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....

Euwchhhh. Just came off a flight that was ruined because of a selfish person like you. Had her seat reclined for the whole 7.5hr flight. Maybe its because I was brought up to respect other people's space that I would never behave like this.
Why do airlines have this fuckin seat reclining thing that encroaches on other people's space anyway.
Can any trolley dollies tell me why planes have this??

and the woman behind me who was texting (keypress bleeps each time) for the entire duration of safety briefing, taxy etc and point blank refused to turn her phone to flight mode even when instructed by staff.

You call people " trolley dollies'? and then moan about others?
Your claim to have been brought up to respect others seems pretty thin.

@frankentall

…..and point blank refused to turn her phone to flight mode even when instructed by staff

Well if that happened on the taxi-out and the refusal continued that looks to me like clear grounds for a return to gate followed by an offload….

That’s well beyond a good/bad etiquette issue and into the realms of flight safety and the issue of disobeying a lawful instruction from cabin crew.

The first meal service, including drinks round(s), always begins as soon as possible after take off. The second meal/snack service begins 1 hour before landing to allow passengers as much rest time as possible in between.

It really doesn't matter what time of day it is where in the world.

Next time book a back row seat, so you don't inconvenience a person behind you.

What is with 'trolley dollies'?

Are you meaning to be so demeaning?

I don’t think that’s true op. I’ve flown with pretty much every airline and seat up when eating. I was asked once if I could put up with a reclined seat because the lady in front was so large she had to remain reclined. I think it was rather rude to just move your chair without alerting you but perhaps she tried or maybe the meal behind was about to go flying.

I don't think the poster intended to be disrespectful using a slang term like this, but now having been called out will likely not use it. ☺️

FWIW
https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/09/travel/reclining-seats-airplanes/index.html

Btw, for long haul I use a sleep mask and remain upright. The staff have to do their work but they can clearly see I’m asleep or want to be left and leave me alone.

We do this but it's really hard to use a companion voucher during school holidays.

Ours are always school holidays too. It's painful but they release four club world seats for every flight so there's always availability if you can bear the midnight 355 days before shenanigans.

How do you expect a person to eat with your seat reclined back? I've seen that once, I was seating on the aisle like always and my neighbour at the window have the same kind of selfish person in front. His seat was almost in his lap. So when the food was served there was absolutely no way to open the table. Is it fair that a person behind you is not able to have their dinner, so you can sleep comfortably? If you want to sleep, next time fly in business. You will not be disturbing anyone.

Means there might be no one sitting behind you, or the person was not hungry or sleeping too. But don't expect you will be that lucky every time. There are rules for everyone. You should be on the other side once to understand how rude you actually are.

You can not, not sure where you've seen that. Another one as rude as author of this post.

No, it was only her, others were actually considerate.

You're the only one who doesn't have a problem with that and being as rude you are, I'm sure you wouldn't even admit it, just to prove you're right. You must be so proud of yourself.

I travel a lot, several trips to the US every year. You are wrong on the meal situation - every night flight I have been in serves a main meal and then breakfast, not a snack.

of course many choose not to eat it because it’s late, but it is always offered.

If the flight attendant had tapped you or asked you to do the seat manoeuvre yourself then you'd have been on here moaning that she woke you up when you clearly didn't want to be disturbed.

In any event when the captain does his or her intro speech they normally give you a overview of the flight and what will happen when but it seems you were not paying attention otherwise you'd have known re meal types. That's your error.

Your subsequent posts do you no favours either.

ODFOD

Trolly Dollies?

Trolly Dolly of over 20 years here and I don’t find that term offensive!
These seat recline posts always blow my mind, the way people feel so fiercely that people don’t have a right to recline the seat they’ve paid for?!
If someone is sleeping, we would never wake them up or just forcibly put their seat up, even during the meal service!
Yes, if your seat is reclined and the person behind is eating and you’re awake, we will ask but not demand.
Not everyone has had the same day on the lead up to the flight, so even if it’s midday, that person could’ve just got off another long haul flight or been up since 3am travelling to the airport.

Non-seat recliners are all weird and aggressive.

I think the use of "ODFOD" is a gem we don't see too often, but in this case its' use was like bringing a gun to a knife fight.

You were 💯% in the wrong.

I think the other poster did that by calling cabin crew ‘Trolley Dollies’.

I can't believe some people can be so rude and inconsiderate. 😔 I only did SH flights with my 2 years old so far, but as he is very tall, it would be impossible for me to even sit while holding him. Not even thinking of opening a tray table.

I don't think that person meant to offend, though, and another poster indicated she was a FA and not offended.