To recline or not recline? That is my question. The reason why I ask is because there is a story in the news this week about a woman (Wendi Williams) who was traveling economy class and attempted to recline her seat during the flight. This action resulted in the passenger behind her apparently continuously pummeling the back of her chair.
To be fair, I watched the video she posted and he is a rather large man plus he was seated at the very back of the plane so he couldn’t recline. But surely that is not just cause for such bullying? This story caught my attention as a similar thing happened to me recently. I was on a long haul flight to London. I considerately waited until the meal had been served and cleared away, then I gently reclined my seat. After a few minutes I realised that I was sitting upright again. Slightly confused, I pushed the button to slide the chair back into the ‘comfier’ position. And the same thing happened again! Thinking my seat must be broken I accepted my lot and spent the next 9 hours of my journey sitting bolt upright. For my return trip I decided to pay a little extra and get an exit row seat. After the meal service I looked back to give the customary nod to the gentleman behind me alerting him that I was going to put my seat back….. this time I felt immediate pressure informing me that he was not going to allow that. Being British I chose to avoid a confrontation and opted for the cowardly option, waiting till he went to the loo and then adjusted my chair. Sure enough a few minutes after he returned my seat was back in the upright position. I tried again, but no joy, so just took comfort in the fact that I could at least stretch out my legs into the spacious exit area and let it go . But it did annoy me, a lot. I have a feeling that if I was a big guy this would never have happened? What I find more puzzling is the reaction to Wendi’s Twitter post, with the majority of people commenting on her post to say she is in the wrong, selfish and shouldn’t recline her seat. Some even say that they always push the offending chair back in to the upright position too. This is such a common problem that you can even buy a device called the ‘Knee Defender’ which are clips that attach to your tray table which then limits the functions of the chair in front of you!
So am I in the minority here? Do you recline or are you a pusher…? I naively thought that the button was there to be used, but by all accounts I am not sure that’s the general consensus. Have I been breaching flying etiquette all of these years? I would love to hear your thoughts on this and promise not to be offended if you tell me that I am indeed at fault.
Have you been on either end of this uncomfortable situation? If so, tell us about it. Email your stories to info@britsin.la or you can comment on this post on our social media platforms @BritsinLA
Look forward to hearing from you.
Cheers!
Eileen
