1> Proven false, if you had read the previous posts. People are often forced to fly for their jobs. Don’t give me any shit about how they can quit if they don’t like it. It’s a fact of economic life.
2> Sure, and anyone even slightly above the “average” that the airlines decides on is left in discomfort or pain. I’m 5’11" and my legs are on the short side. But even I have serious issues with the leg room they give us and even bigger problems with the shoulder widths. I once spent two hours on a flight jammed into the wall by the guy next to me, until he finally decided to scream in my ear that I was leaning into him. Fortunately, once he saw that I was in fact up against the wall and that he had been pushing me into it for two hours without a peep from me, he was seriously embarassed and apologized profusely.
Plan for average size and you fail for half (more or less) of your customers.
Oh gee. I’m only 5’1" so I guess buying the kneedefender is forbidden. I’ll just be forced to have the top of someone’s greasy head in my face for several hours. :rolleyes:
The jokes on them anyway…how hard would it be to MAKE one of those out of crap lying around the house? That’s some high-tech piece of equipment there!
I usually put my knees right up against the seat in front of me. If the person wishes to recline and inch or so, I let them. It’s courteous to allow this.
Yet, I’ve also learned a secret. The ratchet upon which the seats recline, doesn’t really lock very firmly. Give it a decent shove and you can move it right back into the upright position.
Woe be to any inconsiderate lout who reclines all the way into my spance. I just shove the seat upright and place my knees right in the back so it ain’t moving.
No. It’s not. I am the arbiter of all that is right an just, and would only punish those who would hurl their seats all the way back without consideration.
I dislike repeating myself as I said as much in the post you quote, but I suppose concessions must be made to lesser minds.
Hurling deprecations anonymously across the ether of the internet without provocation is inherently a cowardly and meaningless act. A man of consequence therefore eschews such tactics because he cannot give it wait by standing behind his statement mano a mano, so to speak.
Those that favor the practice, such as yourself, tend to reveal themselves as immature and inconsequential little people who would otherwise be too timid to make such strong comments without the anonymity of the internet to protect them from the consequences.
I can only imagine with this bullshit that you either live under a bridge or you smoke too much dust.
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Oh the Irony.
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Those that favor the practice, such as yourself, tend to reveal themselves as immature and inconsequential little people who would otherwise be too timid to make such strong comments without the anonymity of the internet to protect them from the consequences. **
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Umm, just wanted to say that I’m 6’3", and coach airline seats are uncomfortable but by no means unbearable for me. I acknowledge that I take away a bit of my own space by carrying on luggage, some of which goes under the seat in front of me.
IMO, flying is just a temporary discomfort to be tolerated as best I can for the pleasure/convenience of getting where I need to go. Of course, I have no problem reading or napping sitting upright. I don’t own a laptop, and have never needed to use one on a plane.
The person ahead of me reclining makes it somewhat more uncomfortable, but not unbearably so. So, while I consider their reclining discourteous, it is but one of the many unthinking discourteous actions I could get bothered by every day. Changing lanes abruptly in traffic, stopping to talk in the middle of the sidewalk, not having your method of payment ready at the checkout, talking loudly on a cell phone, etc. ad infinitum. But I’m pretty good at blocking such things out.
Personally, I do not feel that reclining makes me so much more comfortable, that it makes up for the discomfort I know I am causing the person behind me. Guess I’m a schmuck.
Nah, I’m with you Dinsdale - I don’t like to recline my seat either. If the person in front of me reclines their seat, they’re giving themselves more space by taking some of my space. I don’t mind so much if the person in front of them has reclined their sesat, but oh, curses on the original recliner! shakes fist
I remember an afternoon flight I was on where as soon as the seatbelt sign went off, a man reclined his seat as far as it could go and napped, to the discomfort of the lanky 6’+ guy sitting behind him. A stewardess eventually took pity on him and relocated him.
On planes what weren’t filled, I remember the flight attendants moving the taller/larger passengers around so that they could be more comfortable, which seems very reasonable to me. (Of course I was a little disappointed because I’d been hoping for dibs on the empty three-seater in front of me!)
I’m pretty lucky in that I’m 5’2" and pretty small, so when I fly with my boyfriend I can afford to give him about 1/3 of my seat. I’ve found that I’m most comfortable in planes where there are two seats next to the window - my boyfriend sits in the aisle seat and I sit with my back to the window and my legs resting on his. I’ve found that my 6’ boyfriend is most comfortable in planes when he’s taken a sleeping pill before the flight - but then he gets disappointed because he’s missed out on the food.
I rarely agree with Scylla, but I’d say that if you recline your seat and in the process feel someone’s knees push into your back, odds are that their decrease in comfort is far greater than the comfort you gain from an extra 8 degrees of recline.
Obviously, the best way to handle it is to politely ask them not to recline their seat. However, I think reacting badly to injury is not as bad as knowingly causing pain and ignoring it.
Like I said, I’ve never had a mother and baby behind me or a 6’8" person, but obviously in that case I wouldn’t move my seat all the way back, or even any of the way. At the same time though, I’m not going to feel a ping of guilt for reclining on some 6 foot Joe Schmoe, just because they get offended about nothing. I’m about 6.1 and I’ve never been that uncomfortable when someone leaned back on me, so that’s at least where my judging starts.
If someone leans back so far that the top of their head is almost in your face, that merely provides a convenient place to rest your book or magazine while you read.
Or drop your pillow on top of their head and lean forward to make use of it.
Yes, that sounds like a mature way to remedy the situation. :rolleyes:
I think this is precisely what rubs me the wrong way. Are you really going to rest your book on their head? Are you really going to smother someone with a pillow? Should you be surprised if someone ends up beating you within an inch of your life because you tried to smother them?
Drop the hyperbole, it makes you look like a 5 year old.
Just as you don’t know the situation of the person behind you, you don’t know the situation of the person in front of you. Perhaps they have a back problem and they need to recline. You still going to go fisticuffs with them? It’s entirely possible to be just as much of a jerk, sabotaging chairs and threatening or intimidating someone who reclines, as the schmuck who rams their seat back on an elderly guy who can bend his knees too well. It cuts both ways.
Again, if it’s a huge problem for you, I suggest you try a different airline, or take appropriate measures ahead of time. You might as well learn to do that anyway, because it’s never going to change.
World Eater, I’m fairly certain that both Scylla and Chimera are just joshing in this thread.
On the off chance that they’re not, though … I’d like to see the old guy with bad knees who’d cop an attitude with me if I propped my book on his head. I’d be all like POW! BAM! CRASH! on those crappy knees of his, and he’d be all like “Please don’t hurt me anymore, sir, you can prop your book on my head all you want” and I’d be all like “You got THAT right, sporty, but before I put my book back on that bald head of yours scrape those dandruff flakes off’n it” and he’d be all like “Yes sir, right away sir” and the stewardesses would be all like “Oh Sauron, you’re so manly and strong and handsome and studly” and I’d be all like “Back off, girls, I’m taken.”
Well thanks for adding some well needed humor to this thread.
Sadly, I don’t know if they are joking, as it seems the norm these days for people to fly off the handle and the smallest provocation. Ironically enough, I’ve had the recliner confrontation, the guy was a complete hothead ass, and tried to get violent, which didn’t work either. I’m not worried about myself, I worry about my girlfriend, or my Mother or Father setting one of these nuts off, because they reclined their seat back a few inches.
