To recline my seat in the airplane tonight ?

[Redeyeflight]

We are flying from Boston and Dh told me I’m not allowed to recline my seat on our night flight ? We are on economy and flying with BA. I don’t fly often so not sure about the etiquette. I mean if it was a day flight I wouldn’t recline but a night one ? Everyone would want to ?

Can they not make this assessment for their own comfort and book a seat with no one in front

It costs a bit more in economy but not much

Once the food trolley has finished and the lights are dimmed you are fine to recline your seat. Don't listen to him.

No, they're not cheaper. In fact, they can be more expensive.

DH and I are flying to Tokyo with BA next year and the seat layout in economy is 3 - 3 - 3 apart from the back row, which is 2 - 3 - 2. As I'm autistic and can't cope with being trapped next to a stranger for 14 hours, I booked one of the double seats in the back row and it was £££ compared to the triple seats.

I guess you pay a premium for not having to sit next to a stranger, like a comfort tax 😅

The rules of reclining are very simple:

Daytime, shorthaul: only if you're a dick

Longhaul overnight: Absolutely expected.

Personally, I hate it when someone does recline but there's nothing you can do about it.

The person in front of me most times can’t recline. My knees block them from being able to as I am tall with long legs. I mentioned this once before on here and gif told I should be booking extra legroom etc, why? I fit in a normal seat with just a tiny bit of space left in front of my legs. I had a woman get angry at her seats ‘not working’, not my problem.

If you know which model of plane you'll be flying on, BA has seating charts for its fleet and it also tells you which seats have moveable arm rests

https://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/information/about-ba/fleet-facts

I gave another longer response above, I was just qualifying that.

I think in the day you basically shouldn’t recline but if you really need to, ask. So if you have back issues that are eased by reclining a little, then ask rather than just doing it.

Night time is fine imo but if your idea of night time is a bit earlier than others, and most haven’t reclined yet, also ask.

No one should be thumping seats on any account though. That’s just horrible. Ask the person not to recline, or speak to the air crew.

To me, as long as no one is stuck in a situation where the person in front has reclined but the one behind is trying to stop you doing so, then probably it can be worked out without aggression or anyone being left seething.

As long as you’re not then reclining yours!

That's a circumstance in which the cabin crew should have told the other passenger not to be a bellend.

I hate people reclining their seat on a plane and would in prefer it to be impossible to do so. But you are allowed so if you want to go for it.

Nope I don’t recline because I’m not an arsehole.

Grown-ups use their words to resolve problems like this instead of resorting to childish passive-aggressive tit-for-tatting.

So rude and selfish to recline a seat on a day flight! There is little enough room between rows/seats to sit comfortably, without someone reclining their seat and encroaching the space the person behind you has.

I call that premium the "disability tax".

@ElaineMBenes I absolutely wouldn’t have ignored a request to put my seat upright so that you could get in or out of your seat. That isn’t acceptable.

Someone designed a seat that reclined by moving your own seat forward...that would have solved a lot of issues.

There's a lot of "I'm alright jack" on this thread.

Sorry how is that rude? Everybody pays the same
price for a seat so you’re allowed to use all its functions no matter the time of day?
Nobody is asking you to sit on their lap, it’s barely even 2 inches! It baffles me that you would put someone else’s comfort before your own, when i’m 99.9% positive the person behind you will have done the same thing anyway!

He really didn't care and the staff weren't that helpful tbh. The seat was fully reclined and the arm rest didn't move. I've got issues with my hip which means twisting is painful.
It took me weeks to recover.

Really? You are '99.9% positive'?

I will be generous here and assume you simply haven't flown long-haul very often. If you had, you would realise that the majority of people do not recline in the daytime, so yes, they certainly do put somebody's else's comfort before their own, for the greater good.

Those who try to stop recliners or recliners?

To give BA their due, I phoned about something unrelated the day after I booked the flights and happened to mention disability. I was put through to the Accessibility team and they immediately refunded me the cost of the reserved seats; it turns out you don't have to pay for a reservation if you need a specific seat due to disability.

I had no idea that was a thing!

I've just come back from long haul destination and have experience of both sides- feeling annoyed someone reclined into me and then annoying someone else by my own reclining! 😬

Way out I was in economy (Virgin) and it was daytime. The lady in front of me reclined fully after the meal service and I can assure you it went very far back and took up lots of space. The screen did not pull out like they used to and it was right in front of my face and made the seat feel incredibly claustrophobic when you're trying to watch the screen. I tried to put up with it for an hour or two but eventually had to recline mine slightly to get a bit more space . I reasoned in the same way as others, that the person behind could do the same etc but I did feel bad.. I also noticed the lady in front was not sleeping though and honestly I did feel it was unnecessary/selfish for daytime. We then had a "snack" of a hot toastie and drinks being served a little while later and I of course put my seat up fully and I asked the air stewardess if she could ask the lady in front to put her seat up and she said "No I can't do that, it's only for a full meal service, not for drinks or snacks" I was quite taken aback and said "Ok, I will then!" and had to tap the lady on her shoulder to ask her to put it up. TBF she was very polite and said she had tried to do so but it wasn't working and could I push it so I did etc and it went up. She reclined it again after some time though.

On the way back I was lucky enough to be premium economy and it was a night flight. I waited until after the meal service, cabins dimmed, most other seats were down and checked in window reflection that the guy behind had nothing on his table etc and I slowly started reclining - the man behind violently shoved both hands out and forced the seat up/stopped it from reclining. I looked behind and said "excuse me, is there a problem? I'm trying to recline my seat to sleep" and he said (in a petulant teenager voice - he was about 50s) "I can't see my screen!" I replied "it pulls out a little* but this is a night flight and this is what everyone is doing!" So I slowly reclined again. He didn't say anything else but regularly bashed/pushed my seat throughout the flight like a total idiot.. I doubt he would have done this if I wasn't travelling alone and had my 6 foot 3 partner with me also!

*for some reason premium economy it did seem to pull out whereas it hadnt in economy!

I pay for extra leg room seats (bulk head or exit row) and i recline my seat day or night unless food is being served. My seat has the function and I use it!