Reclining seats on economy flights

I find this post unbelievable - I was once shouted at and had my seat pushed aggressively by the person sitting behind me who took exception to me reclining it at midnight on a transatlantic flight. Food service finished, lights dimmed...

I just assumed she was unused to flying, and ignored her, I didn't call the attendants as I didn't want to make a bigger scene...

Are we supposed to sit bolt upright for anywhere between 6 and 13 hours?
 
leghorn said:
Many autistic people would not relish social interaction, or have the most basic of conversational skills, but I certainly wouldn't classify them as 'morons'.
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Yeah - obviously I was talking about autistic people above... :rolleyes:
 
I find this post unbelievable - I was once shouted at and had my seat pushed aggressively by the person sitting behind me who took exception to me reclining it at midnight on a transatlantic flight. Food service finished, lights dimmed...

I just assumed she was unused to flying, and ignored her, I didn't call the attendants as I didn't want to make a bigger scene...

Are we supposed to sit bolt upright for anywhere between 6 and 13 hours?

I was talking about a short haul, economy flight.One and a half hours, to be precise. If you were on a bus or a train for an hour and a half you'd have to just sit up straight. I agree that, on transatlantic flights, there should be the facility to put your seat back, but there should also be enough space between rows to allow for this.

In general, I don't think it should be left up to paying customers to have to confront each other over this issue. There should be a policy on short flights that seats must be kept upright, and sufficient space on long haul crafts to allow for seats to be reclined.
 
You mean unable to carry on the most basic of conversations with another human being? Sorry - I didn't realise that we were catering for complete morons here.
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Some people are uncomfortable when it comes to confronting others even for the most trivial of matters, and then of course there are those that would take umbrage from being asked to move their seat. Everyone is different, some people are socially inept some are less than comfortable on forums, neither could be classed as morons imo.
 
Yeah - obviously I was talking about autistic people above.
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I wouldn't classify all austistic people as morons. Strange that you were only referring to them. Why do you think that all autistic people are morons?

As well as many autistic people, many introverted people would also not want to verbally confront 'seat recliners'. I wouldn't say that all introverted people were morons either.

In fact, I would suggest that morons only make up quite a small percentage of people unwilling to verbally confront 'seat recliners'.
 
leghorn said:
I wouldn't classify all austistic people as morons.
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So you would consider some to be? Far be it for me to fight to Clubman's battles but why is he being accused of calling austisic people morons when he said nothing of the sort??
 
So you would consider some to be? Far be it for me to fight to Clubman's battles but why is he being accused of calling austisic people morons when he said nothing of the sort??
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I think leghorn decided to take clubman at his word because when he has been brought to task on a topic he sometimes uses the sarcastic tone in his earlier reply,
Yeah - obviously I was talking about autistic people above...
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I would have thought that clubmans previous comment was more offensive than leghorns interpretation.

You mean unable to carry on the most basic of conversations with another human being? Sorry - I didn't realise that we were catering for complete morons here.
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liaconn said:
In general, I don't think it should be left up to paying customers to have to confront each other over this issue. There should be a policy on short flights that seats must be kept upright, and sufficient space on long haul crafts to allow for seats to be reclined.
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This is the solution. We should bring it to world government and have it implemented immediately.
 
shnaek said:
This is the solution. We should bring it to world government and have it implemented immediately.
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I think the European Court of Human Rights are due to make a ruling on the whole issue in the next few weeks so we should probably hang on till then.
 
Sunny said:
I think the European Court of Human Rights are due to make a ruling on the whole issue in the next few weeks so we should probably hang on till then.
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Eh, I said a 'policy' , as in something Aer Lingus should introduce and implement themselves, not 'a European Directive to be transposed into national legislation' so not sure where the sarcasm is coming from.
 
