Posted on 09/04/2014 5:04:32 AM PDT by Kaslin
You may not be 100 percent sure what you think about Vladimir Putin's maneuvers in Ukraine, Burger King's tax inversion, the indictment of Texas Governor Rick Perry, or Scotland's independence referendum. But you know exactly where you come down on the Great Airline Reclining Seat Controversy, don't you?
Everyone has an opinion on the passenger in Row 12 who caused an uproar on a United flight from Newark to Denver when he used a plastic bracket called the "Knee Defender" to block the woman in front of him from reclining her seat. When a flight attendant told the man to remove the gadget — which United, like most airlines, prohibits — he refused. The infuriated woman in Row 11, reported the Associated Press, "then stood up, turned around, and threw a cup of water at him." Whereupon the plane was diverted to Chicago, and the two passengers were ejected.
Three days later, another passenger was booted from another flight because of another struggle over legroom. American Airlines diverted a Miami-to-Paris flight to Boston, where Edmond Alexandre was arrested on charges of "interfering with a flight crew" after fighting when the seat in front him was reclined.
Small wonder these stories have struck a nerve. You don't have to be a frequent flyer to know how cramped air travel has become, or how maddening — not to mention kneecap- and laptop-endangering — it can be when the already minuscule space between you and the seat-back in front of you suddenly shrinks further because a passenger one row up leans back without warning. Nor is it hard to understand the frustration of a passenger with an aching back or a need to sleep who presses the recline button, only to discover that the seat has been deliberately immobilized by a fellow traveler.
But how did the battle between knee defenders and recliners turn into an all-or-nothing clash of rights?
"I own the right to recline, and if my reclining bothers you, you can pay me to stop," asserts economics reporter Josh Barro in The Upshot, a New York Times politics and policy website. "If sitting behind my reclined seat was such misery .?.?. someone would have opened his wallet and paid me by now."
Conversely, the Times's international business editor, Damon Darlin, is just as adamant in defense of his right — not his wish or preference, mind you, but his right — to attach a disabling clamp to the seat in front of him.
"The real problem is undefined property rights over the same four or five inches of space," Darlin maintains. "The person with the recliner button holds an advantage. The Knee Defender reallocates the rights."
Au contraire, argues the Financial Times in an editorial. An airplane ticket "is a contract that guarantees very few things, but the right to recline your seat at cruising altitude is one of them."
A plane ticket, of course, guarantees no such thing. Just as a concert ticket doesn't guarantee the right to view the stage unobstructed by a tall person right in front of you. Just as a hotel room reservation doesn't guarantee the right not to be disturbed by sounds from guests in the adjacent room or the corridor.
You can't always get what you want, to coin a phrase. That's routinely true of public accommodations, where our experiences — travel, dining, lodging, entertainment — must be shared with other human beings, in all their not-always-congenial variety. It makes life worse for all of us when people become so obsessed with their own satisfaction that they convince themselves they have a guaranteed right to it. Common courtesy and self-control used to be esteemed as indispensable to a healthy society. But the more we rely on law and regulation to maintain social order, the less we seem to emphasize good character and values.
Most air travelers, most of the time, don't descend into rudeness and selfishness. But as the obnoxious "I-have-a-right" mindset grows ever more entrenched, clashes like the one involving the Knee Defender are apt to proliferate. Barro wants to be paid not to recline into the lap of Darlin, sitting behind him. Darlin claims the freedom to "reallocate" Barro's ability to move his seat. Compromise? Consideration? Thoughtfulness? Nothing doing. For some people, the right to be a jerk trumps all.
What is the other side?
Do you feel entitled to shove your seat into someone else's face without any regard for their comfort?
Have you ever bothered to ask the person behind you if it would be ok to recline your seat? Or do you think that just because there is a recline button that you are privileged to use it and to hell with the person behind you?
Airplanes that were designed to carry 80 passengers are now carrying 120 passengers and the recliner seats were designed to be used in the former case. If you recline your seat without any consideration for the comfort of the person behind you, then your freeper handle is appropriate.
Don't expect to fly on the cheap and whine about being "inconvenienced." It is neither conservative nor Christian.
Yes.
Perhaps a privately founded campaign to allow more legroom is the answer?
You sound like a whiny bitch.
