It's a Plane Etiquette one!! Was I AIBU?

[Belladonna90]

Night flight back from the US.
Cabin crew do meal service at around 4am (UK time) around 11pm (US). I'm hoping not to go to bed when I land (so can beat the jet lag and not stay in US time!). In economy class and have the blanket over my head so I can sleep (need the 'room' to be as dark as possible'). I had my seat reclined in the belief that chicken or beef would not be served at this time. How wrong I was! Cabin Crew passes me with meal trolley (happily doesn't disturb me to ask whether I want a meal...at that time absolutely not!). However, when she is asking the passenger behind me she reclines my seat back up which startled the life out of me as I was jostled back up!! I was so annoyed as I was fast asleep. I can understand for a safety related issue if she needed to do that for example for landing but for a service related issue it seemed completely rude of her. Was I wrong to challenge her and ask why she did that?? She told me for service all seats must be in the upright position....

Cannot believe that people do not know that you put your seats up when the meals are served on flights.

A meal is always served so I don't believe that you didn't know. And where have you flown that served a hand held pizza? Also even if something light was served, you still need the tray. You were selfish to just recline knowing the meal part was not done. I'm also sure she would have attempted to wake you up and you didn't hear.

Agreed however the issue with the seat sliding forward would be passengers with long legs would really struggle.

They could loose one row of seats and give everyone a couple of inches more space. That wouldn't make much difference to the cost but make flying more comfortable

It's all due to lack of space and the general creeping decrease in seat pitch that has been going for years.

When are we going to see an airline come out with a statement about how they are going to measure the height of their passengers and charge them accordingly. We've had the whole weight argument publicity stunt. I'd love to see one about not having reclining seats and short people getting cheaper fares.

Its incredibly bad manners to have your seat reclined at meal times, not to mention selfish.

The trend and demand is for low cost mass transit though. That isn't changing immediately, though I can see a shift occurring with a desire for a 'better quality of tourist' arising. So cost doesn't become the driving factor. But we have a while to go on that yet.

Of course YABU. It’s totally standard for chairs to stay upright during meals.

Given the space currently available anyone with long legs would be sliding their knees into the lower part of the back of the seat ahead.

Couple of other issues might be the need to try not to increase weight (I’d guess you’d need to add runners/wheels or similar) and there’s also the issue of making sure the seat still meets the plus/minus whatever vertical g survivability requirements. You do see the sort of thing you describe in some form on some premium cabin seats on Long Haul aircraft but I’m not sure you can squeeze it into the space you end up with in economy.

I used to know someone who worked in this field at Airbus and I gathered from him that over the years they tried every which way to wrangle more useable volume out of cabins and seat space, so I’d guess your recline idea must have been looked at by somebody at some point fit economy seating

They should have woken you up rather than just adjust your seat. But seats always have to be upright when they are.serving food.

"Engineers design the seats so that the trays can be used when reclined" this isn't entirely true. In reality, they've also designed the planes so that more rows can be crammed into the planes, which is what airlines are doing nowadays.

It is nearly impossible to use the tray now that I am literally staring at the top of the reclined person's head instead of whatever food is on my tray. The further away from me the seat is, the easier it is for me to use my tray.

I can also not see the tv screen on the back of the seat when the seat is fully reclined as the seats are so close, it won't swivel upward enough.

(These observations are all on either BA or Aer Lingus as those are the main overseas flights I've taken in the last 5 years, outside of Jet2 where it doesn't seem to be a problem, probably because I seem to recall they've removed the ability to recline. Yes I've been on many other airlines but I think if the info is more than 5 years out of date, it's entirely possible they've changed..)

There's a strange snobbishness in your posts. I usually fly business, sometimes first, occasionally in economy for BA and I'm one of those ghastly people that eats and drinks what I'm offered because, frankly, that's part of what I'm paying for.

