Legroom Wars

I’m a person of around average height, so legroom on flights isn’t particularly bothersome. But it must be hell for tall folk.

However, I do get narked when sudden seat recline causes my laptop / tablet to take a battering.

So, I am very tempted to buy The Knee Defender and re-purpose it as The Laptop Defender!

I think you’ll find that the Knee Defenders are prohibited by most if not all US airlines. Not sure about BA, I presume they assume we are too polite to use them over here. So who has dibs on the space the seat reclines into anyway?

Seats reclining into the person behind is the #1 ‘issue’ that causes grief amongst passengers on board. Which ever side of the fence one sits regarding reclining a seat, fact is most airlines fit each seat with the mechanism to do so – thus I guess saying it’s fine (and encouraging one) to recline their seat.

It’s always a delicate situation when a passengers asks me to ask the reclined passenger in front of them to put their seat upright. If it’s during a meal service and the reclined passenger is eating/awake I won’t even wait for the passenger behind to ask. I always politely ask that the passenger puts their seat upright, just during the meal service. And i’ve never experienced anyone that has had a problem with that.

It gets a bit more of a grey area when say during the meal service on a night flight and the recliner is sound asleep, not eating, eye masks on. I probably wouldn’t wake them up and ask them to put their seat upright in this case. It’s each passengers right to use the flight as they see fit and i’m not going to deprive someone choosing sleep over eating by asking them to put their seat upright.

If I saw any passenger using one of those non-recline devices I would immediately ask they remove it as everyone has the right to recline their seat.

In an ideal world people would behave with civility, keep their seats upright through the meal service without being asked and when they do decide to recline pop your head around and say ‘excuse me, i’m just going to recline my seat’. This is definitely not always the case and i’ve encountered situations that have nearly ended up in physical fights because of a seat reclining.

Except for take off and landing there are no hard and fast rules to when someone can or cannot recline their seat. It is a little like that one annoying person that insists on keeping their window blind open on a night departing flight with the sun beaming in to the whole cabin halfway through the ‘night’. Again, we can ask them to close it. If they say they don’t want to, we can’t force them.

Sometimes I wish I worked for Monarch –

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/aviation/10865861/Reclining-seats-banned-by-Monarch-Airlines.html

Non reclining seats – bliss.

I see absolutely zero justification for seat reclining in economy on short-haul flights. None. Get rid of it, one day I will do injury to the thoughtless half-wit in front of me.

All that being said (1) long-haul is a different issue (2) rferguson’s post is very helpful and fair, as always.

No, I am sorry, someone who smacks their seatback into my knees, propels my laptop off the table, and sticks the top of their seatback into my eyes without asking a “by-your-leave” is a thoughtless half wit. If they asked first I might – just might – agree: I really cannot see that it is at all a necessary facility on flights of one or two hours. Get rid of it.

As rferguson points out, “seat back rage” is a problem. Prevent it. If we can’t get rid of the reclining seat backs, educate the half wits into saying “please”.

I really cant see it being necessary to use a lop top on a short flight. In economy, there is a big issue about your neighbour having confidential data in his line of sight.

Economy seat tables are not designed for lap tops.. Economy seats though are designed to recline.

Ehmm …… I might be missing something here. But are reclining seats in “Y” the closest a poor man or woman is going to get to a flat bed business seat.

And for those of us who are not of the “Y”generation who remember the days when collectively watching “Singing in the rain” on a 747 was a mind blowing innovative way to bore away the hours to Honolulu are now quite content to be mesmerized by our own TV at the back of those same reclining seats.

If someone wants to indulge in fancy dancy la dee lah lap top usage then let them adapt to the environment that airlines insist on making the flying t equivalent of commuting on a rush hour Calcutta bus.

So if you want to use a cumbersome device that needs space then pay for black mail class ,aka premium economy.

Oh, and I’ll finish with this confession. It irritates me as well, primarily down to jealousy as I suspect my fellow passenger in front is doing something as simple and natural that I can’t manage to do. ……. Sleep

Maybe all airlines should adopt CXs shell seats in Y