The Recline and Fall of Western Civilization

[trof]

Tilting your seat back on an airplane is pure evil. But so is installing seats that recline in the first place.
By Dan Kois - Slate

The woman sitting in front of me on this plane seems perfectly nice. She, like me, is traveling coach class from Washington to Los Angeles. She had a nice chat before takeoff with the man sitting next to her, in which she revealed she is an elementary school teacher, an extremely honorable profession. She, like me, has an aisle seat and has spent most of the flight watching TV. Nevertheless, I hate her.

Why? She’s a recliner.

For the five minutes after takeoff, every passenger on an airliner exists in a state of nature. Everyone is equally as uncomfortable as everyone else—well, at least everyone who doesn’t have the advantage of first class seating or the disadvantage of being over 6 feet tall. The passengers are blank slates, subjects of an experiment in morality which begins the moment the seat-belt light turns off.

Ding! Instantly the jerk in 11C reclines his seat all the way back. The guy in 12C, his book shoved into his face, reclines as well. 13C goes next. And soon the reclining has cascaded like rows of dominos to the back of the plane, where the poor bastards in the last row see their personal space reduced to about a cubic foot.
(more: http://www.slate.com/articles/life/a_fine_whine/2013/02/reclining_airplane_seats_are_a_terrible_idea_and_should_be_banned.html?google_editors_picks=true

I TOTALLY agree: Do away with reclining airline seats!

[Warpy]

1. They recline enough to be annoying but not enough to be comfortable

so yes, abolish that particular "feature," please.

[HughBeaumont]

2. Ah, one of the many reasons I don't fly unless I absolutely have to.

For example, if I go far West for whatever reason.

Anything else, I just drive everywhere. Flying is now an inconvenient, uncomfortable and expensive pain in the ass that's not even worth it anymore.

Between

* the overbooked, filled-to-capacity flights,
* the crying babies and toddlers,
* the seats that cannot accomodate an average 10-year-old girl,
* 90% of the time being surrounded by personal-space-clueless seatmates (almost always males) and full-recliners in the front (again, almost always males),
* the dank smell of sweat, B.O., bad breath and stale cigarettes,
* the TSA feel-ups and full-body scans,
* delays for whatever reason,
* long security lines,
* overcharging on bags,
* never being able to find a space for your bag because people take 2-4 medium suitcases with them on the flight

. . . and most importantly, the expense (Even on a Thursday or a Monday (forget weekends), I can't get under $80 one way for a city that's 5.60 hours away by car) . . . I'd rather just DRIVE. In the case of Cleveland to DC, I'm actually paying less in gas and turnpike and the travel time isn't that much greater.

[trof]

3. I can do it for free, and I avoid it.

As a TWA retiree I get passes on American.
As does Miz t.
Maybe USAIR too, since the merger.
(It's a long story.)
Flying sux today.

I'd rather drive the 1500 miles from coastal Alabama to our daughter's near Boston.
We get to stay in a couple of nice motels.
I get a choice of meals.
I get a window seat IN THE SMOKING ZONE!

We listen to audio books.
Really make the trip a pleasure.
Once we sat in our daughter's driveway for half an hour before we announced our presence.
Just HAD to hear the end of the 'book'.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

4. Reclining is a problem ONLY because of the narrow seat pitch of today's coach sections

Yeah, it's awful to have someone in front of you reclining with 31" seat pitch.

When I sit in Economy Plus on United, where the seat pitch can be up to 36", I don't care if the person in front of me reclines or not. It's amazing how much difference that extra leg room makes when you're on an eleven-hour flight to Tokyo.

[trof]

5. Yeah, same for first class.

Back in the day, when I flew for TWA and we had passes, we always paid the $10 surcharge to get first class.

There was plenty of room for all to recline.
Free booze and great food too.

I'm 6' 3" and flying coach is cruel and unusual punishment for me.