Are you entitled to recline airplane seat regardless of objections from behind?

Upvote:4

This may be a question of opinion, but I have never understood how anyone can be so inconsiderate and entitled as to fully recline the seat of an airplane on anything other than long haul overnight flights. And even then, you do it with care, slowly and with consideration for the people behind you.

If you don't even bother to check behind you first, that just makes it worse. Reclining means you are greatly reducing my space, if you don't check behind you you can easily hit me, if I have things on the table they can be damaged, and is just plain rude and inconsiderate. We all have very limited space on planes, so the least we can do is try to be decent to each other and not hog all the space.

Reclining a little is one thing, but all the way back and without warning is, to me, a clear sign that the person sitting in front of me is selfish and inconsiderate. Your use of the term "entitled" is spot on, but it isn't the ones into whose faces you are pushing your chair who are entitled.

More generally, you are basically asking "is it OK for me to do what I want even if I am bothering others and they complain?" I hope the answer is obvious: of course it isn't! If your behavior is bothering other people, how would you think you somehow have a "right" to keep doing it? Yes, sometimes people object to things for no reason, but having a chair shoved into my face is a pretty good reason to object.

Now, it does sound like the person behind you was also not nice, kicking is hardly a good way of communicating, but I don't see how either one of you is shown in a good light here.

Upvote:4

We are not forced to keep the door open for the next person coming through the door, we are not forced to give priority to children or the senior citizens, we are not forced to do many other things, yet humans somehow decided that this is the "nice" thing to do. Sometimes it's in our favor, some other times it is not, that's how it works.

So, to answer your question: You are not forced by the rules, but it is the nice thing to do according to the unwritten human rules.

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