Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Recline Rage

It’s not jut about the rule. It’s about safty. Mine.

Either people are getting ruder and more thoughtless, or I’m getting less tolerant the more I travel. Here are two recent tales of fellow passengers who deserved to be bitch-slapped for their behavior with their seat backs.

You heard me. Seat backs.

Last week Michele and I were returning from England on a British Air 777 that was less than half full. There were completely empty rows of seats. In fact, there were rows of empty seats with rows of empty seats behind them.

In front of us, the lone passenger in the row moved to the middle seat, obviously relishing the ability to stretch his elbows to the left and the right without hitting a seatmate. But as soon as the pilot turned off the seat belt sign, a woman changed her seat to the aisle seat next to this poor guy, then reclined her seat all the way back, practically into Michele’s lap leaving her about as much room as a sardine has in a tightly packed can. She chose this seat despite the fact that there were at least six or seven rows where she could have had an aisle seat with nobody next to her and nobody behind her.

During the flight, any time I had to stand up, I couldn’t avoid jarring her seat back in my effort to squeeze by. Each time, she turned and gave me a nasty look for disturbing her. She kept the seat reclined for the entire 9-1/2-hour flight, including a good 10 minutes after the announcement asking all passengers to return their seats to the full and upright position.

Right now, I’m on a a US Air Airbus 320 from Phoenix to Kansas City. I’m in the second of three first-class rows, having been upgraded without asking for an upgrade. (This never happens on United, where I’m a million-mile flyer and where I have my miles, but US Air, United’s Star Alliance partner, does it routinely. But I digress.) As soon as the pilot asked flight attendants to take their seats for takeoff, the asshole in front of me reclined his seat as far as it would go; we were still a good seven or eight minutes from takeoff, but he clearly figured that if the flight attendants couldn’t see his seat reclined, then it was just fine to go ahead and recline it.

Update:On landing, Mr. High Regard for My Safety kept his set all the way back, and nobody from the cabin crew looked back to check.

Is it me? Am I getting cranky? Or am I right in thinking people wouldn’t behave to incredibly selfisly 25 years ago and that this kind of cavalier self-centeredness is a relatively new development among travellers?

Posted by Shel in • Planes
(9) Comments • Permalink

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  1. Shel, I’m with you on this.  As a guy who flies USAir regularly, however, I should warn you that it may not have been that guy’s fault.  The first class seats on USAir are notorious for being broken such that they recline fully on their own after you lean back for about 30 seconds.  I have spent many a flight where I am reclined against my will (try working on your laptop from a fully reclined first class seat) or constantly pulling it back up only to have it recline again 30 seconds or a minute later.  Very frustrating.  Flight attendants know this so usually you can get away with reclining in first class on USAir even if your seat isn’t broken.

    Chip Griffin  on  10/17  at  03:08 AM

  2. Oh boy, this drives me nuts. Yes, people are generally more rude, but I think it just never crosses their mind that they might be making you miserable (which is sad in its own way).

    I once had the guy in front of me (fully reclined the whole flight) summon the flight attendant and complain to her that I kept banging his seat. Well, I couldn’t pull something out of my seat pocket without doing that, since his head was almost in my lap - which I explained to the flight attendant loud enough for him to hear. (She gave me an “I know, he’s crazy, I’m sorry” look and thanked me for being patient on my way of the plane.)

    I find that actually directly speaking to somebody often helps - a polite “Excuse me, it’s really cramped with your seat all the way back and I’ve having trouble just reading my book, and I don’t want to keep banging into YOUR seat - maybe you could recline it less?” sometimes works. (If it doesn’t, then I stop trying not to bang into the seat if I get up, etc.)

    But I can’t help but thing that a simple “If there is someone behind you, please respect their space when you recline” would do wonders.

    I make a point of trying to get the seats behind the exit row seats that do not recline. SeatGuru (http://www.seatguru.com) is helpful with this.

    John Whiteside  on  10/17  at  03:21 AM

  3. That’s perfect, John. How do we lobby for the airlines to add this simple line to their pre-flight announcements? I’d hate to think THIS is our only alternative:

    http://www.extend-its.com/knee.htm

    Shel Holtz  on  10/17  at  03:42 AM

  4. I’m hoping for the return of public shunning. Seriously! I think there used to be informal social mores that kept 99% of people behaving well - if you reclined back like a jerk and ignored a polite request not to, people would look at you like you were some kind of monstrous freak. Generally speaking, people ignore bad behavior now; if acting badly in public led to icy stares, people not wanting to speak to you, etc., you’d see less of it!

    The pre-flight announcement would, of course, mean that an airline was admitting that they had designed their seats for people no taller than 5’3. But maybe an online petition is in order?

    (I’m 5’8” and 180# and feel crammed into coach seats. I can’t imagine how someone who’s 6’ tall can stand it.)

    John Whiteside  on  10/17  at  03:51 AM

  5. The one that drives me nuts is The Kicking Kid...that kid sitting behind you who kicks your seatback for HOURS. He is usually accompanied by an overwhelmed, inured or just plain rude parent who doesn’t do much when you bring to their attention that their kid is harrassing you. The dilemma: What can you do? I’ve posted a poll on my own blog, Travels with Jane. If you’ve got an idea about how to deal with this, please come post!

    Jane Wooldridge  on  11/02  at  09:05 AM

  6. Couldn’t you have politely asked the woman to choose another row where she wouldn’t have bothered you.  Or better yet, you could have moved to another seat.

     on  11/19  at  02:39 PM

  7. Ok, dude, you need to relax. If the seats have a little handle that can be used to recline, then it’s going to get reclined. That’s what it’s for. Get over it.

     on  11/21  at  09:27 PM

  8. Thanks for posting this informative story...its occurrence is all too true and all too common.  For biz travelers, there’s little use planning to work on a flight because the clueless chump sitting in the next seat up has no manners, intelligence, or simple self-awareness.

    Air travel shouldn’t be such a zero-sum game between passengers; but some folks, arguably unintentionally, create such an environment anyway.  We biz-travelers have to confront those seat-recliners, politely but firmly, in an attempt to get our space back.  Of course, I know I have a problem doing that, but those flyers, feeling the need to fully recline…and often NOT biz-travelers, figuratively beg us for some form of confrontation.

    Thanks again for posting the article.

     on  11/23  at  02:38 PM

  9. Oh, and I thought I was alone in suffering these fools!  Misery does love company, though I wish none of us had to be miserable.  It does seem that people have become far ruder (N.B. I drive from Manhattan to Parsippany, NJ for work everyday; if you want to see rude, try I-80 on for size!).

    To my occasional benefit, I speak up and ask my fellow traveler to move their seat back up.  If they get rude, I casually mention that I am a certified flight instructor and charter pilot all too familiar with the rules and would be happy to engage them in a conversation with the flight attendants.  That usually does the trick (it helps that it’s true on both accounts).

     on  12/20  at  12:12 PM

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