ClubMan said:
Yeah - obviously I was talking about autistic people above... :rolleyes:
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Hee Hee. Clubman, do you ever PM yourself telling yourself that you broke 'posting guidelines' ? Can I call people 'morons' now ?
 
liaconn said:
Eh, I said a 'policy' , as in something Aer Lingus should introduce and implement themselves, not 'a European Directive to be transposed into national legislation' so not sure where the sarcasm is coming from.
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What might be more useful to us long suffering passengers but certainly not welcome to the airlines would be an increase in the minimum seat pitch and seat width. For short-haul the minimum distance is a pretty miserly 26 inches I believe in the UK (I don't know what it is here). It is just too little, irrespective of whether someone reclines or not. I don't think that there is an EU-wide norm for this, I think it is set by individual regulatory bodies but an extra few inches would certainly be a blessing for anyone who automatically aims for the emergency exits on a RyanAir flight because they know they get a tiny bit more room. Also bulkhead seats on long distance flights should explicitly in the regulations have additional room as it is patently unfair when they cannot recline.

I would disagree on whether or not reclining should be available on short-haul, it is just manners that need mending not seats. Generally if I want to recline (short or long-haul), I will check behind, if the person behind is asleep or lying back I will recline, otherwise I won't.
 
so-crates said:
I would disagree on whether or not reclining should be available on short-haul, it is just manners that need mending not seats. Generally if I want to recline (short or long-haul), I will check behind, if the person behind is asleep or lying back I will recline, otherwise I won't.
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The problem is that a lot of people don't have your good manners and its very difficult to change this. A friend of mine asked an air hostess recently if she could ask the guy behind her to stop repeatedly kicking her seat. The air hostess said they're not allowed intervene in situations like this. If its considered risky for cabin crew to confront ignorant passengers, then its equally risky for other passengers to do it. That's why I think there should be clear policies and guidelines that everyone understands - or, as socrates says, realistic minimum space requirements between seat rows.
 
so-crates said:
it is just manners that need mending not seats. Generally if I want to recline (short or long-haul), I will check behind, if the person behind is asleep or lying back I will recline, otherwise I won't.
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So whoever is sitting at the back of the plane must recline first and then that dictates when everyone else is allowed to relax?
On shorthaul I agree there is no need to recline.
On longhaul I would generally wait until food service is finished, lights are dimmed and then, forgive my manners, but if I need sleep then I'm going to do what I can to get it. If someone is rude enough to stick their knees in my back it just reinforces my resolve.
 
Mel said:
... if I need sleep then I'm going to do what I can to get it. If someone is rude enough to stick their knees in my back it just reinforces my resolve.
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Your resolve to sleep? Kinda hard to sleep though when someone keeps jabbing you in the back with their knees! ;)
 
liaconn said:
Eh, I said a 'policy' , as in something Aer Lingus should introduce and implement themselves, not 'a European Directive to be transposed into national legislation' so not sure where the sarcasm is coming from.
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No sarcasm intended from me anyways. I think you had the right solution, but I think it needs more than a 'policy' myself. Alas you can't depend on good manners. I agree with most of the posters above - recline on long haul, and no recline on short haul.
 
shnaek said:
Your resolve to sleep? Kinda hard to sleep though when someone keeps jabbing you in the back with their knees! ;)
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You'd be surprised - a couple of G&T's, headphones in, nice blanket or pashmina, cushion in small of back, in front of their knobbly knees, :D bob's your uncle.

Sure it works both ways - on my last flight I was travelling alone and the lady to my left had the same problem even though there was a child of about 6 sitting behind her. She hardly upset the child's legroom! The father had his knees stuck in my back, even though he had an aisle seat therefore some extra leg room. The child kept kicking both seats, despite glares from both of us. I suspect she was encouraged. Plenty of no notice and they soon realised it's harder to keep your knees jammed into the seat than to jsut try to relax!

Editing to add, it doesn't really bother me when someone in front reclines, I'm still a bit baffled by the thread.
 
ClubMan said:
Yeah - obviously I was talking about autistic people above... :rolleyes:
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leghorn said:
I wouldn't classify all austistic people as morons. Strange that you were only referring to them. Why do you think that all autistic people are morons?

As well as many autistic people, many introverted people would also not want to verbally confront 'seat recliners'. I wouldn't say that all introverted people were morons either.

In fact, I would suggest that morons only make up quite a small percentage of people unwilling to verbally confront 'seat recliners'.
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Er - the emoticon was a clue but since you seem to still be a bit lost try here.
 
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