I’ve written about the seat recline debate on many occasions, but finally experienced a real-life incident on my recent British Airways flight.
My position has been consistent over the years. Whether you recline your seat is your prerogative, not the prerogative of the person behind you. Even though a reclined seats often results in an uncomfortable position for the person behind you, that is the reason their seat reclines as well.
There are two exceptions. First, one should always recline their seat gradually. A sudden recline may result in a broken laptop. Second, seats should rarely be reclined during meal service (there are exceptions).
I was seated far in the back of the aircraft in 38H. Of course, my seat was up for the meal service. Of course, I reclined my seat gradually. But that wasn’t good enough for the passenger seated behind me.
He was a portly German gentleman, probably in his late 60s. He began cursing as I reclined my seat, then hitting it. I turned around and glared at him and he said nothing.
I turned back around and he began muttering to himself in German, cursing me out (assuming I was an Englishman and calling me some choice expletives). Zoning him out, I leaned back to go to sleep.
About 20 minute later he began shaking my seat. I got up and turned around. He made motions for me to put my seat up.
I proceed to lecture him, without expletives, in German that it was my right to recline my seat and that I had no choice when the person in front of me also reclined.
He was shocked that I spoke to Germany and quickly shut up. I did not hear from him again during the flight.
When we landed, I offered him my hand and noted that economy class is difficult for everyone. He nodded and shook my hand back, noting that due to our late arrival he had missed his connection to Dusseldorf.
CONCLUSION
Tight seat pitch leads to air rage, but it is a reality of flying in economy class. I’m glad my own incident did not spiral out of control.
I love the double standards in our media. You are allowed to call the man overweight and call out his nationality. You would never had done that if it was a fat black woman, for instance. Ridiculous!
Totally off-topic comment.
But I guess I missed the chapter on the persecution on white German men in my world history class.
By your logic, if a group of people have been persecuted in the past, they are exempt from being called out in the present?
The fact that Angry German (AG) is portly is of consequence here as it presumes he had less “free” space betwixt his body and Matt’s seat. Thus, Matt’s reclining was likely much more of an infringement upon AG’s personal space than it might’ve been otherwise. His nationality is also of interest because Matt spoke to him in German which seems to have diffused the situation.
Shame on you for trying to race-bait the comments section.
AdamR, I’m not sure I understand — are you saying that AG was entitled to more physical space because he was overweight?
No, Andy K, merely that he was perhaps more responsive to the loss of it because of his weight.
Well said.
Um, nowhere in this does Matthew mention the race of the passenger. How do you know this passenger wasn’t black?
Uhm. Matthew said he was German. A race is a grouping of humans based on shared physical or social qualities into categories generally viewed as distinct by society.
Umm… Andy K: as you stated in your original post, “German” is also a signifier of nationality or citizenship which are independent of physical or social ‘qualities’. Citizenship can be achieved via having a German parent, being born in Germany, or naturalization. Thousands of US citizens of all ‘races’ are also Germans via dual citizenship. You are the one who injected skin color into the discussion, not Matthew. OTOH, I will stipulate that he didn’t provide any conclusive evidence that the fat man wasn’t Austrian…
Keyboard warrior talking absolute rubbish, get a life
I wish economy seats didn’t recline at all. The ability to recline my own seat does nothing to relieve the pains visited in my knees and legs of a seat in front of me reclines.
Agreed, for me it’s about the knees, and the knees of the person behind me. Reclining my seat does not help.
+1
Classy way you handled this Matthew. Good job.
Class move. I am not surprised.
Good story, and you handled it beautifully. Someone who doesn’t speak german would have trouble pulling this one though!
Achtung, baby!
Sorry, couldn’t resist…
Little wonder the Germans relish giving Theresa May hell over Brexit.
Are you not a man ?
Grow a pair next time .
You sit and take that ?
Then come and tell like you are proud .
Thanks for the story Ms.
The man doesn’t have a right to swear under his breath? Both times the man touched my seat, I addressed it. After the second time, it did not happen again. What am I missing?
No, he handled it perfectly. Why would you seek to escalate rather than diffuse? That would only make matters worse. No doubt this situation was difficult for the German gent as well: trapped in the sardine can-like BA seat from hell, anxious about his connection and at a stressful time of year.
