Be kind — don’t recline

To recline or to stay upright? The travelers' dilemma got some extra attention this week with news that Southwest Airlines plans to standardize the recline on all its seats to three inches, from a minimum of two inches in some aircraft to a maximum of 4.5 inches.

As the Wall Street Journal's Scott McCartney reports in this week's Middle Seat, most airlines have maintained their recline function even as space between seats has shrunken. That has lead to increased tension in the cabin, what with knees being slammed against laptops and passengers' hair falling in the face of those sitting behind.

Recline etiquette on board has always seemed pretty absent to me. It seems that most fliers - especially in cramped coach - feel that they'd better take advantage of the meager space they've been given, and go ahead and recline to the max, neighbor behind be damned.

McCartney updated his column with reader responses on Thursday. I was surprised to see how many people wrote in that they would rather not recline at all, as long as the person in front of them couldn't lean back either. Taking out the recline option altogether might make a lot of sense, and release pent-up anger among the stuffed masses suffering through a long coach flight.

I'll never forget my first trip home to New York from Rio de Janeiro's Galeao airport. I had just left my long-distance love at the airport. The visit had not gone well, and I was full of anger and emotion. Just after sitting down in a jam-packed coach flight facing ten hours of flying hell, a teenaged boy in front of me wearing earbuds let his seat slam all the way back, hitting my knees.

It was the last straw. I completely lost it and started shoving his entire seat back and forth and yelling at him to put up his seat. Incredibly, the youth seemed totally unfazed by my performance, and in fact ignored me and my command for the entire trip. While the whole episode was embarrassing and deeply upsetting, the truth is, it wasn't really the fault of the recline. That was just the catalyst.

Ever had an interesting experience with airplane seat etiquette? I'd love to hear your story. Write to: Barbara Correa at bboydstoncorrea@yahoo.com