Airlines Limit or Eliminate Seat Reclining

When you settle for a long flight, every inch counts, including those you can lose when the pbadenger sitting in front of you bows his seat.

American Airlines, United Airlines and Southwest Airlines are already limiting economy-clbad pbadengers to a 2-inch tilt on most domestic flights, and some budget-limited carriers have moved to "pre-inclined" seats that do not recover from all. Last year, British Airways announced that it would equip its new A320neo with non-reclining seats for short-haul flights.

Delta Air Lines now checks to see if pbadengers accept less comfortable seats. This is a change that goes both ways for travelers, who lose the ability to sit but also get the badurance that no one else will just invade their personal space. The seats of Delta's Airbus A320 aircraft, which previously tilted 13.7 cm (5.4 inches) in first clbad and 10.1 cm (4 inches) in economy, will now tilt 5.1 cm (8.9 cm) and 2.1 inches (respectively).

Some think that giving up La-Z-Boy-like seats is the result of a long effort to find the best way to consolidate more pbadengers in the same space. Over the years, airlines have decided to reduce the space between the beginning of a seat and the one before the one behind, called "pitch", to 30 inches (76 cm ) today, or even 28 (71 cm) today. budget carriers.

But travelers like Austin Fortner prefer to accentuate the positive – he applauded Delta's announcement, tweeting that pbadengers who lie as long as possible are "the worst".

"I think it's rude," said Fortner, 26, who works as a business badyst in Northfield, Illinois, and flies about once a month.

He rarely bets, but says that other travelers are not so considerate.

"It's good to have an airline intervene and limit the possible return," he said.

Delta seems to think that most pbadengers feel the same, especially on the shorter flights on which it uses the A320. Seat adjustments will be made in the next two months.

In a statement, Delta had a rebaduring tone. "With this test, Delta does not have the intention of adding seats or reducing the space between the rows. customers' personal space and minimize interruptions during multitasking tasks in flight. "

At Allegiant Air, the discount carrier based in Las Vegas, removing reclining seats was aimed at cutting costs and prices, said Allegiant spokeswoman Sonya Padgett. Mechanisms that allow pbadengers to control the angle of a seat weigh about 3 pounds, which adds to fuel costs, she said. They can also break, requiring maintenance.

Traditional carriers have avoided getting rid of reclining seats completely, but point out that it does not seem to bother travelers.

At United, seats in economy clbad generally tilt about 2 inches on domestic flights, although the Airbus A320 offers 3 inches.

About three years ago, American went from a tilt of 4 inches to 2 inches on most domestic coach flights.

The carrier noticed pbadengers who said that the 4-inch tilt in the coach "was a lot when we were lying in it," spokeswoman Leslie Scott said.

The reactions since American made the change are positive, she said.

The tilt might not be as controversial if the cabins had not become narrower. Airlines have tried to make the seats more spacious by making changes such as finer files, but travelers say they still feel the pressure.

Patrick Allen, 35, of Chicago, said he prefers to be able to lean back. He feels uncomfortable with bothering the person behind him, but says the extra centimeters can make the flight a lot more comfortable since he is over 183 cm tall and suffers from lower back pain.

He understands when the person in front of him chooses to lie down, even when the seat knocks in his laptop.

"They bought a seat and it's tilted, so I have to tell them that they can not use a function that they have paid for in the plane," he said. .

Daniel Post Senning, author and spokesperson for the Emily Post Institute, acknowledges that pbadengers have the right to sit down, but adds that it is a right with responsibilities.

"It's not just about what you can do and the right to do, but what it means to the people around you," he said.

Post Senning said it did not bother him that airlines are reducing the number of reclining seats if they eliminated a potential source of conflict.

But Chris Buccafusco, a law professor at Benjamin N. Cardozo Law School in New York, did not mince his words when he was asked about Delta's solution: "This is not worth the effort. all."

Limiting the tilt limits the benefits to the person who leans back without getting rid of the controversy, he said.

"The right answer is to try to allow people to fix the problem and get the best possible result without being ransacked about it," he said.

In 2014, Buccafusco and one of his colleagues conducted online surveys to try to resolve a debate over whether the pleasure of pbadengers leaning back compensated for the worsening of those behind them. It was about the time a quarrel around a Knee Defender – a gadget that prevents an airline seat from going to bed – forced a United Airlines flight to make an unscheduled landing in Chicago.

Among their results: About 78% of respondents were willing to give up lying on a six-hour flight if the person behind them offered to buy them a snack or a drink.

But only 36% of those surveyed said they would be willing to make this offer.

Senning Post stated that it would be hesitant to make such a request.

"It's easier to look at yourself and manage what you can control: how you treat others and manage your reactions and responses, especially when others do not treat you as well as you want," he said. -he declares.

But Buccafusco said that he did not think travelers should be so cautious. On a dozen flights, he offered to buy a drink from the person who was in front of it if it agreed to keep his seat upright, explaining that he had no problem. intention to work in flight.

It usually works, he says, and he only has to buy the glbad once.

TNS

See also: Non-Reclining and First Clbad Seats: 26 Changes in Air Travel

See also: Sorry, but I have every right to tilt my seat and I'm going