Quote:
Originally Posted by timpage
I see there have been at least two physical altercations on airliners in the past week relating to a passenger's use of the seat recline feature. Good.
I am 6'2", 195 lbs. and have to suppress a nearly irresistible urge to bash anybody who is sitting in front of me on an airplane who reclines their seat into my lap. It is absolutely beyond me why airlines still allow this feature on their airplanes. We are crammed into tiny little seats with inadequate leg and arm room anyway and then the person in front of us can recline their seat until it is almost touching the tip of my nose? It is bullshit.
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The problem isn't the recline feature. It is the seat spacing.
We are the same height. I have been on some AA flights where premium seating has several inches of space in front of my knees and the recline is no problem.
On the other hand, I made the mistake of taking a random seat assignment on Spirit and got crammed into an extra small seat in the back. I had to split my legs in a V to avoid crushing my knee caps. When the woman in front reclined, there was less than a foot of space between my chin and the top of her seat. Fuck Spirit. Never again.
This is one case where the government clearly DOES have a role to play. There should be a regulation on the minimum seat spacing so that people up to about 6'4" can sit without knees hitting. And seat widths should be at least 21 inches, not 19.
Seat size should be standardized. Let the airlines compete on price, service, on-time arrivals, not losing luggage, convenient routes and times.
They shouldn't be competing on how many seats they can cram into a plane in order to lower fares. That isn't going to be something a consumer will be able to find out easily. No airline is going to advertise that their rows are all two inches closer so they can squeeze an extra row or two on the plane.
I never would have taken that seat on the Spirit flight if I had known how small it was. It was not worth the cheap airfare. But how am I supposed to know that if they don't list the seat spacing when you buy the ticket?