There's been a brouhaha about airplane seat etiquette this week. To recline or not to recline? The Washington Post weighs in. I blame the airlines. Could they make economy flights more uncomfortable? Seat comfort, legroom and customer service have diminished drastically over the years making passengers cranky as hell. I am just 5 feet tall and don't have enough legroom and I always feel slightly claustrophobic. I fly often (mostly transatlantic) and use travel points to upgrade to business class if my flight is more than 8 hours. It's not the passengers, it's the airlines that are creating the perfect storm for air rage.
Agree. Seats should be bolted upright in economy class because the recline function is effectively not an option. To "provide" the "option" when it's not just un-usable but even worse aggravating the travel experience for both recliners and surrounding passengers is deliberately inciting passenger confrontations. Would be interesting to check actual seat specs for reclining space requirements and whether airlines are deliberately ignoring engineering/manufacturer specs in favor of maximizing body count for profits. Proper engineering imo should seat-row spec space requirement front to back as from front of knees to top of seat + 3-6" min with average passenger sitting in full recline. Front of seat to top of headrest as front to back seat-row spec probably increases body count by 40-50% but effectively packs people in like baggage. Airlines expect people to sit like mannequins for flight duration and crab-walk in and out because there's not space enough to even stand properly to exit your seat. In most theaters this alone would probably violate fire codes for quick/safe evacuation.
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