Reclining in Coach

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

Okay non-recliners. If I were to look behind me and asked if you minded if I reclined what would you say?

[Littlefingers In The Air]

"Fuck you"

[S John]

I do recline, but I only go half-way, which is kind of like smoking dope but not inhaling.

As in all things, moderation is key. Although reading S. John's response to this thread makes me love him. A lot.

:love:

To be honest, before this thread I had NO IDEA that reclining was considered rude in some circles. And now that I know I will still not change my behavior in any way. I fly ALL THE TIME and I have seen it all at this point. If you are having a shitty travel day, believe me, I have been there and probably more than once - so I'm taking my god damn 1.5 inches of reclining and I suggest that you do the same.

[Starkess]

Okay non-recliners. If I were to look behind me and asked if you minded if I reclined what would you say?

I would probably say force a smile and say fine. See me being non-confrontational. But I would think that if the person bothered to look behind them at all they would see my knees against the back of the seat and answer their own question.

:love:

To be honest, before this thread I had NO IDEA that reclining was considered rude in some circles. And now that I know I will still not change my behavior in any way. I fly ALL THE TIME and I have seen it all at this point. If you are having a shitty travel day, believe me, I have been there and probably more than once - so I'm taking my god damn 1.5 inches of reclining and I suggest that you do the same.

If you can accept that 1.5 inches might be causing someone else to have a shitty travel day, then go for it.

[naz]

On a side note, the better buses here in India ("Volvo" buses) have seats that recline very deeply. Almost 30-40 degrees, I would guess. It makes it much easier to sleep in these buses and get somewhat comfy. The key is, however, is the seat pitch... there's plenty of legroom so a person reclining that far back isn't going to impinge too much on the other person's space. The only problem happens when the person behind you needs to get up. Since it's a bus, it doesn't happen that often, but there are people who simply forget to pull the seat up when the bus stops at rest areas. But whatever... people manage. If it's a problem, someone won't feel too bad about politely asking.

These are full-size tourist-style buses (not the rickety ones you see in most pictures), so they also cost more. E.g., the weekly trip that I take costs about 545 rupees ($10), whereas the non-AC, non-reclining, rickety buses cost about 150 ($2.50). Big difference in price, but these are also government buses so the prices are subsidized. Rs. 550 is plenty affordable for anyone middle class and above. Typical Volvo bus seats about 40-45 whereas the other buses pack them in at 60-65.

My point? 30-32 inch seat pitch on airplanes is insane.

[Sivin]

Board ate my comment :(

People travel coach? Oh, the humanity......

I once got bumped to first class when I had to fly in uniform... It was almost enough to make me do it again. First Class is like a magical place where attractive women in unprofessionally short skirts bring you alcohol and fluff your pillows.

Coach is where trolls offer you magic beans that are really just peanuts and fart in your watered-down tomato juice.

Never flown anything but coach. If I haven't managed to secure an exit row, my knees are naturally wedged up against the seat in front of me. That person literally cannot recline unless they come back and chop my legs off.

I started taking Klonopin or Ambien, even on flights 2-3 hours long. It's hard to be uncomfortable when you're either passed out or zoned out of your fucking mind.

[drawkcabi]

If the seats on an airplane recline, then recline away no need to ask anyone's permission, it's not rude and it shouldn't be seen as so.

[Lord Flashheart]

Okay non-recliners. If I were to look behind me and asked if you minded if I reclined what would you say?

Damn it Scot don't conform! Recline to your hearts content.

[mashiara]

Another non recliner here. The painful experience of a 9+ hour transatlantic flight where all 4 of the people in front of us had their seats reclined all the way for the WHOLE trip, not even getting them upright for meals of bathroom trips, to give us a break, is less than a month old.

I'm not tall but I'm still inconvenienced. My husband though, he is actually tall and his knees where smashed for the duration of the trip.

To answer Scot's question, I'd probably do the same non-confrontational thing that Starkess said, and say "fine". If the person seemed non threatening enough I'd add "maybe not for the whole trip?". I've never had anyone ask, though. Granted, I'm not the most frequent flyer in here but I've made the trip from Greece to the States several times.

