over but they are occasionally in TK Maxx for a good price. (£15/£20)

Mine is the bean bag version but they now do a memory foam one that's looks a bit better

I'm taking issue with the fact that should I have ended up behind the likes of yourself on the one short haul flight where someone DID lean on top of me, and you had refused to move and there wasn't another seat, I would have suffered MASSIVE (possibly dangerous) discomfort so that you could gain a small amount of comfort, and YOU WOULDN'T HAVE CARED BECAUSE "I'M ENTITLED TO DO THIS, FUCK YOU IF YOU CAN'T TAKE IT", and I'm a bit concerned that you'd do it to somebody else. The sense of entitlement, as someone else said above, is breathtaking. I'm glad to know you've never been bothered by anyone reclining their seats even when pregnant, but it obviously depends on the plane/legroom/shape of bump - I wasn't just "ooh, this is a bit less comfortable", I was actually squashed.

Ooh, Pumpkinette that looks really good. I have one of the normal u-shaped ones but I don't find it helps much.

So it did come up then?

And as well as it being a problem that could have been solved by the woman in front of you being more accommodating, it was also a problem that could have been solved by you choosing a different aircraft, a different class, a different seat on the same aircraft and class, or by you choosing not to fly. But you chose not to do those things.

And uncomfy woman is the one that's entitled??

What happens if the pregnant traveller has long legs? Does she then qualify for some consideration?

Pumpkinette thanks, that looks really good.

It's great, the front bit clips together so it doesn't slip off like the normal u shaped ones. It is quite big compared to normal pillows so a pain to carry but worth it for the comfort.

The only complaint I really have is the ipod pocket is too shallow and my ipod slips out - not a great hardship though.

"And as well as it being a problem that could have been solved by the woman in front of you being more accommodating, it was also a problem that could have been solved by you choosing a different aircraft, a different class, a different seat on the same aircraft and class, or by you choosing not to fly. But you chose not to do those things."

How the hell was I supposed to choose a different seat in advance (all the seats were pretty much the same as it wasn't a big aircraft, the seat in front was free when I booked, and I had no idea who was going to be in front of me), or a different aircraft ("hi there, could you just put a different plane model on the only flight ZUR-DUB please"). Work was not going to pay for business given that it was a short haul flight, nor would it have occurred to me to do so, or not fly, as I did other short hauls on the same route when pregnant with no problems. You really are reaching.

As it turned out, she was accomodating once she realized what she was doing and apologized profusely. Apparently you wouldn't have been. Lovely.

(after this happened I got a lot more insistent about the accommodation for long-haul, though)

Obviously I wouldn't damage someone else's baby bump, I shouldn't really need to point that out.

But the point is that the problem here was caused by your employer not paying for what you need to do your job while pregnant, not the woman who wants to recline her seat.

The cause of the problem is the thing that needs fixing. The problem was not caused by someone choosing to recline their plane seat.

Ah. I have avoided commenting on this thread as I was subject to some rather unpleasant comments on another of its ilk. I am a non-recliner. I choose to be a non-recliner because I know how horrible it is when people do it to me, which is often. I don't deny anyone their 'rights'. I just choose to be considerate. Anyway.

I was upgraded last night on an 8 hour flight. Bliss. Yummy, yummy lying down and actual sleep, not to mention decent red wine. I like to think of it as a reward for my consideration of others. May all non-recliners be similarly blessed.

Sparklingbrook once on a coach transfer to a ski resort my DD was being travel sick. The stupid cow in front of me reclined her seat straight into my DD's face as I had her on my knee trying to clean her up. She of course being the entitled recliner that she was, refused to unrecline hers to let me have a bit more space to clean up the sick.

Then the man in front of her dared to recline his seat and you would have thought that she was having her legs chopped off from the scream she let out, so he swiftly unreclined his seat.

I am happy that Ryanair seats don't give you option to recline. I have enough problem coping with my claustrophobic amount of space let alone someone in my face. It is better to have no choice at all.

How strange; I used to fly between London and New York very frequently and have never once seen anyone complain about reclining. Most people do it after the meal is served. It actually doesn't bother me when the person in front reclines and I'm not reclined, and I'm 5'9.

In the case of people with a condition that means they can't have the person in front of them recline - heavily pregnant, medical condition, toddler on lap - surely they should contact the flight staff as soon as they get on so they can be moved to an appropriate seat? Ideally they would have done this before being assigned their original seat - if you tell the airport when you book I'd imagine they'd be accommodating and put you in an exit seat or whatever.

Or failing that, I think that there needs to be a polite word with the person ahead at the beginning of the flight explaining why you'd prefer them not to recline. I think that not saying a word and then seething or ranting when the person does recline is unreasonable. I think that you have a special need it's fair enough to raise it, but I don't think that you can expect others to anticipate your needs.

Flimmyflam, there are very strict rules about who can sit in exit seats, and if you are under 12 or have health/mobility issues you are forbidden from sitting there.

Am I alone in thinking the only people being unreasonable were your employers who sent you on a long haul for work and didn't at the very least book you into premium economy if not business?

Universities just don't p[ay for anything other than standard class. I'm getting some travel for work booked atm, and that's been made very clear to me.

I've never come across such venom against reclining seats as on MN. I think it's an MN thing, and probably from people not used to medium & long haul.

I am flying to Australia soon with a 4 year old. A polite word at the start of my journey asking me not to recline would unfortunately be met with a 'sorry, l will be reclining some time in the next 24 hours to try to sleep '.

Reclining on short flights could be annoying but long haul is different, and totally expected.

I've done the London Melbourne flight may be 7-8 times in 10 years and never been asked not to recline. After reading this thread l bet l get some gobshite person asking me now.

'Surveys have found that 60 per cent of cabin crew have witnessed arguments sparked by the lowering of a seat-back — and nine out of ten passengers think reclining seats should be banned on shorter flights.'

I doubt that all of those arguments were from MNers

www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-2736320/Legroom-rage-Why-gadget-stops-plane-seats-tilting-starting-fights-airliners.html