Thanks for your response. I had guessed something of the sort from the context.
Lucky you; I take it you made a career of the military for this to be available.
Are the flights comfortable, or…..more on the convenient side?
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Reclining seats on airplanes
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Thanks for your response. I had guessed something of the sort from the context.
Lucky you; I take it you made a career of the military for this to be available.
Are the flights comfortable, or…..more on the convenient side?
Wow... this thread garnered many more replies than I expected.
To those who questioned my temerity in expecting the folks in front of me not to recline or asking them not to: I'm 6'2", so a fully reclined seat does make it quite uncomfortable for me. I see nothing wrong in asking people to sit upright, as long as I do it politely. But it's true that they have as much right to lean back as any other passenger, so if they decline to not recline, I don't pursue it.
I'm also aware that I can purchase a seat that offers more room if I choose. Business or first class is usually out of my price range, but I try to get an exit row or economy plus or its equivalent whenever I can. Unfortunately, so such seats were available on this flight.
To me, though, it comes down to having some empathy for other passengers. I'd love to recline my seat on many flights, but I rarely do so out of consideration for the person behind me. On the rare occasions when I have, I've asked if it's OK. I've also switched seats to allow people to sit by each other.
Anyone who's old enough to have flown when smoking was permitted on commercial airliners may recall what it was like for a non-smoker to be seated just behind the smoking section. If the people ahead lit up (as they had the right to do, having paid for their ticket as I did), it made for an unpleasant experience. That's one of the elements of the "good old days" that I don't miss!
To those who questioned my temerity in expecting the folks in front of me not to recline or asking them not to: I'm 6'2", so a fully reclined seat does make it quite uncomfortable for me. I see nothing wrong in asking people to sit upright, as long as I do it politely. But it's true that they have as much right to lean back as any other passenger, so if they decline to not recline, I don't pursue it.
I'm also aware that I can purchase a seat that offers more room if I choose. Business or first class is usually out of my price range, but I try to get an exit row or economy plus or its equivalent whenever I can. Unfortunately, so such seats were available on this flight.
To me, though, it comes down to having some empathy for other passengers. I'd love to recline my seat on many flights, but I rarely do so out of consideration for the person behind me. On the rare occasions when I have, I've asked if it's OK. I've also switched seats to allow people to sit by each other.
Anyone who's old enough to have flown when smoking was permitted on commercial airliners may recall what it was like for a non-smoker to be seated just behind the smoking section. If the people ahead lit up (as they had the right to do, having paid for their ticket as I did), it made for an unpleasant experience. That's one of the elements of the "good old days" that I don't miss!
In most cases you have plenty of space to stretch out, more the convenient side, but OK. Yes, spent 21 years in the military, then went to the US Dept of State security service before going onto the United Nations.
Just the thought of remembering what sitting next to a smoker was like makes me nauseous.
However you make a good point. It's just common courtesy. Before you lean back, take a look who's behind you and ask if it's okay. Most times people will say it's fine. A lot of the times people try to recline and have to press the button a few times and end up jerking back harder than they planned to. If someone is leaning forward or has things on their tray, it causes some discomfort.
Well, a further thought on the issue of reclining, simply because several on this thread seem to think it is a binary choice between a matter of being able to exercise full rights to reclining to a maximum extent, or having to suffer an upright position. There are positions in between, you know…modern seats allow for partial reclining…..
Maybe it is the internet; or maybe it is the experience of having to endure the squashed unpleasantness of modern public transport; or maybe it is the joyful lack of inhibition of being able to vent without challenge, but the tone of some of the posts is underwhelming……..come on, "anti reclining nazis"…..
One of the depressing things about much modern debate is how often (and how easily) the nuclear option in terms of insult (that is 'Nazi' by the way) is reached. Once 'Nazi' is used casually as an insult, in rhetorical terms , there are not many places left to go if one seeks to escalate, or express equally strongly and ardently felt dissent...
In a debate, I'd like to leave the noun "Nazi" for something that actually merits such a strong noun.
Maybe it is the internet; or maybe it is the experience of having to endure the squashed unpleasantness of modern public transport; or maybe it is the joyful lack of inhibition of being able to vent without challenge, but the tone of some of the posts is underwhelming……..come on, "anti reclining nazis"…..
One of the depressing things about much modern debate is how often (and how easily) the nuclear option in terms of insult (that is 'Nazi' by the way) is reached. Once 'Nazi' is used casually as an insult, in rhetorical terms , there are not many places left to go if one seeks to escalate, or express equally strongly and ardently felt dissent...
In a debate, I'd like to leave the noun "Nazi" for something that actually merits such a strong noun.
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Yes. Gosh, yes, I remember that.
As a fanatical non-smoker, (even as a teenager), I am actually allergic to cigarette smoke - I always asked to sit in the no-smoking sections of trains and planes in the days when such distinctions existed.
However, in mad places in central Asia, to be on a plane (especially if it is a flight of an hour or so), where everyone is fiercely sucking on their cigarettes, and the fug is physical, gives a sense of a hysterically funny retro experience that I can live with...
http://www.kneedefender.com/html2/how_to.htm
Get a knee defender, but be prepared to get into an argument about it if they realise (an argument that you will inevitably lose as the plane operator will almost certainly side with the reclining passenger).
Get a knee defender, but be prepared to get into an argument about it if they realise (an argument that you will inevitably lose as the plane operator will almost certainly side with the reclining passenger).
Yes, exactly!
On this subject like virtually any other that devolves into an argument here or elsewhere, the real truth often seems to fall somewhere in-between, where both parties are correct.
I mentioned this because the discussion seemed to have become - in part - reduced to a depressing celebration of a sort of 'arms race' in the field of reclining technology along with the expressed right to wield same….
Yes, my point was that it's good to be considerate of others, especially on aircraft, where space is tight. It applies to more than seat reclining - in the days when telephones were built into seat backs, I recall one passenger who carried out a long, annoying, very loud conversation nearby.
And your point about jerking back reminds me of the times when I almost had my laptop damaged when the passenger in front reclined their seat suddenly and my computer was on the tray table. I've since learned to position the screen so it won't get caught when this happens.
Last time I was in Kyrgyzstan it was c130 all the way I slept on a pallet after a king of the hill type battle that the air crew didn't much like.
You forget to mention the fringe benefits of flying Space-A, like getting sprayed with cherry juice with the C-130's hydraulic lines rupture.
That's why you gotta fly C5 the backwards setting is a bit weird but the space.
I could have done this on my return flight from Mexico, one of them was actually in my seat when I got to it. Unfortunately for them I had an aisle seat and wanted to maintain the little extra "stretch out room" that affords as the one of them in the wrong seat had a middle seat on the other side of the plane. If it was a trans-oceanic flight, I might have moved for them but it was a 4 hour flight, it's not the end of the world.
I'm not the smallest guy going (5'11", 240-250), I'll take extra space where I can.