BA customer services are dire on the whole but the cabin crew are lovely. I had a very traumatic personal experience on a flight last year (nothing to do with BA) and the BA cabin crew looking after my section was very kind and insisted I take some champagne bottles off the plane with me (they came in very useful to drown my sorrows later). I've certainly never encountered any misogyny.

And, as PPs have said, east coast flights are the easiest to find CW availability for (including for Avios flights). I've just flown in the new suites, they're very nice and no reclining on food service issues will come your way. Although frankly it was easily fixed by reclining your seat back up for food service (it sounds as if you were awake by then anyway).

I like your post. What does CW stand for?

My guess is Club World (aka BA business class)

YABU to imply that others should want to do the same as you or that your way is somehow ‘right’. There may be people on interconnecting flights, shift workers, people that just haven’t eaten, or people like me, who want to eat continuously on a flight and cannot sleep. I’m jealous of your sleep and that plate of food is my only tolerable moment.
But she was outrageously unreasonable to just whack your seat up without warning, and you’re not unreasonable for telling her so. Thats like waking a bear 😆 would’ve scared the shit out of me

You sound entitled, OP, and as much as you might want to sleep in a dark room the reality is you’re on a flight with other people around you. I take the red eye from JFK regularly and it is common for people to recline after the meal service - I flew on Saturday overnight actually, with BA, and there was an announcement prior to meal service asking that seats were upright.

It’s standard practice on Singapore Airlines and certainly the norm with most carriers. Cabin announcements are usually made prior to service.

lt is unreasonable and selfish to expect the person behind you to try and eat with your chair back in her lap.

l think the voting figures speak for themselves here.

My guess is Club World (aka BA business class)

Yes. For those who fancy trying it, I can recommend the BA Amex. You get Avios points on spending and a 2 for 1 companion voucher if you spend enough per year (sadly the threshold has just been raised by 50%j.

I've managed to use them to fly 4 x first class tickets to NY and business to South Africa, Florida and Barbados (this Easter). It's a painful process to book them (that often involves staying up until midnight/1am when they're released) but they can be worth it if you're spending on your credit card anyway.

Sorry, slight derail.

I agree!

Fabulous!

We are off to SA with ours!

We do this but it's really hard to use a companion voucher during school holidays. Though my DD and I did manage to fly to Europe last Aug for £2. Long haul is harder.

The OP is marginally less snobby than the person who reclined their seat AS my meal was being passed to me. They got a very sharp "Oy, put that seat back up" from me.

I have taken a load of night flights from Asia to UK. It is standard for an evening meal to be served shortly after take off. Then lights out until a breakfast is served shortly before landing. Most people in my experience have the meal - obviously some don't.

I find most people wait until after this service before reclining their seat - that is the typical etiquette. Then after everyone reclines. Those who recline before usually put the chair up themselves as the trolly approaches. Those that don't are asked to if someone is eating behind.

You can't expect everyone to follow your preferences and it is hard to eat a meal in economy when the person in front is reclined.

I am also always surprised by the comments about cabin crew being rude to passengers. I have flown a lot and can't honestly recall a single occasion where cabin crew has been rude to me.

I think some people don't realise how demanding they come across - I have cringed so many times at other passengers but honestly can't recall cringing at the behaviour of the crew.

I remember one woman in economy leaning back and grabbing the arm of a female cabin crew asking for a top up of drinks - before most of the plane had been served anything at all.

People refusing to put get their toddlers off the floor when the seat belt sign comes on.

Travel makes arseholes out a lot of people but not typically the crew in my experience.

Flew home from S Africa in premium economy, BA few months ago. It was shit. Man in front of me reclined and I was basically pinned down. Pulled several muscles getting out to go to the loo. This man did not unrecline even during landing until my DH told him to. Can’t complain too much though, as we’d got a surprise free upgrade to business class on the outbound flight.

So true. Add to that people who have to be asked several times to raise their window blinds for take off/landing and people who do not think that the crew are human beings.