Posted on 08/31/2014 4:51:34 AM PDT by Kaslin
On Aug. 24, United Airlines diverted a Newark-to-Denver flight to Chicago's O'Hare International Airport after two passengers got into an argument. It started when a 47-year-old man used a device called the Knee Defender to prevent the 48-year-old woman in front of him from reclining her seat.
According to The Associated Press, a flight attendant told the male passenger that United does not allow the bracketlike gadget. He refused to remove it. The female passenger then threw water at the male passenger, which probably didn't thrill the passengers seated next to him. (He was in the middle seat.) The airliner's crew decided to arrive in Denver with two fewer passengers.
The story made national news because it hit home for so many travelers.
Airlines are flying fuller. Seat space has shrunk. The more crowded planes are the crankier passengers have become. Neither passenger is likely to be praised for his or her tact in dealing with others. As for the man in Row 12, he didn't need to use his people skills -- not when he had the $22 knee-protecting device, a tool custom-made for the passive-aggressive traveler.
Oddly, The Washington Post's Justin Moyer reports, the knee-jerk device was invented by a former aide to Pete Wilson, a Republican former California governor and U.S. senator. According to Bloomberg, the 6-foot-3-inch Ira H. Goldman got the idea in 1998, when he was flying a lot -- and his knees weren't enjoying the experience. On one flight, Goldman discovered that by laying an umbrella across his tray table, he could prevent the seat in front of him from reclining. He later tooled plastic clips that, if placed on a tray table, could keep the seat in front of a passenger in the upright position.
Goldman also invented a card to go along with his device. "Please do not recline your seat," it says. "I have provided you with this card because I have long legs and if you recline your seat you will bang into my knees. I realize that it can be nice to recline one's seat, but I hope you would agree with me that it should not be done at the expense of crushing someone else's knees -- especially if this risk is known from the outset." After some more whining, the card suggests that if inconvenienced, the fellow traveler should "please complain to the airline so that they might be inspired to provide a solution."
There's an ultra-phony close to the note: "Thank you. Have a nice flight."
The thing is that the airlines have a solution for too little legroom. It's called pricing.
United offers Economy Plus -- which, I was surprised to learn, is where the two evicted United Flight 1462 passengers were seated. Economy Plus gives customers an extra 4 inches of legroom. That extra room still wasn't enough.
I tried to get in touch with Goldman, but his website does not include an email address. I tried to send a message on the tortured "contact us" page but have no idea whether it got through. Do I detect a pattern? I believe that I do. The Knee Defender started as one man's way of not looking another person in the eye and figuring out how they could both get to their destination amicably.
I am a journalist. I can grouse with the gusto of a paid professional. And I appreciate a hearty "don't tread on me" spirit. But Goldman's approach is a recipe for air rage, and he knows it. His website instructs customers not to use the device if flight attendants tell them not to. And though I think it is not a hardship to fly in the upright position from Newark to Denver, there are people with back issues who might disagree.
As a onetime Republican aide, Goldman should know better than to blame the airlines. The American public wants cheap airfares. Airlines have given the public what it wants by selling full flights that offer less legroom and smaller seats. Those fares are the reason I can afford to fly cross-country for a weekend. Some people complain that airlines treat passengers like cattle; if so, that's because the public doesn't want to pay to be pampered. In the days when airlines pampered passengers, a smaller percentage of the public flew.
Goldman is engaging in magical thinking if he truly believes that his little cards will do anything to change how airlines operate. After all, jumbo jets may defy the laws of gravity, but the airline industry cannot beat the laws of economics.
Wasn’t that airline Midway?? They were wonderful and they were cheap. IIRC it was $79 from Raleigh to Fort Lauderdale. All first class seating and good food.
If you don’t want your knees crushed, fly friggin’ first class.
If she did, and the passenger told her it would be uncomfortable for him because of his height and she did it anyway, it was rude of her to do so. Anyway whatever happened to courtesy?
Fight on Flight
the simple solution is to put self loading freight
that weights more that 250# into the
porker section where the seats don’t recline.
I have been in that exact position. I’m 6’4” and have had the person in front of me try to recline the seat into my knees which were already against the seat back. She also flagged down the flight attendant who asked me if they could recline their seat into my space. I asked the flight attendant for some oil so that I could feel more like a sardine in a can. She walked away without saying a word.
Had my knees banged more than once by folks in front hitting the recline button and then slamming the seat back.
I am rather tall for a woman, 5’7” and rather long legged and sadly not so “trim” as I used to be, plus I have back problems.
When I flew to the UK last year, my first Trans-Atlantic flight, on US Airways, an Airbus, the seats were cramped but not as much as I was expecting in coach. Personally because of my back issues it is actually more comfortable for me to sit upright, but on such a long flight it might have been nice to recline, if even just a little bit to catch a few winks since once I landed in Manchester, I had a 3 hour + train ride to Hull and by the time I checked into my hotel, had up for over 24 hours.
