Reclining seat on a plane

[darksideofthemooncup]

I don't think I was being unreasonable but wanted to get others' take on it. BA economy flight, middle seat, man in front of me reclined his seat then had a go at me because he could feel my knees through the back of his seat. I explained that a 5,10'', short of amputation there wasn't a lot I could do about it and perhaps the problem was more about him reclining his seat onto my knees. At which point he then doubled down and said I should book first class. I'm afraid I didn't cover myself in glory and told him in no uncertain terms where to go. So, my position is that on economy flights where space is limited, just because you can recline your seat, it doesn't mean you should, AIBU?

Im confused as to how your knees were touching the seat when it reclined.

In what way are you confused? Some airlines have a smaller seat pitch and it is very easy to imagine that a person of 5'10" would have their knees touching the back of the seat in front if it was reclined.

Maybe you aren't very tall and it isn't a problem for you?

None of the short haul airlines I have flown with recently have reclining seats. In any case, we now always pay for extra legroom as we are a long legged family.

Disagree.
everyone has a seat that reclines. If everyone does it then all fine.
on a flight to london i reclined my seat after take off, the guy behind pushed it violently whilst the attendants were serving drinks.

the flight attendant told him that eveyone can recline and should do so and that if he does it again he will be met on arrival by the police for being aggressive.

you can recline and you should recline.

just because ryanair and the like have remove the ability to recline, doesnt mean you shoupdnt when you can.

Depending on the passenger demographics and routes served it may be appropriate/popular for an airline to have a no recline rule but it really doesn’t work for all carriers on all routes and a lot of people genuinely do appreciate being able to recline for rest on a short sector, even a daylight one.

That said I’m sure many people are over the Moon at the idea that many airlines are removing the recline function or not ordering it as an option on new aircraft or new cabin fits simply to reduce aircraft weight and maintenance costs.

You can sleep sitting up if you need to catch up so badly. There is so little personal space on a plane, I find it incredibly inconsiderate to encroach on the person behind and take even more of that away.

I've always felt irrationally irritated by recliners in front of me. I've never found that the tiny amount you can recline makes a jot of difference to anything - it's not significantly more comfortable and certainly doesn't help me sleep better. The extra crumb of comfort is much less than the discomfort you cause to the person behind you, so it's a dick move to do it.

Obviously I recognise that people can recline if they want so I keep these thoughts to myself, but I don't go out of my way to keep my knees still. If they don't like knees bumping into the back of their chair then they can sit normally. Not my problem.

I suspect you were annoyed at him reclining and were bumping your knees into his seat on purpose. I have travelled economy/low cost plenty of times with DH who is taller than you and he never had that issue.
The seat doesn’t go backwards when reclined, so the only way it would touch your knees is if it was reclining almost flat (more than 45 degres at least). Or if you were sitting with your knees high on purpose…
Seats are reclinable, outside of meal times it is completely reasonable to use the feature. The person behind can recline to gain exactly the space they have ‘lost’.

The extra crumb of comfort is much less than the discomfort you cause to the person behind you
This is what we disagree about! To me the small amount of recline is the difference between sitting uncomfortably or not. And I don’t get why the person behind doesn’t recline if they want to regain exactly the same amount of space.
To me, anti-recliners are the ones being difficult.

Everyone should be able to recline their seat if they want to, long haul flights can be over 8/9hrs. The fault is with the airlines who are making seating smaller and smaller to help point many average size people are finding it small and uncomfortable.

You can sleep sitting up if you need to catch up so badly.

Oh I’ve got the umpteen thousand hours badge and matching T-shirt when it comes to sleeping on aircraft so I’m more than well aware of that, but having the ability to recline ever so slightly definitely improves rest.

Anyhow with the increase in airlines with non reclining seats in economy I suspect we’ll be seeing this topic less and less in coming years..mind you I’m sure there will be something along to replace it…

Were you sat properly with the base of your spine against the seat back, or slumped down with your bum further forward in the seatt pushing your knees forward?

