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
Update:
https://www.jalopnik.com/1991227/westjet-airline-removing-reclining-seats-from-economy/
It’s a start.
I credit Jason for this.
One airline down, the rest to go…
The solution is trains.
I’ve got another ethical solution that’s even more complicated and expensive, so it should appeal to you.
Use a seat mechanism with the seat on rails like a car, and linked to the backrest angulator. If you want a leaning-back backrest angle, you slide your seat forwards and the seatback angles itself at the same time so that the headrest stays in the same place, just slightly lower. Now you have your blissful additional couple of degrees of back tilt, and you have donated a couple of inches of your legroom to the passenger behind you.
Was just about to make this suggestion; I think it’s a good one!
I think on flights of less than 4 hours there should be a lockout function on the recline button. If you can’t stay awake for 4 hours, then you are probably ok sleeping upright. So this basically means that you can’t recline seats on 737s and A320’s. And that is alright by me!
That’s a good selfie Jason. 🙂
I used to fly LA to London (and back of course) multiple times a year. But I was young and foolish then. Now, I haven’t been on a plane in well over a decade, and if I’m never on another one that’ll be fine with me.
All I know is I’m still mad you can’t smoke on the plane anymore ha ha (or bus, train, indoors, etc) I’m mostly joking, and you were allowed to WAY before I was born…but was always blown away that you used to be able to do that and thought it would be cool to do at least once. For a while when they would have the safety video, after the part where they would say smoking was prohibited, I would make the silly joke to my wife “Oh, nobody told me that!” She got sick of it so I don’t say it anymore ha ha ha ha ha
I usually try to recline my seat about a degree or two because the ergonomics of airplane seats are shit, I don’t think that greatly affects the person behind me. The airlines should solve this by reclining all the seats by a few degrees and ditch the button,that way it’s the same for everyone.
I really enjoyed your take on this. I used to fly 4-6 times a month for 20+ years. Usually in coach unless I got bumped up to business or first class, which was less often than you might think, given the frequency of my flights.
And I got reclined on a lot, with no warning. And depending on the spacing, it meant sometimes the seat hit my knees or collapsed (never broke) the screen on my laptop. And I only have a 32″ inseam, so it’s not like I’m an NBA player. I am long-waisted, so I do have to be careful not to hit my head on the luggage compartment upon deplaning.
I have never reclined my seat. I prefer to sit pretty much straight up vertically. Even in my own car. I have never been able to sleep on planes, even after trying sleeping pills and/or multiple glasses of wine. Not even on trans-oceanic trips. So, there’s never even been the temptation to lean back.
So yeah. Take away reclining functionality.