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.

The flight took off at nearly 10 PM. And yes, the cabin was pitch black after dinner was cleared away.

When you are tall though having someone recline into your limited space is very uncomfortable. I do always ask the person behind if they mind though.

Yes charity that is of course a possibility. When we lived in the middle east the flights in the summer were packed with young families escaping the heat. I find that airlines usually solve this by giving a front seat to one parent and a baby and seating the rest of the family behind. In all our years of flying we always got a front row seat when we had a child under two. My advice is to join a frequent flyer scheme and be loyal to a particular airline. I think British Airways are brilliant but that perhaps is just luck.

Just recline
If you weren't supposed to recline your chair then it wouldn't have the option

I hate recliners, but on an overnight, and given that you did raise your seat for meals, I accept that YWNBU. What is definitely unreasonable is your employer flying you economy on a 6+ hour flight when you have to work on landing.

still think the woman was totally out of line

Yup. Such rudeness is out of order and probably made her more stressed than if she'd just reclined her seat & tried to sleep.

Doing the red eye across from West to East coasts in the US (more times than I like to remember), it's routine. The airlines now don't even serve a meal. They give you glasses of water, dim the lights, and everyone reclines, puts on sleeping masks, blankets etc and it is peace & quiet till New York.

Because we all have to go to work the next day.

I always do for long haul

but not when food is being served

I have paid a lot of money I want to be as comfortable as possible

Those of you who agree my employer is unreasonable in not forking out for business class, and have university-aged children, please feel free to castigate our employers! It's not much fun having to teach a 9AM undergraduate lecture having stepped off a 24-hr economy-class flight from Australia at 5AM (yes, I've done that)

I wouldn't consider it selfish if someone wanted to recline during the day, because a couple of extra inches in front of my face when I'm stuck in a plane seat anyway makes no difference to me.

The only time I'd think twice about reclining would be if there was someone very tall in the seat behind me, and then I'd have the same consideration whether it were day or night.

How is 9 hours "overnight"? Do these planes take off at 10.00pm?

The seats on our flight to New York last year did not have a recline mechanism. I was delighted to see this as there was no possibility of these disagreements. Most prople seemed to be able to sleep without any problem.

I had this on a recent flight. Man behind me put his legs against the seat so I couldn't actually recline my seat even if I tried. Man in front of me did recline his seat. So I was stuck in the middle. I didn't complain because I didn't want to make the situation more stressful and I was travelling with my DC so wouldn't have wanted un unpleasant scene.

If they cause so much aggro I am surprised the airlines don't just stop the reclining function.

Mrs Tawdry - long haul flights regularly take off at 10 pm or even midnight. It's pretty standard for flights going between Europe and Asia and Australia.

Why do people think it's so unreasonable to recline during daytime flights? You might not be sleepy, but I'm currently pregnant, tired, and need to get up 4AM on Tuesday for a couple of daytime, short haul connecting flights. Also have to walk straight to a meeting. I think it would be quite unreasonable if I didn't try to sleep.

If the airline believes it's not necessary to recline on short flights, they can remove the option, like some have already done. This airline has not.

Yes, Mrs Tawdry! Overnight flights are very common.

After spending an excruciatingly uncomfortable 4 hour flight with a toddler on my lap sat in the back row, so no recline, with the person in front of me fully reclined I am in the no recline camp. The vanishingly small difference that reclining would make to my comfort is not worth making the poor sod at the back who can't recline so uncomfortable.

My "favourite" is the redeye from the US east coast to London - leave at 9 or 10 PM, arrive 6 or so hours later and it's already morning. Grim.

I would be totally in favour of airlines removing the recline feature.

Overnight flights from the East Coast US leave at 6pm / 7pm US time and land at approx 8am ish UK time so yes overnight.

Not to mention the beauty of the BA Hong Kong to London flights which leave at 11.30pm.... For 13 hrs

Aaah ever done a Hong Kong flight in economy and you'll recline your seat faster than "chicken or beef?"

People who stay reclined for the meals drive me crazy. I was stuck behind someone who wouldn't put the seat back upright when dinner was served and it wasn't a pleasant experience. Not that eating plane food ever really is of course!

She was rude but it was also impolite not to ask first. I'm very tall so legroom is usually quite limited for me. I've been in this situation when I was younger (reclined passenger in front refused to take seat back up, person behind refused to let me recline) and it was extremely uncomfortable.
The lady's behaviour was out of order though. In her situation I would have asked the OP to take her seat back up and if refused, I would speak to the air steward. Wouldn't make a huge scene or kick the seat though! And would only raise it with the staff as I would end up squashed in that situation.

Flying is grim however your seat position.

"I would be totally in favour of airlines removing the recline feature."

At least some shorthaul airlines do. I don't think I've ever been on a Ryanair plane with a reclining seat.

Never even thought about it...chair in front reclines so do I. Face mask, blanket, why be awake, it's so boring.