Heaven forbid someone might actually want to relax a bit on a long flight rather than sit perfectly erect the whole time. The real culprit here is seat size standards, they are far too close together.

I'm only 5' 5" and yet still have had occasions when my knees are pressing in to the seat in front of me if they recline too far . It very much depends on the seat pitch of the particular airline - some are better than others. Some a lot worse. And don't get me started on the width of seats: I'm not even fat and there have been some airlines where I've struggled to squeeze in to the seats

The guy complaining was unfortunately within his rights to recline his seat but he was completely unreasonable to then complain that your legs were pressing in to his back. Like it or not, that's one of the prid pro quos of cheap air travel.

I will actually check an air line's seat pitch when booking long haul flights but am less fussy on short haul.

Having been in economy on many ba flights, they don't go back that far to hit legs. The trick if you are taller (dp is 6ft) is to not put any bags under the seat in front so you can poke your feet there.

Do remember that even if the flight is daytime, that person may have got off a connecting flight and be really tired.

The issue isn't the reclining, it's him moaning

I remember being a teen on a transatlantic flight. I reclined my seat , man behind me (not eating or anything) told me to put it back up. This was despite having his seat fully reclined himself. Being a stupid, walkover teenage girl, I apologised and did so! What a fool I was! I bet this bloke wouldn't have said this to a man like him.

Last time I had a recliner lay down virtually on my lap while I was trying to use my tray table to hold a drink and watch something on my phone, I realised I could point my freezing cold aircon jet right on the top of her head. She steadfastly refused to sit up for any part of the flight, including meals, but did look incredibly uncomfortable for all of it, eventually wrapping a jumper over her whole head. It made me very happy.

During daytime flights I tend to keep my tray down as I do puzzle books to pass the time and then the person in front can't recline their seat much.

Some lucky people just have long legs.

No it doesn’t, it sounds like a.) economy doesn’t have enough leg room (well known fact) and b.) the reclining chap should realise this and put up and shut up.

I always recline. If it's an option, then it makes it ok. What's the point of it already. I don't even notice the person in front doing it ...because they can and are allowed to.

I can't relax my back standing straight. That applies everywhere. It hurts to sit straight.

I've never experienced someone behind sticking their knees so far in that it can be felt and I had much taller people behind.

I am 5’10” and my legs are actually longer than my son who’s 6’5”! Obviously my height is all in my lower half and I do often have trouble in economy seats and will always try to book the extra legroom seats when possible.
i hate it when the seats in front are reclined and I know my knees are pushed into the seat in front but honestly there is very little I can do, first class is just not an option unfortunately!

@darksideofthemooncup , my husband is taller than you, his legs are average to long and we regularly fly BA short haul I’ve never known him to have a problem such as you describe when the person in front of him reclines. The recline on BA short haul is very limited.
In answer to your question, it is very bad form to keep your seat reclined during a meal service (none in BA economy short haul) other than that reclining is fine regardless of time of day. What is completely unacceptable is getting pissed off with someone for using the space they paid for and digging them in the back in an attempt to get them to put their seat in the take off/landing position.

I didn't jab him in the back deliberately, I had people either side of me who were manspreading and I wasn't about to stay completely still so as not to upset the man in front of me. My legs are long, all my height is in them, I can't do anything about that.

I get struggling not to touch the seat in front but I don't believe having such long legs at 5'10'' that you have no choice but to press knees on the seat in front.

Even my 6'3'' son with very notable long legs can sit straight without pressing on the seat (but his knees will touch the seat).

I’m 6ft with long legs and have had this experience also. It’s so uncomfortable wedged into a seat.

@darksideofthemooncup , so you have repeatedly said. Some people will believe you.

Reclining a seat is fine and it has that feature for a reason. Did you deliberately put your knees on him? If you had reclined yours you would be at a different angle and much more comfortable