interesting that they moved you to another seat and not dispensed of the offending passenger who was exercising their right on an aircraft that had recline. believe me I see your issue but also that of other paying passengers who have the same rights...it is the airline who allows it. As for the rest I guess I would insist on flying with a carrier with no recline opportunity or fly business class.

They moved me to a medical seat at the front of the plane as they could obviously see I needed one and the fact I am 5ft 10ins and didnt fit into the seat with the seat in front reclined.
This was with Thomas Cook who I havent travelled with for a few years as anyone over 5ft 6ins has problems due to lack of leg room.
I have no inteention of flying with a scheduled airline as I like to go away up to 8 times a year if possible!
I will just keep using my knee defender if necessary.

Jay Trip wrote:

I wonder if the people who agree with recining their seats would be happy for their disabled relatives or themselves to travel for 4-5 hours with someone causing them great physical discomfort. :que

As I have already pointed out that, is exactly what you are doing if you prevent my 86 year old mother from reclining her seat. It is apparently OK for you to do this to her?

SM

I don't recline my seat on short haul flights though I almost always recline my seat on long haul flights, but then I don't have a problem as the seat in front of me is usually reclined as is the seat behind..

When all airlines remove the recline option from their planes then I will have to fly sitting straight up but until then I will take advantage of what is provided by the airline.

I did read somewhere that using a knee defender to block the seat reclining may be illegal.

I read somewhere that about 60 % of issues that cabin crew have to deal with are to do with reclining seats , either people being not able to recline or people feeling invaded by reclining seats , it must be difficult for them having to cope with intolerant attitudes , I'm sure if people exercised a simple to follow etiquette many problems could be avoided .
http://m.wikihow.com/Practice-Airplane-Etiquette
A guide of how to behave , not only just seat reclining .

Must admit I've never seen or had any seat reclining issues on any flights

Why do you think I would be OK for your mother to rest on my knees ahould she be infront of me?
You could swap seats with her as my husband hasnt got long legs and hasnt got a disability so he doesnt find it a problem.
You dont know how old I am so age doesnt come into it.

I give up! You could equally swap seats with your husband in that case! You asked whether 'people who agree with recining their seats would be happy for their disabled relatives or themselves to travel for 4-5 hours with someone causing them great physical discomfort' and I was simply pointing out yet again that not being able to recline her seat does cause her considerable physical discomfort and myself not far less. Her age is relevant because with every year that passes the curvature in her spine increases due to the osteoporosis. It is essentially a disease of ageing.

Yes, it is a difficult issue but there are no easy answers and you are the one who seems to be assessing your own comfort as always being more important than that of the person in front of you and unwilling to acknowledge that for some people, being able to recline their seat is just as important for them as not having the seat in front of you recline is to you. I know that she would dearly love to be able to go on holiday to the Canaries one last time but we won't do it because she is very apprehensive about whether she would be able to recline her seat or not and is reluctant to take the chance. It is the possibility that she will be sat in front of some like you that makes her so anxious.

I'll bow out now and would have done earlier if there had even been a glimmer of sympathy for others who also find air travel very uncomfortable but its never going to happen is it so there seems no point in continuing to try and explain why being able to recline their seat is just as important to some people as blocking the recline is for you.

SM

If even just discussing the issue on a forum causes such reactions from both sides it is easy to see how it becomes a reality in flight causing air rage which can turn physical.

Yup.....add in a couple of large G & Ts...and bloodbath

Whilst I hate reclining seats I do acknowledge that if a plane has reclining seats than those who wish to do so have the right to recline. I just wish they would do away with the darn things on short haul.

Recently flew business to Mahon from LCY there was only the 4 of us and 2 other passengers.

They had sensibly checked us in so the 4 of us were in row 3 and the 2 other passengers in row 5 to balance the nose.

Great we thought. No one in front or behind, but the others 2 were flippin seat shifters. Before we took off they plonked themselves in row 2 immediately infront of me and DH and reclined BEFOFE take off people in their 60ties who should know better, not kids.

DH lost it and said in a loud voice to the bloke 'So you have the choice of 14 empty seats in this cabin and you shift to those 2 then recline before take off ? ? '

I've never seen 2 peeps seat shift to row 1 so quick in me life

The saga of the reclining seats reminds me of the time I had a verbal set to with an arrogant passenger on a plane back from Menorca in 2007 after he reclined the seat in front of my wife and banged her knees and didn't care. Told him what I thought of his dismissive selfish attitude as we were waiting to get off the plane and that I just wished the passenger in front of him had done the same to him. He was a big fella and it was probably like water off a duck's back (though his mate looked a little worried) but ill manners are my personal hate so I had to say something. I can easily understand how it can lead to fights so non-reclining seats are definitely the answer.

Unfortunate that your wifes legs were banged but how was it selfish? It is (again) the airline that allows pax to recline so why is it his fault for reclining? yes i would expect perhaps the recline to be done slowly or indeed warn pax behind that one is reclining but probably by giving such a warning then the recline might b restricted "selfishly" by pax not allowing the recline by being aggressive to the pax wishing to recline...two sides to every story i maintain and if the carrier allows seats to go back then so be it - choose you carrier and cabin carefully.

Sorry, but in my opinion reclining your seat on a short haul flight is fairly selfish and nothing will change my mind about that unless the seat pitch is big enough not to cause an issue for the passenger sitting behind. However, the main issue was the 'couldn't care less' attitude of the fella. I still wouldn't do it myself.though because I know how irritating it is to me so I have no desire to possibly cause others discomfort or anxiety by being a hypocrit about it. It's possible they may not mind anyway but they might so I won't do it. Fortunately, none of the more recent flights I have been on have had reclining seats so it has not been an issue.