Flight diverts to Boston over reclined-seat argument

I bet these reclined seat arguments were in cattle, er, sardine, er, economy class. If you are over 175cm tall, when the person in front of you reclines their seat, it touches your knees, and the taller you are, the more your knees get crushed. Plus there's no way for you to watch the screen on the back of the seat in front of you in the reclined position.

This story had me laughing my butt off, but on the flip side, it's a very serious and annoying, perplexing issue. The planes are being designed to accommodate more seating and tighter spaces. Personally, I refer to the airline industry as the Mafia of the air ways. They add this outrageous surcharges, a lot of the food is lousy, they lose your luggage, crappy edited versions of films and on and on and on top of that, you have a person that 187 cm and they want to recline their seat all the way into your lap to the point that you can see their dandruff and I don't see this problem getting better anytime soon. The airline industry can get away with all this because they know, you have no other to travel long distances, unless you have time to spend a few weeks on a cruise ship. As people are getting bigger and the seats on the plane are getting tighter, I'm afraid we will see more of this.

it's a very serious and annoying, perplexing issue. The planes are being designed to accommodate more seating and tighter spaces. Personally, I refer to the airline industry as the Mafia of the air ways

bass -- spot on. You can't treat people as animals and not expect this kind of behavior.

But seriously, I can't recline my seat on a 10 hour flight because of your big a$$?

I have no doubt you have already reclined your seat fully with no regards to the person behind you.

If you don't want to deal with people reclining their seats, sit in business class, purchase flights that allow you to reserve bulkhead seating, or don't fly. But if you tell me not to recline my seat, you'll get a polite, yet firm 'sorry, I don't like sitting with my seat straight up'.

Flying is the time when I am thankful I am only 153cm! Stowing my hand luggage overhead can be a bit of a problem though.

"If you don't want to deal with people reclining their seats, sit in business class"

And pay 3-4 times the price of an economy seat?

There has to be some government regulation to put a stop to this race to the bottom in flying comfort. Let's here it for capitalism dropping the ball once again.

@Okinawamiike and Strangerlkand:

Well, unfortunately for guys like you, many airlines are now installing seats that do not recline in economy so if you want to lean back, YOU pay for business class.

My wife and I try to avoid traveling by air, if at all possible, for obvious reasons.

Why do we not hear of these kind of problems occurring on Japanese carriers? Are they doing something different?

SerranoAug. 29, 2014 - 01:50PM JST "If you don't want to deal with people reclining their seats, sit in business class" And pay 3-4 times the price of an economy seat?

Point is, you have a choice. If you don't like it, take a ship or train.