Okay. So, basically, Matthew speaks German and believes that being portly may speak to the character of grumpy people.
Is that it?
I hate to be reclined into and also feel bad about reclining myself. Plus, the amount of recline on a typical economy seat doesn’t do much for my ability to rest or sleep, either.
I’d be quite happy if they got rid of the recline function entirely.
Reduced seat legroom onboard aircraft, increases the potential of:
– Passenger stress
– Unpleasant situations between passengers
– Panic attack
– Muscle pain
– Thrombosis
– Passenger confrontation
I struggle in economy seats so now only go business class for holidays. I leave the wife at home to mitigate the cost.
I like that solution….!
I always feel bad when I recline my seat that’s why i ask the person behind me first if it’s ok with them. I wish more people would just take a few seconds and ask first. There’s no harm in it.
What do you do if they say no? If one believes that one has a right to recline, then asking is giving the person behind you a false impression that they actually have a say in the matter. Matt’s rationale is that the seat is designed to recline therefore he has a right to recline it even if the person behind does not want it reclined.
Love the power play of rinsing him in German!
Also Adam K is very wrong. This is blog about travel for travellers and we are better than that hate.
After reading thru’ these posts I came to the conclusion that they were far more interesting than the original piece.
I am about to embark on a 12 hour journey by plane and it is not the first time so I understand what the writier is say and I get the gist of what these comments are saying.
It seems freedom of speech sometimes oversteps its mark with some people.
I am a person of colour and would have said German if he had been German and French, Spanish, Italian if the person in question had been of said nationality.
The problem here lies in the fact that when we read what is written, it is taken out of context…a lot of the time.
We really do need to get over that.
Born in the early 60s, educated to a standard, and of an upstanding manners and ability to know how behave correctly in public I believe that education plays a large key in how people view race, colour and nationality nowadays. Not to mention socially.
Somehow, we seem to have lost the plot.
A good book, my iPhone filled with music, a decent pair of headphones designed to not molest those around me and my iPad filled with flicks will be accompanying me in order to get me thru’ my “ordeal” if I should be unlucky to find a seat pushed so far back that I cannot enjoy my inflight experience…
With those weapons in my onboard hand luggage I believe I will be able to endure my trip.
And would you believe I even dieted for this trip. So I guess I am even more prepared than some.
Well done Matthew.
Elegant, class act to offer your hand in reconciliation at the end. Well done!
If you recline into my knees and cause them damage, I will sue you for battery.
Such a suit would be completely groundless. It is simply not negligent for the passenger in front of you to recline their seat in a normal manner, which it is designed to do. You could try to sue the airline. Good luck with that.
Handled it like a true gentleman. Firm but respectful.
It’s one thing to have seats that don’t recline for short flights, say up to 3 hours – but quite another for flights longer than that, and especially for an overnight, long haul intercontinental flight.
The real problem is the continued insistance by airline managers who fly in premium cabins that NEVER, EVER have to worry about the indiginities and discomfort they intentionally create to better line their own pockets, yet whom seem to think its perfectly OK to create teensy-weensy seats packed into 31” pitch, no legroom rows that they never have to subject their precious, royal bums squeezing into.
Fact is, aircraft used for long-haul flights should be subjected to a minimum row pitch of 32”-33” and 18” wide seats.
Using high density confirgurations that were originally designed for short hops on domestic routes in Japan is one thing.
Subjecting adults to those types of seats and row pitches for flights lasting 3-16 hours is immoral and unconscionable – especially when the fat cats in the C-suite and greedy shareholders never, ever deign to sit in the awful seats that seek to profit so handsomely off of others from,
I’d love to see how long these shameful 31” row pitch seats remained at BA, United, American, Delta et al if the likes of Alex Cruz, Oscar Munoz, Doug Parker, Glen Hauenstein & all of those Wall Street “Analysts” actually had to sit in these despicable seats for their flights all the time as most flyers do.
I’d bet they’d be ripped out ASAP if they had to fly in the shamefully small seats they expect most of us to squeeze into.
If these seats are not good enough for the folks in the C-Suite, then they shouldn’t be sold at all.
Their hypocrisy and greed is shameful and disgusting.