I was on the 2nd leg of a trip back home, flying from Vienna to Washington D.C. I was already desperately tired after being in Armenia for a few weeks. It was daylight out for the duration of this flight, and I was looking forward to tilting my seat back a few inches in an attempt to get a little sleep.
Well, I put it into position, put in some earplugs, closed my eyes, and as soon as I was reclined, I felt someone pushing against the lower back of my seat. I thought maybe it’s a kid playing around and kicking the seat. I thought it would stop after a few minutes, but it didn’t. I turned around and lo and behold, it was a middle aged Indian woman who didn’t appreciate me trying to invade 4 inches of her space; the kicking continued. I refused to bring my seat up, however, and let her deal with it for the rest of the flight. (Did I mention I’m 6’3″?!?)
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Sucks to be her.
Everyone complains about reclining seats. Fact is, seats are uncomfortable, and on a long flight, that little recline can make a big difference.
Now, I'm a fairly big guy – I don't overflow my seat, but I fully fill it. When someone reclines their seat in front of me, I have a bit of claustrophobia case and feel trapped, so instead of complaining, I recline my seat as well – problem solved.
The issue with the recline comes into play when those that DO recline don't consider the people behind them at all. They do things like :
Recline the seat at rocket speed
so that cups and items on the
tray table behind them go flying
or they bang the person's knee.
Recline all the way in the next
to last row if not required, and
trap the people behind them who
can't recline.
Stand up to go to the bathroom
and are gone for 1/2 an hour
leaving the seat still reclined.
Reclining a seat for a child
who doesn't even fill the seat
and is sitting in it sideways,
thus, getting zero benefit
from the recline.
As uncomfortable as it is for me to be BEHIND a reclining seat (especially when I'm in the last row), I certainly don't begrudge anyone that right – as long as they're decent about it.
Being that I’m only 5’2” I cannot sympathize with your height problem but I do not begrudge someone from reclining their seat at a reasonable speed as long as they don’t end up in my lap. A few inches is fine. As for her, she was far more rude, instead of kicking your chair, she should have simply asked you to move up an inch or so, at which point you could have complied or refused. But kicking someone’s chair is just childish.
I smell bullshit. This is just a made up story with a sprinkle of racism because some Indian somewhere pissed you off. I simply cannot believe that someone was kicking you non stop. I think that kicking constantly would be more uncomfortable than dealing with a little less space or 4 inches of space as you put it.
Apparently, iamdogmatic, you've never experienced this. There actually ARE people who would spend an hour kicking someone's seat on a plane. I've experienced that myself. People will do amazingly retarded things – don't kid yourself.
Having been a frequent flier for some 30 years now, I absolutely believe this person's account of what happened.
Also – there was nothing "racist" about the story, and to infer that inflammatory at best.
Oh there are certainly people out there who are just immature and just stupid enough to spend an entire flight kicking a seat out of spite. Those people are rare, and apparently incapable of functioning in a civilized society, but they are out there.