I saw a story on Slate.Com about a rant regarding reclining seats on aircraft.  It’s an issue near and dear to my heart.

Many airline industry enthusiasts defend the airlines when it comes to offering reclining seats.  This camp makes the specious argument that the seat is paid for so the passenger can do what they want.  This argument takes place on airliners owned by Ultra Low Cost Carriers such as Spirit Airlines as well as SuperLegacy airlines such as Delta.

Some can’t understand where the problem really came from because it wasn’t a complaint 20 or 30 years ago.  It really wasn’t.  Of course, 20 or 30 years ago the seat pitch in economy seating wasn’t an average of 31 inches either.   It was actually as much as 34 or 35 inches or roughly about what Economy Plus is being offered as today.

Another area where the argument gets lost is the different experiences that different people have with reclining seats.  Shorter people tend to not notice it nearly as much as taller people.  I’ve actually had women tell me that they find it more intrusive because they have breasts!  The truth is that even one inch can change a seat experience entirely.

What I find miserable on an American Airlines aircraft (31″ of seat pitch), I find perfectly acceptable on a Southwest Airlines aircraft (32″ of seat pitch).  Yes, one inch makes a big difference to many people.

Should seats in economy class be stopped from reclining?  I think they should.  We’ve made the seating area so restrictive at this point that people taken as a whole group will be more comfortable and less contentious on a flight with the recline feature disabled.  Leave it on Economy Plus seating but remove it from Economy seating.  In fact, design and buy seats with the feature never existing.  I suspect we’ll seat a weight savings that is significant enough that with 137 economy seats on a 737 with that feature removed will translate into real annual savings on fuel.

More importantly, we’ll see fewer conflicts and fewer bad attitudes.  Most of the conflicts I witness onboard an aircraft center on someone expressing their perceived constitutional right to recline a seat in the back of the airplane.  Reducing conflicts onboard an aircraft are very important, in my opinion.  Remove the flashpoints of contention and you potentially raise the perceived service experience.

One other thing:  You didn’t pay for the seat on the airplane.  In fact, you simply contracted with the airline to transport you from point A to point B.  The next time someone expresses their discomfort with your reclining your seat, show some polite consideration instead of being a snarling jerk.  It’s not the way you would have acted in virtually any other place so why act like that onboard an airplane?

Filed under: Airline Seating by ajax