Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility

Earlier this week, Jeffsetter shared an article written by Geraldine on the Everywhereist about seat on a recent longhaul flight.  The whole post is worth reading but the short recap is that she was trying to recline her seat and the guy behind her would not allow it.  He threatened to just shake her seat and then continued to bully her, even once the flight crew got involved.

Eventually she ended up getting upgraded to business class by the flight crew, though I’m still not clear why the jerk in question didn’t get booted off the plane and/or detained when they landed.

airline-seat-reclining

So…. who owns the seat reclining?

Let’s get it started by saying yes, it is not always super comfortable when the person in front of you reclines their seat.

But I think it’s generally accepted that the person whose seat it is gets to control whether they recline the seat or not.  If the person in front of you reclines their seat, then them’s just the breaks, as far as I am concerned.  If you don’t like that, then I believe there are some airlines that feature seats that do not recline; go fly one of those!  (Or use the “Knee Defender” :-D)

(SEE ALSO: Is the Knee Defender the worst airplane product out there?)

I should say that I personally do not recline my seat, though that is my personal choice.  Though if I was on a longhaul flight and trying to sleep, I probably would recline.  Generally I’ve found, at least on shorter flights, with a window seat I’m okay sleeping on the plane without any “extra” recline (it’s not like they recline very much!)

(SEE ALSO: 4 tips to survive a red eye flight in economy)

I’m okay if you recline the seat in front of me, though I do appreciate some warning or a slow recline – I almost cracked my laptop screen once because I had the tray table out and my laptop on it when the person in front of me reclined the seat it got caught on the lever that holds the tray table in the upright position – I was barely able to extricate it before the seat came crashing back.

So…. what’s your take on who controls the recline of an airline seat?  What would you have done had you been in Geraldine’s situation?


Points With a Crew has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Points With a Crew and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers. Responses are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Some or all of the card offers that appear on the website are from advertisers and that compensation may impact on how and where card products appear on the site. Any opinions expressed in this post are my own, and have not been reviewed, approved, or endorsed by my advertising partners and I do not include all card companies, or all available card offers. Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers and other offers and benefits listed on this page. Other links on this page may also pay me a commission - as always, thanks for your support if you use them

User Generated Content Disclosure: Points With a Crew encourages constructive discussions, comments, and questions. Responses are not provided by or commissioned by any bank advertisers. These responses have not been reviewed, approved, or endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the responsibility of the bank advertiser to respond to comments.

BoardingArea