A question for those who love sitting next to fatties on planes...

[Blarg]

Have to agree that the right to use your laptop is nowhere near as important as someone's right to full use of their seat to fit their body comfortably.

[mbillie1]

[prohornblower]

for the record, I don't recline based on whether or not the dude in front of me does. If I want to recline, I recline, and if I don't, I don't. I don't know where the idea of this "domino effect" came from. I've never had the person in front of me recline and thought "God what a jerk, now I have to recline!!! But let me turn around and tell the person behind me I'm not a jerk for reclining, but am solely doing it because the jerk in front of me did it." Yeah...cuz somehow that makes me less of a douche than the guy in front of me. lol. It's not like a sporting event where the jerks in the front row stand up for no reason causing everyone behind them to stand.

[Duke]

I'm pretty sure we should be blaming all of this on the airlines, and not the people reclining. Depending on the seat, I actually need to recline to sit straight up. See, a bunch of these airline seats have an immovable headrest that causes the top of the seat to protrude further than the rest of the seat. This headrest hits me in the middle of my back, so not reclining forces me to lean forward. Takeoffs and landings are terrible for me, and I'd bet that a hard landing would damage my back when in this position.

As soon as someone invents an alternate method of transportation that I can use to basically get all around the world, I will be using it.

[El Diablo]

Yeti: It's imo unreasonable to expect to be able to use a laptop in coach.

All: A friend of mine is 6'10". He books flights very early and gets to the airport very early. He does this to assure himself an exit row or other preferable seating. He has never had a problem. Sure, sometimes last minute things come up, I understand that. But I have zero sympathy for the 6'6" guy who arrives at the airport 45 mins before his flight and gets stuck in a cramped middle seat. If you have special needs, put in the effort to plan ahead.

[Blarg]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm pretty sure we should be blaming all of this on the airlines, and not the people reclining. Depending on the seat, I actually need to recline to sit straight up. See, a bunch of these airline seats have an immovable headrest that causes the top of the seat to protrude further than the rest of the seat. This headrest hits me in the middle of my back, so not reclining forces me to lean forward. Takeoffs and landings are terrible for me, and I'd bet that a hard landing would damage my back when in this position.

As soon as someone invents an alternate method of transportation that I can use to basically get all around the world, I will be using it.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is true for me too. The headrest definitely cranks my head forward and down, which is an absurd position to try to sit in. Reclining lets me get my shoulders higher on the seat so I'm not getting a neck crank the whole flight.

[Cancuk]

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\ The [censored] chair reclines like 10 degrees thereby not increasing your comfort in any way, shape or form. In fact

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Def not true. I always find it a surprising amount of more comfort when I decline my seat. Sitting straight up and rigid is very uncomfortable IMO.

[Duke]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
\ The [censored] chair reclines like 10 degrees thereby not increasing your comfort in any way, shape or form. In fact

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Def not true. I always find it a surprising amount of more comfort when I decline my seat. Sitting straight up and rigid is very uncomfortable IMO.

[/ QUOTE ]

So you're saying that you stand up for the entire flight, or you just never fly?

@diablo - a lot of times it's impossible to plan ahead for business trips, and a lot of times I end up billing in a lump sum so I deal with the crappy seat since I'm paying for it. I don't bitch that much. People sitting next to me is more of a problem than the people in front of me.

[blinden84]

[ QUOTE ]
Yeti: It's imo unreasonable to expect to be able to use a laptop in coach.

All: A friend of mine is 6'10". He books flights very early and gets to the airport very early. He does this to assure himself an exit row or other preferable seating. He has never had a problem. Sure, sometimes last minute things come up, I understand that. But I have zero sympathy for the 6'6" guy who arrives at the airport 45 mins before his flight and gets stuck in a cramped middle seat. If you have special needs, put in the effort to plan ahead.

[/ QUOTE ]

I do this too, but it's all about discourteous behavior by people. I would love to sit with my girlfriend on a long flight, but if there are other tall people and no more exit rows, she'll move and sit elsewhere. People only account for themselves and not others.

A large number of the replies are "pay for first class" etc. Think about it from the perspective of we paid the same amount for this ticket, yet, I'm drastically more uncomfortable then you by no fault of my own.

Also account for deep vein thrombosis from this situation, If I ever experienced this from a flight, I would sue the airline in a second, and I'm not a sue crazy person, but I would just want to get their attention the only way possible, by attacking their bottom line.

-- also, reclining the seat, for a tall person, doesn't give them more leg room, I have seen a few people making this argument and it doesn't make sense, I can sit upright for hours, its my legs that hurt, not my back.

[prohornblower]

Sidetopic: What's worse? A loud talker behind you, or a recliner in front of you?

I'd say the loud talker, everytime. Unless he's like, really funny or something.