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.

You've paid for the seat, and that seat includes the option to recline. When you fly you have to accept that, unless you've paid for the privilege of knowing that you won't be squashed, you might be slightly constricted.

If you don't like it, then pay for a better class of seat!

Your argument makes no sense SoupDragon.

chilicosrenegade very well put! Little enough space without some eejit in front eating into it! Gives me the absolute rage.

Just because you can doesn't mean you should corsu - happily it looks like the option is on it's way out anyway

I was in front of her once, she is a persistent bitch kicking and shaking my chair. I also ignored her. Like you it was a very long flight and i was upright for meals, landing and takeoff.

If the person in front reclines their seat, you don't get any less room really, do you? Just the perception of it, because the back of their seat is closer to your eyes. But your eyes don't need room in the same way your legs do, and I don't think that the feeling of a more constrained space to one person trumps the real need of the other person to sleep without their head lolling forward.

As long as the etiquette of no reclining during short flights/at mealtimes is observed, I don't see the issue.

I've done loads of long haul/overnight travelling and I hate reclining - makes no difference to my ability to sleep but does, should someone recline in front of me, eg, frequently give me so little leg room that I can't reach down to get something out of my bag and/or wedges my knees against the seat in front. It's not like reclining myself regains the space. Feels incredibly claustrophobic.

I've just got back from 2 long haul flights (UK -> LA -> NZ) and as soon as the meals were done, everyone reclined. They just do. It's not rude, impolite or in any way something other than getting as comfortable as possible for the long gap in between the meal just after take off and the one just before landing.

The back row of seats next to the loo also had the recline ability so it's not as if someone, somewhere is going to be hard done by (yes, they did - I was in them).

My only issue with it was on the first flight; we were using the AirNZ skycouches and when the person in front reclined without a quick check, it trapped my shoulder (was lying on my side with DS2 next to me). Absolute agony, I couldn't move (could barely breathe!) and had to ask them to put their seat back up temporarily so I could move. They weren't happy about it but they did. I repositioned myself with padding for reclining front person, they put the seat back down, all good.

Oh and what might be UK daytime to you may be the middle of the night to someone else - we're not all on the same timezones! So reclining for a nap during a "daytime" flight seems perfectly reasonable. You don't know if the reclining person is on your time, GMT+ however much, or fresh off a night shift. If it's long haul, then you can and should recline if you would like to.

I have been on loads of long haul flights. Until I saw these threads on MN I had no idea this was a thing. In the real world, everyone reclines their seats on those flights. It makes a massive amount of difference in terms of how well you can sleep.

Sometimes this is like a parallel universe...

I'm tall, and I fucking hate when people recline the seat in front of me. There's no bloody legroom anyway, and then some more is taken away too. Gives me the proper rage.

Leedy, does it actually affect your legroom though? If it does, I stand corrected. I appreciate it makes it awkward to get to your handbag though.

BOFster I think if you are tall you do end up with less room at knee level as well as eye level.

I've never been on a plane with reclining seats but I can't see how people think it's acceptable to kick off about other people reclining seats which they've paid for

Chilios if you 'sat me right back up again' I'd have sat right back down immediately and alerted a stewardess if you didn't grow the fuck up

BOF I have long legs and if the person in front of me reclines it makes a huge difference to my comfort or lack of it. Hence the excruciatingly uncomfortable flight with toddler on lap with person in front reclined and being against the bulkhead so couldn't recline.

It's ok on a night flight. I hate it at any other time. So selfish and I don't do it even if the person infront of me does. I make sure I get a few 'accidental' kicks in to the back of the chair though.

Ah, I think I see the issue now- it's about angles and the height of seats? Apologies- as a shorty, this has never affected me. But you are saying that the degree of incline means the seat in front actually sits on your knees? In which case, I accept your point.

I think the ire should more productively be directed at the airlines though, who ram as many rows as possible into the cabin space. Although I guess it's hard to think strategically in the moment if you are in immediate discomfort.

Nope, YWNBU. It's a new bandwagon for people to jump on. Never heard of this being an issue till 6 months ago.

I've never flown long-haul either, so although I hadn't realised how it practically affects the (otherwise lucky ) long-of-leg, now that I think about it, it strikes me as downright bloody dangerous. How are people supposed to prevent DVTs if they can't wiggle their toes/pump their feet up and down/shift their weight around? If somebody is put in the situation of effectively getting their legs immobilised and compressed to the point of pins and needles, this really is an issue that the airlines need to address. And not by simply banning reclining, but by introducing more space for passengers.

Chili RTFT.

YANBU.

If you fly long-haul, then all bets are off and you have to accept that people will recline.

What's daytime for you will be nighttime for people en route from somewhere else. You have no idea where people have come from, and at what stage of their journey they are.

Having flown more long-haul flights than I can remember, everyone just reclines when they need to. It's never occurred to me to mind, as it's the only possible way to get through the flight. And I say this as a tall person.

If they banned reclining, I couldn't fly. Just 1 hour bolt upright in an airline seat, and I limp worse for a week. Unable to recline for a several hour flight and I wouldn't guarantee being able to walk back off the plane at the end of it.

I was on a Cathay Pacific plane last week - those seats were great. Hard shell seats, that didn't traditionally recline back, rather the seat kind of slid forward instead. DH is tall but I don't think it limited his leg room at all, and no seat backs in the face. Was pretty good really!

The longest flight I've done was 14 hours 40 mins non-stop. I reclined...

I was on a Cathay Pacific plane last week - those seats were great. Hard shell seats, that didn't traditionally recline back, rather the seat kind of slid forward instead

But you know what? Everyone complained about them so they're being phased out :-(

Your argument makes no sense SoupDragon.

Why? If you want more space and to not be bothered by the seat in front reclining, pay to go up a class. The argument makes just as much sense as suggesting that those who wish to recline pay to go up a class.

I find it amusing that people say they would wedge their knees in the back of a reclined chair, push the chair back up (preferably whilst the recliner has a cup of hot coffee) pull deliberately on the seat back and be generally abusive and yet it is the recliner who is being entitled, objectionable and unreasonable. Well, maybe they should take a long hard look at themselves because that sort of behaviour which deliberately targets another person is far worse than someone who simply reclines their reclining seat on a long haul flight so they can sleep.