Pro Tip for Travelers:
That seat in front of you that you’re yanking back every time you get up? There’s probably another human being sitting in it! Honest!
You: is there a way we can increase one person’s comfort by 3% while decreasing someone else’s comfort by 60%?
Guy who invented reclining airline seats, perking up: I got it
I JUST had this experience Saturday. I'm 6'3". When someone reclines it makes my flight that much worse. You're within your rights to do it, but it reveals you to be a shitty, selfish, awful person.
I’m 6’3” as well. Once had someone try to recline their seat, but couldn’t because my knees were firmly wedged in there.
So she proceeded to throw all her weight against the seat back to force it down.
And yes, she was short.
Once, Josh Barro wrote a column on this, demanding the right to recline his seat, and ever since I've wished I could be seated behind him on the same flight, where my extra long femurs keep his seat fully upright no matter how he strains to push it back.
6'3" and same happened to me - I had to point out - ma'am... it can't go back... she wouldn't have it - she wouldn't even accept the steward point it out... full flight... she kept randomly trying...
I don't buy much, but I will never fly in the back of the bus anymore.
I had a small child do this to me (6' 2") on a flight. Like, you're all of freaking 8, you do not need to recline as far as possible, especially when I'm trying to read a physical book...
I don't blame an eight year old for having fun with a reclining seat, which was designed that way not by her. I don't even blame her for not considering what it's like for 6' tall men in the seat behind. But the parents can be addressed on the topic.
6'2" but most of my height is above the waist. Good news is that I can (just about) tolerate the person in front of me reclining. Bad news is that my headrest always hits me in the middle of the shoulders regardless of the position of the seat in front me.
I'm a very short person, and the headrest pushes my head forward until my neck hurts if I don't pad it with a travel pillow. Wish I could just remove the damn thing.
I hear you. But what happens on very long or overnight flights? I always assumed (possibly incorrectly) that if *everyone* reclined, there was no problem. Are seats now made where no one over 6’ can be comfortable if the person in front of you reclines? Yikes.
As someone that is 6'5", this happens literally every flight, and I honestly usually brace by putting my coat or jacket over my knees as padding, because the person in front of me in most planes will literally be unable to recline at all, and it can really hurt my knees.
I'm 5' 11" and this normally isn't an issue, but on a long flight, Sydney to LA, the woman in front did the full shoulder check into my knees whenever I had the audacity to adjust my position. I had words.
If I pull out my tiny, tiny laptop b/c I need to use it and the person in front of me reclines it will practically snap the laptop screen in half and, at best, I can't actually read the screen. Unless I recline.
Be salty if you need to be. 🤷
This is why I have an IPad mini. I have not had a flight in a long time where I could comfortably use a laptop.
Spreadsheets are just out of the question.
I'll go along with this 100% jest-free. We're paying for enough space to fit a human being in. Airlines are making that space smaller so they can get more money. It's not the fault of people trying to make use of the space they've been given. In protest, my next trip to Iceland will be via bicycle.
The problem isn’t the people. It’s the airlines. Either remove the ability to recline from all the seats (case closed) or remove a row or two of them to make room for the recline. Passengers point the finger at one another while the airline reports record profits.
I've a bad back. It's painful to sit that upright for that long.
So we're clear on whose physical needs should be accommodated and who's a "shifty, selfish, awful person."
Those were invented before airlines decided to reduce the spacing between rows to practically zero. Blame the airlines for this (and other woes in cattle class)
I had an older guy standing up use my head, like the actual top of my head, to balance himself while standing up once and I'm still not sure what the appropriate response to that is five years later.
I’ll apologize up front. But getting in the middle seat and putting my bag on the floor without physically assaulting the seat in front of me is almost impossible. Bright side is that once I’m shoehorned in, I don’t move the rest of the flight.
Like any rational air traveler, I spend the journey trying to face with equanimity the stressful situation and its effects on the people around me, whose own equanimity may be slipping. My behavior reflects a calculated effort to make as few impositions as possible on those around me.