But I noticed that the persons seated behind me, Brits coming home from a vacation trip to the US were traveling with a baby/toddler and the mom and dad were taking turns holding him as he was young enough not to have his own seat. And I have to say the baby was pretty well behaved although I did feel him kick the back of my seat a few times but it wasn’t excessive and each time he did, I heard a “So sorry mate” coming from behind me. I said, “It’s OK – babies will do what babies do”.
I would have been an inconsiderate idiot IMO to recline my seat back on this couple and their baby, so I didn’t.
The worst was when baby crapped in his diaper and there was a bit of a smell but then the dad very quickly whisked him off to the lavatory to change his “nappy” and clean him up, saying to each passenger he passed along the way, “So sorry, so sorry.”
There were two older American women seated in front of me and they reclined, but only after the flight attendants had turned down the lights and long after meal service and they didn’t “slam” the seat back and even after they did so, asked if I was “OK back there”, so while it cramped me a bit more, it was not anything that I found so uncomfortable that I felt the need to be a jerk about it so I said, “I’m OK”. The worst thing was I had re-adjust my video monitor as I was watching a movie.
On my return flight I was seated next to a woman from the UK who was traveling with her two teenage daughters who were on their way to Florida – going to Disney and then on to Miami Beach. Since I get preferred seating through our corporate travel agent, I had an aisle seat on the left side of the plane (the two seat section). The woman had the window seat but her daughters were seated in the center seats across the aisle. Before we took off and even though, being a bit claustrophobic and on the heavy side and preferring the aisle seat, I asked the woman if she wanted to change seats with me so she could be seated closer to her daughters. She thanked me profusely and we switched. During the flight when she got up to go to the lavatory, I told her, “I think I will go now too, that way I won’t have to make you get up or climb over you later.” She again thanked me for being so kind and considerate and we chatted at great length, quite enjoyably so, and as several times when I had to shift positions in my seat because of my back discomfort, she never complained.
Anyway whatever happened to courtesy?
Exactly. Just a little bit of common courtesy; a few “please’s”, “thank you’s”, “would you mind if I” and “excuse me’s”, and perhaps a “I know you can recline your seat and that it makes you more comfortable, but in doing so, I hits my knees and is quite painful for me, so would you mind terribly if I asked you to put your seat back up?”
No. For too many people now days being a jerk when they feel that their “personal space” has been invaded, rather than politely explaining it and politely asking for some courtesy, fly off the bat and act like jerks and causing the other person to react in kind.
You get what you pay for
Aleady been done....Allegiant Air;-)
Talking about your flight reminds me of a flight I was on a few years ago. I was seated at the window next to an enormously fat woman. She should have been asked to buy 2 tickets. She managed to wedge herself into her seat and then she VERY POLITELY tuned to me and said “ I think WE will be more comfortable if WE raise this arm rest”. I told her “NO WE won’t”.
I still had to lean away from her because her body poured over the arm rest and took part of my seat anyway. I remember having back pain from being forced to lean to the right for 4 hours. Air travel is not much fun.
I’m 6’ 1” and I never recline if there is somebody in the seat behind me because I think it is inconsiderate. This is based on years and years of frequent flyer travel. Unfortunately many people see nothing wrong with slamming their seat back into my face. So between the recliner in front and kid behind kicking the seat, air travel can be a truly miserable experience.
“De-Regulation” turned what was classy transportation into cheap mobility for the ‘Back-Packers’ and ‘Breast-Feeders’
Towards the end of their reign Midwest Express shortened their name to simply Midwest. They were later bought up by Air Tran. The comfort model was thrown out and the planes reconfigured.
Their slogan was “The Best Care in the Air”. Their service and comfort were unparalleled in the industry during their heyday.
An engine failure and subsequent crash of Flight 105 on September 6th 1985 shortly after takeoff unofficially changed that to “The Best Scare in the Air”. Two coworkers of mine were supposed to be on that flight; they missed it because they spent too much time in an airport lounge and missed the flight.
Drinking beer can sometimes save your life!
Ever try bulkheads?
This, of course, has nothing to do with airlines and reclining seats but all to do with the lack of civility in modern society. People throwing water at each other, refusing to let other recline the seats, it’s plain disgusting.
I've had several occasions when the seat recliner in front of me nearly crushed the lid (screen) on my laptop. The lid would catch under where the top of my tray table would be. When the person leaned the seat back my laptop would be crushed into the tray table by the lid. Nothing broken but I have had to act quickly or in some cases temporarily stop the recliner to rescue the laptop.
I just about always fly Southwest. If I can grab a bulkhead or exit row seat I go for it. Usually by the time I board, some 5-1 lady has take the seat.
I always go for bulkheads if I can them and I’m 5 foot. To the victor goes the spoils!
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