Reclining Seat Etiquette

We’ve all been there.  The person in front of you reclines their seat 10 minutes into a 10 hour flight and inside you’re screaming ‘NOOOOOOO!’

Or we really feel the need to recline our own seat but think more of the person behind us because we know how we feel ourselves when we’re in that position.

I suffer with sciatica and can get uncomfortable on flights, especially long ones but still don’t recline my seat out of consideration for the person behind me.

So what is the etiquette when it comes to reclining your seat?

Just last month, a US flight was diverted after a passenger prevented another from reclining his seat.  She managed to do this using a lock called a Knee Defender which is clips which attach to the metal arms of the tray table making it physically impossible for the seat to be reclined.  This caused a dispute to break out and a glass of water to be hurled at the Knee Defender owner.

Earlier this year, a survey was conducted by Skyscanner which revealed that 9 out of 10 passengers wanted reclining seats banned.  Another survey carried out suggested that 60% of cabin crew had witnessed an argument break out due to a seat reclining passenger!

Ryanair have already taken out reclining seats and Monarch look set to follow suit.

So what is the etiquette when it comes to reclining seats? Do you recline? Do you get annoyed when the person in front of you does? Should reclining seats be removed and replaced with ones that don’t recline?

Let’s not get started on whose armrest is whoms 🙂