Reclining the seat in Economy: when is it ok?

[tiaretiti]

Who is ‘right’ to recline a seat in Economy?

My thoughts are that reclining the seat in Economy is perfectly fine overnight if it’s sleeping time. During meal times the seat should not be reclined as it’s unfair on the person behind. During the day it’s preferable not to recline fully unless sleeping.

Recently though, on an 8 hour day flight, the couple infront reclined their seat all the way back for the duration of the flight. They were watching films. They even ignored the air stewardess’ request for them to put the seat in the normal position when they serve food. I couldn’t even eat my food so I had to ask them to put it upright. They shrugged their shoulders until an air stewardess very firmly told them to consider other passengers.

A good hard shove should sort it out….repeatedly!

Yep.

When it's not take off, landing, or meal times. Otherwise fine, day or night. People may have already been flying many hours and a daytime flight the second leg of their journey. They may not have got much sleep when it was nighttime (I struggle even fully reclined until I have been up hours too late and am exhausted) so need any sleep they can get.

Only on a long haul night flight when the cabin lights are dimmed. Any other time is selfish. Most TV screens are on the back of the seat in front these days and it makes it difficult to view the screen too.

If someone reclines in front of me all the time, it causes my restless legs to mysteriously act up and bash the reclined seat in front of me. What a shame! If they don't like their seat being bashed repeatedly they should cough up for business class.😛

if someone reclines in front of me all the time, it causes my restless legs to mysteriously act up and bash the reclined seat in front of me. What a shame! If they don't like their seat being bashed repeatedly they should cough up for business class or you should do you don’t get restless legs.

Your short haul daytime flight could welll be one leg of a very long flight for someone else. So actually you're being selfish. Seats are designed to recline. Recline them except during meal
Service and take off/landing.

Not quite. You should not recline during any meal times and the air stewards can ask you to put your seat upright during those times. Some short haul flights still have meals, albeit not many these days.

And you can't recline during take off and landing.

For short haul I prefer budget airlines as you can't recline.

For long haul we try to make sure we have booked the exit seats so we don't have the issue of others reclining. It always makes me feel claustrophobic and makes it almost impossible to use your table when someone reclines. And no, as it bothers me - I then don't recline either.

Long haul night time, outside of meal times, is enough generally.

That sounds like it would be ideal. Not impacting on the space for the person behind would be a much better system.

This sums it up perfectly

Never

I've never reclined my seat when there is someone sat behind me. I'd be too embarrassed to do it. I've been lucky that it has rarely happened to me too. I'm genuinely surprised that so many people here do it.

Actually for all the posters saying that maybe the flight was part of a longer journey for them…. I know it wasn’t because I was chatting to them at boarding!

You can recline whenever it’s not take off or landing or the other times that you can’t!
Other than that, you CAN recline when you want.
I’m not a recliner because I’m always worried about spilling the drink of the person behind me or pushing their screen to be only an inch away from their face 😂 I’ve been reclined into on pretty much every flight I’ve ever taken! From what I can tell it gives you about 3 inches of extra space.
This along with the airport thread just confirms to me how intolerable people are that other humans dare to exist!

I think they should take away the ability for the seats to recline as much as they do. A very slight recline just so you’re not sitting bolt upright is fine. A full recline is selfish and shows no consideration for the people sat behind you.

I declined during a night flight (long haul) whilst newly pregnant and feeling very sick and on anti emetic medication. The person behind repeatedly punched my chair! I had to call the air steward to have a word which they did but she carried on banging my chair intermittently! All I wanted to do was sleep, I was sick and tired! The staff member moved me to a row of empty seats in the end and I was able to lay down.

I was so shocked and at that point realised that people actually think you shouldn't recline?! They're made that way so you can recline!

I said this as a general thing, not these specific people. In general, I don't think you can say short haul- no reclining. I also don't think day time- no reclining is fair.

I prefer a flight arriving early morning so if I can't sleep until I'm utterly exhausted then at least the second leg has the lights off. Though if the second leg was daytime I'd still need to sleep.

@gobbleguts People who aggressively kick chairs are just nasty, I'm sorry that happened to you.

Any time that isn't take off, meals or landing.

Your 6am flight and start of your day is my "I've been up all night changing planes with 2 small kids". Quite apart from that, the seats are sooo upright, I need to recline a tiny bit to prevent my back aching for a week afterwards.

When the lights are dimmed overnight.

Outside of that is selfish. Everyone's in economy, everyone's uncomfortable, what makes me so special that I can increase my own comfort by about 3% while decreasing the person behind me's comfort by about 40%?

The back row often doesn't recline so the 'they can just recline too' argument only goes so far.

The back row often doesn't recline so the 'they can just recline too' argument only goes so far.
So what difference does it make if the lights are dimmed?

If people are asleep then they're less likely to be bothered by the back of the seat in front of them being right up in their face than they are if they're trying to watch a film, read a book or put a drink on their lap tray.

This 100%

I didn’t realise the reclining caused so much anger and kicking.

When I see the amount of people who think it’s the height of bad manners to recline I can only assume they have gigantic sticks shoved up their arse.

If your seat reclines your are at liberty to recline it at your leisure unless indicated by cabin crew it is unsuitable (or you have a bizarre stick up your arse)…..

People are often not asleep just because it is dark, or awake because it is light. It depends where they are coming from, how long they have travelled and so on.