[drawkcabi]

seriously, I think the onus should be on the passenger who doesn't want to be reclined on, instead of the passenger who reclines.

I'm a big guy, I mean BIG, so when I fly I buy 2 seat tickets so I have room and not squishing other people.

Too tall people need to think about buying tickets somewhere that has the leg room or live with the possibility of recliners who are only doing with the seats what they are supposed to do.

[Raja]

The flight I take most often is about 4 hours, so in those I won't be reclining. I do like that people are considerate enough to ask their fellow passenger if they can recline, I've seen it happen in a few flights but in my experience, very few people actually come out and say 'No, please don't recline your seat'. Usually they end up saying yes, even though they don't want to, I know I've done that and judging by some of the posts, it seems others have too.

I'm fairly tall as well, so when someone in front of me reclines, it can get rather claustrophobic and uncomfortable. I had a recent longish flight where the two seats beside me were empty, haven't been that comfortable in a flight for ages!

[S John]

If you can accept that 1.5 inches might be causing someone else to have a shitty travel day, then go for it.

I accept it. Sometimes when you fly, the flight gods are on your side. Sometimes they are not. Twice I have had 13+ hour flights and lucked out and had nobody else in my row so that I could sort of lie down and actually sleep on the flight, but that is so rare that it is almost not worth mentioning. Most of the time, you're gonna be squished and there's probably gonna be a baby nearby and you will probably have been hassled a little more than usual by security and your flight is probably running late and you probably did not get much sleep the night before and you'll probably get stuck in the middle seat, and you'll probably have to pee really bad halfway through the flight. The whole thing sucks.

But the seats do have the option to recline. If someone chooses to take the freely given option and that bothers someone else, I think the bothered party oughtta chalk that up to one more tiny turd on top of the giant pile of shit that has been their travel experience. Take it up with the airline. But, I don't have much sympathy for anti-recliners, all things considered.

[dalThor]

Dearest Scot, S John, Naz and ES (ES? How did someone as nice as you end up on this list!),

I now loathe all of you. You selfish, self-centered people and others like you are what's wrong with air travel today. You should all be condemned to travelling in the baggage compartment, preferably in close proximity to a large hungry snarling dog in a flimsily constructed carrier.

With Love,

dalThor

No, not really, I still love all of you. As Mash mentioned I too fall into the 'if you recline your seat even the slightest bit my legs are smashed even further into your seat back' category. Because I find it incredibly inconvenient, I rarely, if ever, recline my seat. I did actually do so a small amount on one of our transatlantic flights but I had a small child seated behind me. I put it back a bit following the first meal in the hope that I would actually fall asleep for a bit while the kids were asleep. Once I realized it was fruitless I put it back up.

There were indeed four people seated in front of us on our return trip who, once the seat belt sign went off all reclined the maximum amount for the duration of the flight. Two of the seats were occupied by a three year-old and a child approximately six years-old. I simple fact is that, depending on the carrier, my knees are already touching your seat back when it's in an upright position. Any movement of your seat backwards only serves to make matters worse. If you are inconsiderate enough to do this I'm not going to be all that conscientious in regards to whacking the mother-loving shit out of said seat back when I need to move a leg.

Scot, I've actually had someone ask me if they could recline their seat. I thanked them for being considerate and said it would be OK but that I'd appreciate it being up during meals. The person was very considerate and I don't think they reclined it as far as was possible. If I remember correctly, the person had pointed out that the seat in front of them was all the way back and that was why they were doing so in the first place. While I did experience some discomfort it was nice that the person had asked.

