The etiquette of reclining seats on flights

Marmaduke123

esuhl wrote: »

I'd never thought there was any etiquette involved in reclining your seat. The aircraft and seats have been specifically designed for the purpose and wouldn't recline if it wasn't suitable to do so.

There speaks a recliner!

jackieblack

Some airlines ban the Knee Defender
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/28/knee-defender-ban_n_5723136.html

Biggles

VestanPance wrote: »

Don't worry. You wouldn't sleep with me behind you as I'd be kicking your chair for the duration of the flight, or until the seat was moved back to the upright position.

I thought the problem was not being able to move your legs???

Murphy_The_Cat

Here's a little video that explained what happened, in a humourous way -- interestingly enough (to me), it didn't happen in Cattle Class where the peasants are packed in, but in the PE section.

little video clip (safe for work)

kizkiz

DomRavioli wrote: »

I find that a bit harsh - I'm 5'2, quite petite but pay for the extra leg room seats as my OH is 6'7 and finds it almost impossible to get in a normal seat - I want to sit next to him (he's a bit cagey about flying), and I like having the extra room. I'm off on a short haul in October and there were both bulkhead and extra legroom seats (some classify them as different) available for either £25 or £15 each way respectively.

I may not "need" to be there, but I will happily pay for the privilege. We have squeezed him in a standard economy seat once, but never again.

And I'd never fly transatlantic with BA, I've had some horrendous experiences with them; there are better carriers out there which go to the majority of destinations.

Ah, but you come under the small percentage who are there for a reason.
An example from my last short haul flight.
Six fire exit seats at front of plane. I was online, logged in and ready to reserve one exactly 24 hours before. We managed to get one seat between the two of us, so I took it and my other half sat elsewhere.
On my row was a 19yo (ish) small female student type and a middle aged businessman. Both travelling alone with no need for extra leg room
The other row had a tall guy with partner and another solo traveller with no need to be there.
Luckily I got the seat, but half were taken by people who really didn't need to be there

Gloomendoom

kizkiz wrote: »

Ah, but you come under the small percentage who are there for a reason.
An example from my last short haul flight.
Six fire exit seats at front of plane. I was online, logged in and ready to reserve one exactly 24 hours before. We managed to get one seat between the two of us, so I took it and my other half sat elsewhere.
On my row was a 19yo (ish) small female student type and a middle aged businessman. Both travelling alone with no need for extra leg room
The other row had a tall guy with partner and another solo traveller with no need to be there.
Luckily I got the seat, but half were taken by people who really didn't need to be there

Yes, I wish that height was taken into account when allocating extra legroom seats.

I sat next to a woman who was barely 5' tall on a flight a couple of years ago. I asked her why she paid the extra when she didn't need the extra legroom. Her explanation was that she suffered from claustrophobia in the standard seats, particularly when the people in front reclined their seats back into her face.

VestanPance

In the old days they did allocate the seats with more space at check-in if you arrived early enough (now let's not get carried away and call them extra legroom seats like this is an in-built feature, as for the part on scheduled airlines they are seats designed with space to escape the aircraft in an emergency that is a requirement by law).

I had them offered to me several times when flying back in the day from the check-in woman, as she could see I was tall and it made common sense to stick the tall ones in the seats with more space. This was before some bright spark came up with the concept of selling them off as a feature through online seat reservation.

budgetflyer

After you pay for the exit row seat, you should get a badge. "Ryanair Helper" or "BA prefect" or similar. If that plane goes down, subject to you surviving, you will be expected to open that door.

Indout96

From experience I can tell you if the person behind is tall they can be in
actual physical pain

Sorry but this is not always the case, I am 6'4'' but have reasonable short legs in relation to my body, I can fit in fine with the seat in front reclined but not a cat in hells chance of sleeping on our flights home from the US as there is nowhere to put my head as I am too tall for the headrests. My wife who is 5'8'' but has longer legs gets crushed when the seat in front goes back.

This year we have booked via Expedia (never again) with Iberia but flying on AA. The seats on leg 2 Chicago - Las Vegas are not bookable neither are the return ley LV - NY- Manchester. this in on Iberias website. First leg is allocated but there is no option to change seats.

Browntoa

apparently its quite easy to make seats where the recline is made by moving the bottom part of the seat forward , only one who loses out then for leg room is you , not the person behind

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/05/30/travel/airline-seats/

In a traditional reclining airline seat, only the seat back moves. But with an articulating seat pan, as the back moves to the rear, the seat pan moves forward. "The back of the seat isn't moving as far as it traditionally did, but the feeling you get is that it moves further," Luedeke says. Because the seat doesn't need as much room to recline, it saves space for more seats. Also, the back of the seat is thinner, saving even more space.