If you want an absolute guarantee that you will not have the indignity of the fellow in front of you reclining his seat, buy a business class ticket.
...airline seats are an excellent case study for the Coase Theorem. This is an economic theory holding that it doesn’t matter very much who is initially given a property right; so long as you clearly define it and transaction costs are low, people will trade the right so that it ends up in the hands of whoever values it most. That is, I own the right to recline, and if my reclining bothers you, you can pay me to stop. We could (but don’t) have an alternative system in which the passenger sitting behind me owns the reclining rights. In that circumstance, if I really care about being allowed to recline, I could pay him to let me.Don’t Want Me to Recline My Airline Seat? You Can Pay Me. New York Times, August 27, 2014.
The answer, I'm afraid, is that if you want more legroom you'll just have to pay more. Either buy Economy+ (or whatever your airline of choice calls it) to get those extra three inches of legroom or splurge and move up to First. Airlines have listened to their customers and have decided that most people want the lowest possible fare, no matter the discomfort that goes with it.
I agree. Ultimately, the property rights are held by the airline itself, not the passengers, with limited exception.
On short flights (less than five hours) I typically don’t recline my seat anyway. I really only care about it on longer flights.
There is a 2-dimensional view to the problem or a 3-dimensional view.
They are not compatible.
Sadly, people like to mix both viewpoints.
Well, I think that if the seat can recline you should be able to decline. That stupid device the guy has is really tampering with Airline equipment. If that is okay I can think of a ton of other little gadgets I’d like to employ to make my ride more comfy and less comfy for others.
That said, I personally do not recline because as another poster said it is much more uncomfortable at that angle which is not a true recline, than simply staying upright.
So I suppose based on my preference I won’t run into this issue. Which is good.
There are no “Business class” tickets on Southwest.
It is simply rude to recline your seat without taking into consideration the person behind you. A Christian would take into consideration the person whom you are about to invade and at least ask that person if they wouldn't mind if they reclined. That would be the polite thing to do. 99 times out of 100 the person would be appreciative of your courtesy and grant you the permission. However when you just shove your seat back without any consideration for how it is affecting the poor slob behind you, you are being an ass (which is what you sound like ).
I’m glad this country is finally having this discussion! Maybe fewer people will think twice or ask before reclining their seats.
It isn’t very Christian of you to call someone an “ass”, is it?
Your opinion is not gospel. It is your opinion.
I don’t like smelling the bad breath of the person sitting next to me on planes. Should I tell the guy not to breathe?
Or the guy next to me who is fat. Should I tell him to suck it in the entire flight?
These flights are uncomfortable for all on the plane sitting in economy. Suck it up like the rest of us.
www.southwest.com/businessselect
Of course, there are no business class seats on Southwest. But, you can buy this ticket or just pay extra for priority boarding and then proceed to an exit row or bulkhead seat with plenty of legroom and without reclining issues.
Personally, I think you’re absolutely correct.
However, it would seem there is a significant number of leggy Freepers who’d be ready to start a fistfight to prevent reclining.
So, don’t fly Southwest if you don’t like the seats.
If I may briefly interrupt your whiny, butt-hurt diatribe, please read my post where I stated that I look to make sure I’m not crushing the guy behind me when I recline my seat.
You, Sir, should reconsider your air travel purchase choices if this is such a major issue for you. If you don’t like flying Southwest, don’t! Fly on United or another carrier with more leg room. If you want to have tons of room and don’t want to see the seat in front of you reclined, then fly Business on a carrier which offers the standard of seating you apparently require.
I’m a Christian.
The truth is, if I need to recline because I need to sleep or my neck and back hurts, I will recline my seat.
If the person behind me has a problem with it, he can let me know. If I feel his issue is serious and he is polite when letting me know, I will put my seat up.
Better yet: Pay the next seat up to be as comfortable and reclined as he wants.
I hope you realize that your tag line is speaking of democratic legislators and negotiating what he could get in legislation, not in choosing candidates for his party.
This is what Reagan said about choosing republican candidates.
“We don’t intend to turn the Republican Party over to the traitors in the battle just ended. We will have no more of those candidates who are pledged to the same goals as our opposition and who seek our support. Turning the Party over to the so-called moderates wouldn’t make any sense at all.”- Ronald Reagan
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