[Little Miss Sunshine]

I only recline my seat if there is no one sitting behind me, and if someone ends up sitting behind me on the next stop I have no problems putting the seat back into its original position. (talking about bus coaches here)

On my recent trip to WorldCon, my boyfriend and I took an 8-hour coach trip from Brussels to London. When the coach arrived to Brussels (almost 2h later, but I digress), it was already full of passengers travelling from Cologne (which is the departure station for this particular Megabus trip, I assume). The only seats available for us at that point were behind two people who had reclined their seats to the maximum, and kept them so for the entire duration of the trip. I will assure you that coach ride was a true nightmare.... (EFG)

[naz]

Thanks for the love, dT :)

Seriously, though, it comes back to who is more inconvenienced. I've yet to see an argument convincing me that someone with their knees squished is significantly more or less inconvenienced than someone with back pain. Yeah, there are lots of inconsiderate douchebags who fly. They're fucking innumerable, in fact. But not all inconveniences are the same. Some asshole who leaves a disgusting mess in the toilet isn't the same as the guy who can't sit upright for 4 hours. It's not a big deal for the toilet guy to clean up after himself. It's a big deal for someone with back pain to sit stock still in a board-upright position for hours and hours.

Yeah, one can get up once in a while and move about the cabin (which I do), but what if you have a middle or window seat and the guy in the aisle is sleeping? Should I now inconvenience the sleeper, as well? To save you from your inconvenience? Like SJohn says, for the most of us, air travel plain sucks donkey balls, no matter how you slice it.

All the people who can say that they do not recline out of consideration for others... well, that's because it's not that uncomfortable for you. Me, I can't do it. My back is hurting right now, even as I type this, sitting at my desk. If a seat reclines, I recline it.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

Dalthor,

Before this thread I didn't realize reclining could cause problems (remember I'm short). Therefore, I'm trying to find a happy medium between never reclining and always reclining. I figure asking seems reasonable.

[Solmyr]

I am a bit surprised by the prevalent opinion, but reading more carefully I am getting the impression that my idea of reclining, or at least the planes I've traveled with, do not provide the same reclining experience as most of you are used to.

I've flown primarily on fights between European countries. Afaik the most commonly used planes I've encountered are Boeing 747 and Airbus 310 (or maybe 300). Take the info about the plane models with a grain of salt, my memory could be off.

On these flights the seat can recline only a little and in such a way, that it is barely noticeable to the person behind you. I hear some of you mentioning "reclining half-way" - that was never possible on any flight I've been to.

Suffice it to say I always recline. I think a few times I even got away with not readjusting my seat back when landing commenced. But truth be told, there is barely any difference, so I never thought about it. Reclining doesn't give me extra leg space (if only ...), it just readjusts some of the body weight from the buttcheeks to the back.

When people in front of me recline it never bothers me. It doesn't reduce my leg space, nor does it interfere with my usage of the tray. I only use the tray for food and drinks tho, it could be slightly different for people who use laptops and other gadgets. I guess the only conceivable inconvenience due to reclining would be if the person in front of me plays with his seat constantly, especially while drinks are server. But nobody is that dense, so I've never ran into that problem.

I think it's important what flights and planes you're used to. I [think I] have never flown coach (tbh I'm not even sure what coach means exactly, it's a thing I hear spoken of across the pond). My tickets always say "economy <something>".

[naz]

Coach = economy.

"half-way" = it reclines half of the total angular distance that it could recline. If it reclines 10 degrees, half-way is 5 degrees. Not half-way to horizontal.

[Solmyr]

"half-way" = it reclines half of the total angular distance that it could recline. If it reclines 10 degrees, half-way is 5 degrees. Not half-way to horizontal.

Ok, but from earlier posts in the thread I got the impression that some boarders were talking about seats with multiple reclined positions. If this is the case, I've never experienced it. As for the degrees, I am not sure how much my seats have reclined, although 10 degrees seems reasonable from memory.

[MercenaryChef]

i am not a recliner. but, i am an anomaly of a traveler. so long as i am tucked against the window i fall asleep before takeoff and stay that way for the duration of the flight.

when the person in front of me does recline and smashes me i am not happy about it. but, they are only making use of the 'amenities' of the situation. this is not about them being assholes, really.

if there was an asshole award to be handed out it would be given to the airlines for trying to jam more and more people onto the flights.