I would like your advice on a situation I encountered on an evening transatlantic flight. About 45 minutes after takeoff the gentleman in front of me fully reclined his seat and I decided to relax for the long haul and did the same. The woman behind me didn?t want me to put my seat back because she felt my seat was ?in her face?. When I tried to recline my seat she tried to push my seat forward. I asked her if she wanted to trade seats, pointing out that since the flight departed at 8:30pm I was planning on sleeping so I could be rested when we landed. She replied, ?No! I just want to enjoy my wine without it in my face!? I pointed out that we were in coach, no one has a lot of space and she could either swap seats with me or deal with my reclined seat. She didn?t reply. I reclined and went to sleep. Just curious, how would you have handled the situation?

I never fully recline my seat during short flights, but on an evening transatlantic is it unreasonable?

I think you handled it perfectly. Anyone who takes an overnight flight to Europe has no reason to expect to sit up comfortably and not let others recline to sleep.
If she had persisted, I would have called the attendant and asked if it was true that you are not allowed to recline and sleep on the flight.

As the woman, i.e. the reclinee, I suppose I might have asked the recliner to postpone reclining for ten minutes until I'd finished my glass of wine. As the recliner, I might have said "I'm interested in hearing your concerns, and if it helps, I'll postpone reclining my seat for ten minutes." Note that I'd offer this only to satisfy my own need to negotiate, not to try and win her approval or mollification (which likely could be impossible.)

If the reclinee continued to make a fuss, I'd say, with all sincerity, "If you feel I am misusing airline equipment by reclining my seat, I urge you to take up the matter immediately with the FA, since I passionately believe that passengers should not abuse airline equipment." Given that the airline has installed reclinable seats, it is difficult to argue that to use them as designed is an abuse of the EQUIPMENT. Note that this circumvents the more tricky question as to whether the occupiers of the equipment (recliner or reclinee) are being abused by the seat either not being reclined, or reclined, as the case may be.

I dont agree with that..You should give some consideration to the people behind you also.
It is hard and uncomfortable flying in coach without having the people in front ,like the lady saidquot;without having the sit on her face".

Not everyone is lucky enough to sleep in an international flight..

I think you handled that with such diplomacy!
I wholeheartedly agree with Patrick! As an overnight flier, I have had waaay too many nights of trying desperately to sleep while the wide awake sitting behind me, keep their lights on and talk full volume until we land..
Aahh for the good old days when more people had an idea of what "etiquette" was!

I agree with Patrick, you handled it correctly. In a recent thread, I commented that I think it is rude when in coach someone just reclines their seat without looking to see who's behind them and without regard to whether they jam it into someone's knees. But on an evening transatlantic flight, you should certainly expect that people will (and have every right to) recline, try to get as comfortable as possible and sleep. If she didn't want a seat in her face on an overnight flight, she should have sprung for the extra bucks for business class.

It wouldn't have mattered if she had changed seats with you as she would be in the same predicament there. You stated that the gentleman in front of you was also fully reclined. Its a difficult situation as I have been on the receiving end of people fully reclining in front of me and being forced to be uncomfortable the entire flight. When you are tall its even worse. I guess its your right to recline, but I defintely feel for the woman behind you. I usually don't recline (maybe part way - but not fully) if someone is behind me and I appreciate it when the person in front of me does the same. Its uncomfortable enough for all of us back there. Wish we all had the bucks to fly first class or the airlines would give us all a few more inches back in coach. Its a loose loose situation.

I agree with the previous poster; this is a loose-loose situation. As a courtesy, I don't fully reclined ny seat on transatlantic flights. A fully reclined seat doesn't seem to make much of a difference for my comfort, but it makes a big difference for the passenger behind me. Therefore, I tilted just a bit and make due. On our latest trip back from Paris, the young lady in front of me reclined all the way and then gave me dirty looks when I grabbed on to the seat to stand up; like I had a choice the way her seat was on my face. This is a matter of making the best of a bad situation, not only for you, but for a fellow passenger. By the way, I have only seen a flight attendant intervened once. On that ocassion, she asked the passenger to straightened the seat so a window passenger in the back seat could get through and go on to the restroom. The person was not happy; jerks abound.

Good for you Maira...we do the same

Maybe the lady should have requested a bulkhead seat. Seats only recline a few inches so I can't imagine that it would make a difference to partially recline or fully recline. It's really the airline's fault for cramming everyone in like sardines.

