Angry woman on plane, Was we BU?

[Raynaud]

7 hour flight with DH and DS(4). As soon as seatbelt lights went off DH fully reclined exhausted DSs seat so he could sleep. The woman behind snapped at DH to put the seat back up as drinks would be coming around soon. DH said no as drinks currently not being served. She called him a selfish twat to her OH.
Drinks/snacks start coming around. Woman tells DH to put the seat back up. DH put the seat back up half way so to not wake DS. She tells him to put it fully up. He tells her DS is sleeping. Her OH then tells her to speak to steward which she does. Steward asks DH to put the seat back up - he tells her DS is sleeping. I tell him to just put it back up, he again says DS is sleeping. Air Steward starts getting pissed off, I snap at DH to put the bloody seat up. He does so reluctantly and DS does not wake.

Once everything is cleared away he puts the seat fully back again. The woman complains that he’s doing that out of badness because “the kid” is still asleep. Her OH confirms that yes, DH is a twat.

My take on it is that both were being unreasonable at different times. My sister however says this was all on DH.

Yes I agree , unless there is a tray of food they’re trying to put in front of you then let the child or whoever it is in front recline & sleep

Why can’t a 4 year old sleep across your
laps?

I once had this problem with man in front reclining seat and also pushing his briefcase from under his seat so that it was touching my feet. However,there was Karma,because flight attendant came and asked me to push the briefcase right under! I explained about this,and she gave him a right telling off,but he still kept the seat a bit reclined.Some people are just bone selfish!

YABU. Your husband is an entitled dick.

I wouldn't recline my seat on a short haul flight or in the day, at least not by much. I'd treat it like a car, you wouldn't get in the car and immediately recline the seat to take up all the personal space of the person behind you would you?

I certainly wouldn't recline during drinks or meal service- the meals and drinks would be in their laps!

Oh for heaven's sake.
Nobody is nice anymore are there?
Nobody knows how to sort a problem without conflict?

She shoukd not be ing him a selfish twat on a plane even if he was wrong.

That could inflame a situation and its selfish.
Best think is to keep calm and polite and call a Steward.

I despair of some people.

Theybe been alive years and they still havent learnt how to handle any sort of conflict/situation.

Its how you handle things.

Why do flights still have reclining seats, it causes no end of bother, should just stop it, if you want to recline piss off to business.

I wish they’d take away reclining seats. With a chronic back issue which causes nerve pain, it cramps me even more than usual.

A child that age doesn’t need a reclining seat - his head would be too low for the recline to make any difference.

And the only reason I can see for an adult reclining a seat is to give them more space - at the expense of the person behind them.

If the seat has a recline function then he has every right to use it. She could have reclined hers back to get more room too. If she has that much of a problem with what the person in front does with their own seat then she should have upgraded to first class.

It’s a pretty standard rule. Every airline I’ve flown on has asked people to put their seats up in the upright position during meal times. I’ve seen cabin crew wake people up to get them to move their seats.
I flew long haul on 8 different airlines last year and it was a rule on all of them.

Someone reclined their kids seat in front of me once and I was fuming, I called him much worse than what your husband was called. Only an absolute selfish twat would do this.

No doubt about it, your DH was a total jerk.

OP there is such a thing as ''flying etiquette'' does and don'ts re. economy class flights - get DH to look it up!

She had a right to travel comfortably in economy class. What a ridiculous and selfish response.

Your husband is a nighmare on a plane. I would hate to sit behind him. The selfishness rankles.

Not ridiculous or selfish. Someone reclining their seat back isn’t the end of the world is it. When it’s meal time everyone gets told to put their seat up. I’ve been on loads of flights where people have reclined their seat when I really would rather they didn’t but who am I to say anything? They’re entitled to do whatever they like.

Ridiculous. He sounds petty and mean. Just because your child is asleep doesn’t mean other passengers should be inconvenienced.

This is all on your DH

If the stewardess asked him to raise the seat he should have done so immediately. As your DS was clearly able to sleep with seat up he should have left the seat up. Your DH is a prize knob.

I'd agree it's fairly standard but wouldn't claim it's a rule or official policy..it depends.

For example on a lot of the overnight flights into europe out of the likes of JFK a lot of passengers trying to maximise sleep will eat pre-flight and at wheels up it's eyeshades on, ear plugs in, and maybe seat back...

They might have no interest in the meal service and the cabin crew probably won't intervene unless the seat position made serving food completely impossible.

Fundamentally everyone's travelling circumstances are different.

Your husband is a total, utter twat. You would not have even heard a word from the people behind you, if he’d simply followed normal flight etiquette. (Also a 4 year old can, at any time of the day, simply sleep in a seat that is upright!)

I didn’t know that and I don’t think many people think that .

He was out of order and arrogant.

It's a common understanding that you don't recline at all until after the first meal service is done, isn't it? Your DH is the wrong person here, especially when refusing to follow the instructions of the flight crew. I'm sure no-one on that plane was thinking anything good about your family.

Look at the responses on this thread alone!

that tells you

I agree. I don't love it when someone reclines as obviously I'd like to have as much space as possible when it's an already cramped environment, but it's just part and parcel of travelling by plane so you either just suck it up or also recline. It does not make the tray unusable, it just makes it a bit cramped. I nearly pissed myself laughing at a PP who claimed she did not even have space to accommodate the size of her fist when the person in front reclined, total exaggeration. I've flown many times, short and long haul and cannot ever remember it being announced that seats needed to be upright for meal service, for take off and landing yes but not otherwise.