Live data from Hacker News

Don’t Want Me to Recline My Airline Seat? You Can Pay Me

mobile.nytimes.com

61–62 of 62 posts

Re: Don’t Want Me to Recline My Airline Seat? You Can Pay Me

#61
post #18
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you don't want to sit behind a seat that reclines you can pay extra for the first row. Or on Southwest pay extra for boarding group A. Regardless, when you bought your ticket you buy it with the knowledge that there is a seat in front of you that reclines.

Yes, I buy a seat knowing that when I sit in the seat my knees will be up against the seat in front of me. The seat in front of me has nowhere to recline. My knees have become used to the pressure over the course of hundreds of flights. At my height (2 meters) there is little alternative. Passengers in front of me have asked me to move seats, avoid air travel and invited me to go to hell. In my opinion, your 'right'…

I speak as someone who is also 2m tall but who never puts his knees up against the seat in front of him (and views that as a little childish). My perspective is that the airline has made the seat-space smaller in order to make the flight cheaper, and has gifted everyone with a button which allows their seat-back to not be vertical, for the convenience of those who wish to sleep on a plane, at the expense of the convenience of those who wish that seatback to be up for whatever reason (honestly it's more an issue for me with using a laptop than it is for my legs, which can fold or tuck longways underneath the seat in front of me or stretch into an aisle or many other things).

I don't think there is either a "right" to recline nor a "right" to not be reclined on; rights are not the correct word at all. Blame is not productive here; it's a matter of perspective who is infringing on whose rights, and the truth is that we live in a negotiated world, and this is just one of the negotiations that needs be made.

I do like the idea that us can't-sleep-with-that-engine-drone-anyway folks have a laptop-column in the plane which doesn't recline, for our mutual convenience. Until that's the case I'll ask the person ahead of me politely and/or request to be reseated into an exit row.

Re: Don’t Want Me to Recline My Airline Seat? You Can Pay Me

#62
I'm only 5'9", so I don't fully understand the geometry of being tall on an airplane, so forgive me if this is a stupid question: Can't you [tall people] put your legs down under the seat in front of you and avoid having your knees directly in the area where the seat reclines? I do this when I want to stretch out more, but does this not work for tall people?
Post reply on HN