I defy anyone to document, with a photograph, a seat where the position of the seat back has any influence of the POSITION of the tray table available to the passenge seated behind it. Tray tables are attached down at the "hinge" angle, between the seat and its seatback.

While it is true that a seatback "infringes" on the "airspace over" a tray table, the tray table's position does not move when a seat in front of it is reclined. Given that wine (all beverages?) would typically be served in short squatty, little plastic cups, I am having trouble picturing how this would cause any problem with setting the cup there, and probably not even the short individual-sized wine bottle it came in.

I think that jengray exhibited exemplary etiquette. I think that when the woman behind her "tried to push her seat forward", there was plenty of cause to ask airline staff to have this very rude behavior curbed or reprimanded.

Airline seats recline with good reason - - they are more comfortable for extended "resting" or sleeping; they are engineered to take into consideration whose "personal space" is affected. Except when you are directed otherwise by airline staff, reclining your seat is neither rude nor presumptuous, and the space it occupies is part of the space provided to you when you bought and paid for your seat.

Best wishes,

Rex

Coach passengers want it all and, when some don't get it, they can get pretty ugly. As long as the airline offers seats that fully recline, you have every right to recline them fully, no matter what time of day. Consideration of the person sitting behind you is OPTIONAL, it does not automatically come with the price of a Coach Class ticket.

Frankly, I thought you handled the situation nicely. Depending on my mood, that woman behind you could have been wearing her wine with the glass shoved down her throat. Now you know why I spend more or Business. It keeps me out of trouble.

Depending on the aircraft, there are certain seats that create greater or lesser degrees of difficulty. In some seats, you may not be able to stow your tray table if the person in front of you is fully reclined. I look for seats that minimize the amount of inconvience that I can cause to others and vice versa. That said, SOMEBODY is going to have to sit in those other seats and a little consideration goes a long way. Some people are just plain rude and it manifests itself in many ways; from hogging overhead bin space to reclining during meal times even when they are awake, grabbing every seat back on their way up and down the aisles, loud talking, banging everyone with their baggage while boarding and in a host of other ways.

Recently, I saw a fellow who was going to teach his son how to be nobody's fool by occupying a seat that wasn't his, spreading out tons of stuff in the empty seat next to him and hassling the flight attendant for an upgrade every five minutes. It was a real pleasure when the person with the correct seat number showed up and the FA gave this pair a firm come-uppance that literally resulted in them being put in back their place(s).

As for the original poster, I think the situation was handled quite correctly. It definitely was a lose-lose situation and there is nothing that says a polite person must always be the one who gives in when that happens. A compromise was offered and even though a perfect solution was not available, that was all that could be done.

Rex--- reagarding your post, check the site for Knee Defenders, a product designed for the tall man flying behind an agressive seat recliner: http://www.kneedefender.com/html2/how_to.htm

From this website:
"The right to recline my seat ends where the other man's knees begins."

- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
U.S. Supreme Court Justice

(Joke; actual quote: "The right to swing my fist ends where the other man's nose begins.&quot

Let's get real and try to play nice, shall we?

I follow 2 rules of etiquette:
1. Don't recline your seat during meal service.
2. Slowly recline your seat, don't push the button and go crashing back.

I think it should be regulated that airlines have at least a 38" minimum seat pitch. This would raise fares, and that would hurt some travelers, but it would also reduce the overcrowding at the airports, and reduce the schoolyard antics that are caused when a passenger dares to recline a reclinable seat.

Whatever happened to consideration for other people?

seats on planes recline so that people can sleep. overnight flights are designed for people to sleep. why in the world would anyone think that a person who wants to sit up all night is more important than someone who wants to sleep all night?

I agree with Maira...When I travel I ALWAYS Remember that There Are People Behind ME...

As to Travel First class....If I could afford I would be the first ONE in line...

A little bit a Courtesy toward other people ,DOES NOT HURT ANYONE...is FREE, and it comes with Having Good MANNERS..

I guess I'm really confused here. I think I am a very mannerly person. But why do some people think it is bad manners for a person to want to recline and sleep on an overnight flight, but NOT think it's bad manners for a person to demand that the person in front of them can't be comfortable? Why is it considered bad for a person in front to make the person behind uncomfortable, but it is perfectly acceptable for the person in back to make the person in front of them uncomfortable? What makes the person who insists on sitting up right, and the person who wants to recline wrong? Especially when this is an overnight flight and I'm assuming dinner is over.