AIBU to recline my seat on a night flight?

[CoastalMummy]

Just as the title states... Is it now considered unreasonable and inconsiderate to recline your seat on an overnight flight?

I was on a long haul flight, departing at 0130am, and was solo with two children.

After we departed, I reclined my seat as I had a small sleeping across my lap and tried to get some sleep. Next thing, I'm woken up with what I can only describe as violent shaking. The woman behind me was shaking, kicking, kneeing my chair and shouting how inconsiderate it is to recline a seat. This went on for an hour until I called cabin crew to intervene (I had naively thought she'd give up so I wouldn't have to get into a confrontation).

When the cabin crew told her to recline her seat too, she screamed that she would never be so inconsiderate!

AIBU here?!

I personally find it inconsiderate to recline. However, you are entitled to do it. I won't shake and kick the chair in front but I won't be overly careful either. Her doing it was unhinged.

My night flight 2 weeks ago, as part of their welcome on board announcements, they advised that seats must not be reclined until after they finished clearing the meal service but it is fine to recline them after that.

Think this is a good idea as then everyone knows whats acceptable and no arguments.

On a BA flight a couple of years back, man in front of me reclined fully. Made it so I had to contort myself to get out to go to the loo.

wow - this has not been my experience of reclining seats. I'm obviously on the wrong planes 😂

Doesn't matter about the small children, that doesn't give you extra rights.

You were fine to recline once meals were served.

Of course having small children doesn't give you extra rights... but most reasonable people would recognise that it is stressful travelling solo long haul with small children... and perhaps a bit of kindness wouldn't go amiss rather than violently shaking their chair.

I’ve been a flight attendant for over a decade, you are not being unreasonable. During meal times it’s encouraged that you don’t recline (at least not all the way) until the lights go down/the crew clear in. However - we can only advise, all passengers are more than welcome to recline their own seat in response. Shaking your seat and kicking would come with a warning and potentially intervention from security/police on arrival. Violence of any sort shouldn’t be tolerated… perhaps she should have booked a business class seat if she were that bothered 😂

@LAX12

Wish I could give a double agree to that post 'cos I very much do.

Agree on this. As someone who once had a hot drink flung on my lap by a reclining person. I also had someone come so close to smashing the tray into my childs head as he was on my lap ( to young for his own seat) I had the tray down as I was just done feeding him and had the bib muslin etc on the tray and the person infront just flew his chair back. I've also been sleeping on the tray and had someone move their seat back, that was fun.

I have to agree, there's etiquette. I'm not saying ask permission, but just check its safe. If someone asked I'd of course never say no (I dont have that right) but I would ask they give me two seconds to move my crap of the tray. People just need to be a bit more mindful of when they do it.

What would you have done if she had politely asked you to move the seat forward a bit? No shade, just interested.

I'm shocked by some of the posters who believe that reclining your own chair (after the meal has been served and cleared of course) is inconsiderate. This is literally the reason why the seats have this functionality. Why would anyone not recline their seat on a night flight? If you are that tall that a reclined seat infront of you would cause such an issue then clearly you need to book the ones with extra leg room?

Recline on night flights after food served , don’t recline on daytime flights
Kicking and shaking your seat is unhinged though whatever time it was!

How do you know the other passengers aren’t on connecting flights? Day and night are pretty much irrelevant for many long haul travellers

Honestly, I would have brought it forward had she have asked politely. But she decided to be petulant and violently shake my chair so...

Why are they arseholes if they are using their paid for seat as it’s been designed to be used?

Agree no one should violently shake the chair, irrespective of whether the recliner has small children or not.

I'm agreeing the OP was in the right, but didn't need the small children qualifier.

No. Night flights are what reclining seats are for.

It never takes long before the "don't recline on a daytime" pops up but it's nonsense on many longhaul routes.

For example if you leave the UK westbound late PM in the summer heading for the US West Coast you are daylight all the way...which can be 2,3 or even 4 AM on a UK body clock....and there are plenty of similar routes...

As @Fends says there are also a significant number of connecting pax on many airlines/flights whose body clocks are Lord knows where.

Agree, surely if they shouldn’t recline then the same it goes for the row in front of them and so on — then everyone is prevented from reclining! If you don’t want the back row, most airlines allow you to select another in advance.

I also think it’s fine to recline on a day flight after the meal is cleared. Some daytime flights are 10h plus, time difference can be significant and a short nap helps you master the jet lag.

Yes plus some day flights are also overnight flights such as Singapore due to the time difference.

I had this, night flight back from Mexico. I waited until they cleared the meal then reclined, ready to sleep, and the woman behind punched my seat forward and yelled “I’m not having that”. I didn’t want to engage with her as she had been drinking and had already had a slanging match with cabin crew about something else. (She had apparently been to an AI holiday with family and fallen out with them all and didn’t want them sitting near her on the flight!).
I asked cabin crew if I was OK to recline and they told her in no uncertain terms that if she touched my seat or made a noise about it again, they would have police meet her off the plane at Manchester.

I have very strong feelings about people who do this on short daytime flights but it's completely normal at night. You just need to check that the person behind isn't still eating etc.

@SmudgeButt- what airline was it that the seat moved back alllll the way?. The average recline is 2 inches and just the top part moves so wouldn't be anywhere near your knees.

She sounds deranged. Don’t give it a second thought op, seats with reclining buttons are there to be used.
I do mine on a night flight after meals have been cleared away but don’t during the day. I do still accept that people may decline during the day!

This. I’ve done a fair bit of long (and short) haul flying. People reclining in front of me has never bothered me. I’m 5ft8. So I know I’m not as tall as a tall man but I’m not short. The chair at most comes back a couple of inches. I’ve often booked the back row as well that doesn’t recline. I’d much rather have no one behind me kicking my chair than have a reclining seat. All these posts saying about people’s heads in their laps and the TV screen 2 inches from their noses etc. How?? Whenever I’ve been in a reclining chair it barely moves! I’m certainly not laying down so my head is in someone’s lap!