I’m in an airplane right now, soaring above the clouds, achieving a millenia-old dream of humankind, and yet all I can think about is what a sack of crap the person in front of me seems to be. Now, I’m basing this on just one solitary metric that perhaps really can’t be used to evaluate the worth of a human, but at this moment, that’s what I’m inclined – sort of literally – to do. That one metric? They’re reclining their seat back, in the economy cabin of an airplane. All the way.
Now, maybe you’ve done this yourself, and if so, I hope you’ll hear me out and not take this as an indictment of your own character, unless you happen to be the guy in front of me, in which case it is absolutely an indictment of your character. Which is garbage, you monster.
I know this topic has come up multiple times before in all sorts of online discourse, but seeing as how it is affecting me at precisely this very moment, I feel like the world can deal with one more take on this surprisingly divisive subject.
First, let’s establish what happens when you’re in an airplane seat and the person in front of you reclines their seat as much as they can. They can’t recline all that far, but that can recline enough to make a significant difference in the space and experience of the person sitting behind them. Look at this:
Look how much less room I now have compared to the seat next to me! that’s like 4 inches, measured from tray edge to tray edge. it’s a significant amount of space, and if you want to actually use that tray to eat or draw or work on a laptop or build a Lego spaceship, this distance is a big deal. It’s not like there’s much space to start with, after all.
Look, you can see just how far the seatback intrudes onto one’s space here:
The span from the edge of the reclined seat in front of me compared to the un-reclined seat in front of the person next to me is the full span of my hand, from fingertip to mid-that-meaty-part-of-the-palm-below-your-thumb.
The reclined seat also forces one’s laptop screen to be at a hard-to-see, forward-leaning angle, like this:
It sucks, all of it. And I’m short as hell! This isn’t even a legroom issue, but I imagine someone taller than me, very likely almost everyone reading this outside of a daycare, will have even more discomfort than I have.
I suppose one could recline their own seat if faced with a reclining seat in front of them, in an attempt to reclaim some of this space; I can’t, because my back is literally up against the wall:
I think reclining your seat back on a domestic flight, in economy class, is actually ethically wrong, and I’ll explain why.
Reclining one’s seat in this context isn’t something that comes free; the space isn’t magically generated from some quirk of quantum physics. It’s taken from the person behind you, without their input in the matter at all. It’s stolen space.
Now, we’re not talking about stealing living space on par with, you know, anything like Choctaw lands or something actually real, but it sucks nevertheless. And, the more you think about it, the shittier it is, because you’re still taking extra comfort at the expense of someone else.
Now, I could bitch about it and suggest there’s genuine philosophical issues at play here, or I could solve it. Which is what I’m gonna do, right now.
You see, I get that there may be times and situations where one really needs to recline; the issue comes from the unilateral taking of that space from the poor bastard stuck behind you. But what if that space was freely given? Then there’s no ethical issue! So, all we have to do is move the ability to recline one’s seat to the person behind you.
Essentially, the seat recline button should work for the seat in front of you. Yes, I get that mechanically this complicates things, but aircraft engineers are smart, they’ll figure it out.
In this setup, you have to actually ask the person behind you if it is okay for you to recline. If they agree, they push the button, and back you go. They have freely gifted you that space, and you can thank them for their generosity and relax.
If they say no, then that’s it; you can’t recline, and you just need to deal with that like an adult. I believe in you, you can do it.
I think this could solve everything!
I just did a little experiment. When the guy went to the bathroom, I pushed the button on his armrest and moved the seat back to the normal, ethical position. It feels so good. I can see my laptop screen more easily. My arms are less cramped. It’s glorious.
He’s coming back; will he recline his seat again? Let’s see! So far so good! We’re coming in for a landing, so maybe I can get away with this!
Nope. Motherfucker.
Top graphic image: depositphotos.com
No, just no. I need to recline. I drive and fly supine. If I’m not canted at an angle I’m not traveling.
Like me give you an analogy: this is like telling people that they can’t turn right on red. In some places it’s not legal, but some people act like it’s illegal everywhere. Those same people would argue that nobody should have the privilege of self-determination. This is you telling me it’s not right to recline.
I’m reclining right now you barbarian.
Just thank your lucky stars I’m polite about it. People who suddenly recline, causing me to spill my Scotch and soda really get my goat, but I sloooooowly recline. That’s the ticket. No surprises.
Every seat on the aircraft should recline automatically and simultaneously when cruising altitude is reached.
I think it really depends on the flight time and duration. If they are turning the cabin lights off and it’s dark out then reclining has to be ok. Getting the person behind you to agree to that during that time would be a headache and the public sucks. But at the same time a domestic late morning to evening flight do you really need to recline. This is one reason I try never to fly United domestically every time I regret it there is always someone reclining into you no matter what the time and some kid kicking the back of your seat.
