Why you don't own the right to recline in your airplane seat

[marmar]

I'll admit that I don't typically ask before I recline the seat, but I don't ever recline it very far back, so I've never ended up in a WWE match with a fellow passenger.


Why you don't own the right to recline in your airplane seat
Who "owns" the space behind your airplane seat? The airlines don't want you to know

By MICHAEL HELLER - JAMES SALZMAN
MARCH 8, 2021 12:30AM


(Salon) Who owns the space behind your airplane seat: you reclining or the squished laptop user behind? And who owns your online life: you clicking around or Facebook selling your most intimate data?

Turns out, these puzzles are both the same puzzle and they share a single answer: you lose. The prize goes to those who know how the simple rules of ownership really work.

James Beach is a large guy, over six feet tall. On a United Airlines flight from Newark to Denver, the businessman lowered his tray table and attached his Knee Defender. The Knee Defender is a simple plastic clamp available for $21.95 that locks the seat in front. Its website claims the clamp will "stop reclining seats on airplanes so your knees won't have to." Assured of his workspace, Beach opened his laptop.

The Knee Defender claims are real. When the passenger sitting in front of Beach tried to recline, her seat didn't budge. Outraged, she slammed her seat back, popping out the Knee Defender and jolting Beach's laptop. He quickly jammed her seat back up and reattached the clamp. She turned around and threw her drink at Beach. The pilot changed course to Chicago for an emergency landing and both passengers were removed from the plane.

This conflict keeps erupting—most recently on video. On an American Airlines flight from New Orleans to North Carolina, Wendi Williams reclined her seat. The man behind was in the last row, so he could not recline. Instead, he tapped the back of Williams's seat repeatedly, like an irritating metronome. Her video of this high-altitude fracas quickly went viral. ..........(more)

https://www.salon.com/2021/03/07/why-you-dont-own-the-right-to-recline-in-your-airplane-seat/

[FoxNewsSucks]

1. Just one of

The many reasons I drive.

[lagomorph777]

9. +1 I've had it with flying.

[efhmc]

2. Still and always about profit.

[MuseRider]

3. Thankfully only one time I saw something like this

and it must have been 30 years ago. The guy in front of the man sitting in the middle seat sent his seat back. It started with a request, became yelling then my seat neighbor rolled up his newspaper and began pounding the guy in front of him with it. It became a slap fight then a steward removed the wrong guy, IMO, he was the only one wanting to stop the fight even though he started hitting with the newspaper. That is about as crazy as I have seen on a plane.

[CanonRay]

4. Moral of the story: Don't fly unless you absolutely have to.

Fuck the airlines.

[lagomorph777]

10. They should never have been allowed to install reclining seats.

For that, and many other reasons, I won't fly anymore.

[Fla Dem]

5. Wouldn't happen if airlines would stop cramming more and more seats into an airplane.

I hate to fly and do as little of it as I have to. "Back in the day" flying was actually an enjoyable experience. Now it's no better than riding a crowded subway train. The only difference is a subway ride is relatively short, while airplane trips are hours.

[2naSalit]

6. Same here...

I hate having to travel by air because of that.

[Phentex]

7. I agree. I never recline but I am short...

I like to sit up straight anyway. It doesn't stop the person in front of me almost putting their head in my lap though! I don't mind except when I am trying to use the tray.

I fully blame the airlines. There should be no reclining seats unless they are going to offer proper space for it.

[Kaleva]

8. Archie Bunker's idea of giving every passenger a gun might work here

[DFW]

11. I haven't flown in the USA since I was there last summer

But I was already getting fed up with the sardine can policy of the airlines, American being the worst in my experience. But anyone from Dallas knows that American practically owns that airport anyway. Only recently, when the 737 Max8 crisis forced American to give some routes to Delta because they didn't have the planes to service them, did things improve on a few routes in and out of Dallas.

Here in the EU, air lines have either experienced drastic demand reduction, or have received long-lasting government subsidies to distance passengers by accepting far lighter loads. Yesterday on the flight from Düsseldorf to Barcelona, a 2 hour flight, unless people were traveling together, each side of the aisle had only one passenger in the half row of three seats on either side of the aisle, and Barcelona is a pretty popular route, although with all the necessary paperwork to enter Spain these days, maybe some people just can't be bothered any more.

Air lines that fly transatlantic, in particular, have been known to be particularly insensitive to passengers who are the victims of other insensitive passengers. My US-based elder daughter told me of one horror flight from New York to Germany where she had worst case scenarios both in front and in back of her. In front was the runner-up in the casting call for the role of The Incredible Hulk, who insisted on testing if he could break his seat by leaning it farther backwards than it was designed to go. In back was a disturbed five year old who remained awake during the whole night, kicking the seat in front of her with her parent's blessing. When my daughter complained to a flight attendant, she was told, in essence, to shut up and stop making a nuisance of herself. I forget what airline that was, but it seemed typical of American.

I remember being on an American flight once from New York to Switzerland. Most of us were already seated when some unpleasant lout came up to a flight attendant, literally shouting (as if there was any danger in a crowded airplane aisle that a flight attendant 20 inches in front of him wouldn't hear him) that he was seated next to a woman, and that his religion demanded that he not sit next to a woman. Unfortunately, she didn't tell him to shut the fuck up and sit down like everyone else, or else call the cops to remove him from the plane, which is what we were all hoping. Instead, she said she would go see if she could get some male passenger to switch seats to accommodate his "religious needs."

[Maraya1969]

12. I will absolutely do this if need be in the future...........

"One study, though, suggests about three-quarters of passengers would agree not to recline if the person behind offered to buy them a drink or snack."

I find it painful to sit straight up for long periods so I really value the recliner. I would gladly pay someone $10 - 15 for a drink or snack so I could rest my head back and take the strain off of my lower back.

[DFW]

13. Update to what I said about flying in the EU

Yesterday, I had a perfectly easy, uncrowded flight from Düsseldorf down to Barcelona in Spain.

Today I flew back. Forget EVERYTHING I said about how nice it was to fly within the EU. The plane was PACKED. I had a window seat, and ALL seats were filled, including the middle seat. It reminded me of why I hated flying domestic in the USA. Passengers who wouldn't follow the rules, lying excuses by saying "they didn't understand English or Spanish," except that they understood one or both perfectly as soon as the airline personnel was out of earshot. Screaming babies the whole way, and not even a drink of water unless you paid for it or brought it with you, and in a plane THAT crowded, I sure as hell didn't want to take my mask off, even to drink water. The passengers I could identify from their accents as being from Spain were impeccably behaved, by the way. The others, including the Germans, were not.

I have to fly down to Switzerland some time soon, maybe as soon as this Thursday. I HOPE it's not a repeat performance of today!

[Major Nikon]

14. I recline my airplane seat all I want

One of the perks of sitting in row 0