Some of the low costs airlines like frontier don’t even recline anymore plus modern airbus fleet they try to nickle and dime you but for domestic flights it’s not that bad. And the seats must must be kick proof or resistant. It’s weird but I find the people on the smaller regional American airlines planes more pleasent then the larger routes where you are on a 737 or bigger. There really can be different cultures depending on carrier and then sub groups from that.
I know a JetBlue captain that captained the LGA to LAX red-eye route alot. It was designed with a special layout to allow for better sleep. I think it was called mint or something like that. He said that even in that configuration there was almost always some device broken by someone reclining into the device sitting on the tray table. It got worse once the thinner mac’s started popping up. I don’t think you would hurt a thinkpad so probably not a problem for people billing while flying. But still made a mess and the airline would end up covering the cost to repair or replace.
They should have a free to pick sleep or awake area in general then whatever want if you want to pick a specific seat in general.
Hear fuckin hear! I’ve been on some flights the past few years where the seats didn’t even have the option, it was great. The whole stressful social situation was raptured right out of the plane.
Your idea won’t work though, it would just make the person behind feel like an asshole for saying no. And the guy in front who presumes he has a god-given right shrink my tiny sliver of space even further would agree!
First, you get the seat you pay for, including the ability to recline, so such is life. Second, good people choose not to recline. Not really, but I choose not to recline because it doesn’t increase my comfort at all and it decreases someone else’s comfort. The real fix for this is to take 2 rows of seats out and increase the prices to make up the difference. How much could it be, $10 per ticket?
You can pry my reclining seat from my cold dead hands. 🙂
I’m very tall and I need to recline to get even a modicum of comfort. I’m going to be a little snarky here and say that I’m not sacrificing my comfort so that you can get a mobile office.
I do however look behind me and try to give a bit of warning, and lean back slowly. I hate when people suddenly lean back with all their might, crushing my kneecaps.
Oh, and never choose a seat in front of the bathroom. Also never choose a seat in front of the exit row. As you discovered, these don’t recline. I would rather go for a middle seat than one of those.
Corollary, never chose the very front row behind a bulkhead. You have no underseat space, so everything has to go in the overhead. Usually the front of the overhead has equipment, so you’re stuff is farther and you can’t access anything easily. Row 2 is the best row.
Noise cancelling headphones, music, window seat. That’s my formula.
Though, when I flew a few weeks back for 6 hours, I did not recline. International flights, YES, reclining, plus, you get movies.
If it reclines, I go all the way back as soon as I board. If they didn’t want you to recline it wouldn’t have the button. I’ve been on small planes that don’t recline on a 4 hour flight and it sucks.
What if the person reclining their seat is trying to sleep? Would it be OK then?
When leaving Rome, some father and son—these were grown-ass men—refused to sit so that we could take off because they didn’t buy tickets to sit together and the guy who was in the seat they wanted didn’t want to switch. Don’t know why the guy wouldn’t switch when it was a middle seat, but that’s his prerogative. The flight attendants told them that we were going to miss the takeoff window and it could be several hours to take off again. That didn’t work, so I stood up and threatened the both of them. The flight attendants then turned their attention to me thinking they now had a psycho to contend with (nope, just PTSD), but those two jackasses took their seats, I did the same, we took off on time, and I tipped the flight attendant pretty well. Luckily, this was pre-9/11 as I don’t think I’d get away with that now. I haven’t flown in 25 years now. I f’n hated flying then and I can’t imagine how bad it has gotten. Seems like the cattle trucks that bring the cows to the slaughterhouses.
I fly enough that I am always in at least economy premium where reclining isn’t really an issue because everyone has a few inches of extra leg room. I still don’t usually bother reclining, there’s no position where a plane seat is comfortably so I just don’t really care. I have wide shoulders so if I work anywhere but first class I’ve just gotta use a tablet held to the side so I’m not elbowing anyone. I’m a firm believer in just being accommodating to people around me. I hate it when people block aisles for 10 minutes in the grocery store staring at canned soup or holding their phone out on speaker phone having some dipshit conversation with their SO. But what are we gonna do, most people have absolutely no concern for anyone around them in any context haha.
Yes! Absolutely this. It seems a majority of people in the world only care about themselves. It’s a sad fact of life that others have zero worries about being a jerk to everyone else.
Why do airline seats, especially in economy, recline at all? The fix is simple: do not have reclining seats anywhere but maybe the most expensive first class section. If you want to bitch that this means you can no longer recline your seat a few inches, just be thankful that standing seats aren’t here yet, because they will be.
Standing seats aren’t a thing yet and won’t be for some time because governing bodies like the FAA don’t allow it. Standings seats are something we constantly see in the concept phase but never actually become a thing. It’s not going to become a thing until the airlines can convince the relevant governing bodies to relax safety standards in search of higher profit (which is harder to do in the aerospace sector than one may cynically believe)