Over the weekend, I flew the short distance between Sydney and Melbourne — an easy hour's flight in good weather. But it was an early departure time, and although I was exhausted, I didn't dare recline my seat while I snoozed, for fear of reprimand from the person behind me.
But it got me thinking: What is the correct etiquette for reclining your seat on domestic flights?
I’m sorry, but if you recline your seat on an airplane, you are forcing me to believe that you are probably a bad person.
When you're flying internationally from Australia, any trip abroad is a fairly lengthy one, so I'm all for reclining that seat outside mealtimes. But when your airtime is just a couple of hours long, is it still acceptable to recline and rest?
In the comments, Aussies seemed fairly evenly split on the debate — sharing their insights and examples as to why one should or shouldn't recline.
Here are some of the best responses.
1. "I either don't recline my seat or only slightly recline it on domestic flights, but I don't really care all that much if the person in front of me does. If anyone desperately needs the space in front of them to work, then they can always buy business class tickets."
2. "Maybe I need the space in front of me so I can fit in the seat and be comfortable. Not my fault I'm over 6 foot, and I shouldn't have to buy a business class ticket just so I don't have my knees wedged into a seat because some inconsiderate twat can't sit upright for a flight that's less than two hours."
3. "Your ticket buys you a right to a seat; the seat is provisioned by the airline. If you don't like the way the seat works, buy business class, buy extra legroom, write a letter to the pilot, whatever. You can't be in the plane telling everyone else how to sit unless you've bought everyone their tickets."
4. "Entitlement is believing the untouched space in front of someone's face is more important than the actual comfort of the person in front of them."
5. "What the fuck is the point of reclining your seat for an hour's flight? Only an entitled cunt would think it's an appropriate thing to do."
6. "If you truly want to be considerate beyond your duty, check if they have leg space. As a tall lad, I sometimes struggle if the person in front reclines all the way back. Knees keep hitting the back (I don't know if they can feel it)."
Also, always remember, you guys who recline your airplane seat are terrible human beings. Shame on you. Shame on all of you.
7. "This debate comes down to balancing 'Are you someone with back pain/long legs, such that sitting up straight for an hour causes pain?' or 'Are you someone with long legs/urgent work to be done, such that a reclined seat in front of you would cause you pain/exacerbate your crampedness?'"
"If you're one type and not the other, you may not see how it can affect another person. The airline in question also affects the consensus — if the parties in the debate don't fly a common airline, then they're likely debating with different ideas of the average legroom in mind. You may not know how cramped things can get for the long-legged person you're debating.
"I understand 'I paid for a reclining seat and I will use it', but if it's really only just increasing comfort from an 'OK' to a 'cool' for a mere one hour, I say some people are embracing their entitlement a little too narrow-mindedly."
8. "It's not about moving the knees forwards and backwards; it's about moving them up and down, crossing your legs if you need to, and swapping them to get comfortable. It's also comfort just as much as reclining. When the front seat reclines back, there's barely any vertical space left to lift your knee up."
9. "My worst example was a lady who reclined almost fully back as soon as we levelled out and then sat leaning forward to read the paper on her tray table. I asked her if she could put the seat forward a little, and she responded by calling an attendant over and telling them I was hassling her about the seat and she didn't appreciate it."
10. "I recline it if the person in front does. Passing it on."
11. "The space where one might hold a book or portable device to read simply doesn't exist anymore because a thoughtless cunt wants to be more comfortable on a one-hour flight. And forget getting any work done on a laptop. These are hourlong commuter flights, not 14-hour marathons. Try not being a prick for 40 minutes."
12. "No, it's not bad etiquette at all. Just recline at a controlled pace; don't slam it back. This seems to be an American problem, but they have some of the tiniest domestic airline seats in the world."
Pretty sure common courtesy on an airplane is to at least try not to give the person behind you a concussion when you recline your seat. Or is this just me?
13. "Reclining does impact the person behind you. The fact that this issue forms one of the most common complaints about flying is evidence that there's a problem. I'm an Aussie; it's certainly not just an American issue."
14. "It really depends on the type of flight if people recline, same as buying food from the trolley. I used to fly 50 or so times a year between Melbourne, Sydney, and Canberra. If I was flying in at 7:30am or at 6pm, no one reclines, and no one bought extras from the trolley. When I flew in the middle of the day and there were more leisure flyers, I often got reclined into and people often bought food."
"Personally, on super-short flights (1–2 hours), the benefit of the recline is outweighed by the negative experience of the person behind. I only do it if it's a late-night flight and I want to try to sleep.
"The bigger question that should be asked is, Does the middle seat get both armrests?"
15. "People should pay for better seats with more room if they don't want the people in front of them to recline their seats."
16. "Recline your seat a little. But slowly. Don't let the chair go fucking whump-smash! Then, in the gap that you have made between the back of your chair and the back of the chair adjacent to you, turn your noggin about and say, 'Hey, if the chair is an issue, please let me know, yeah? I'm gonna try to take a nap, but it's cool if you need me to raise the chair again.' LIKE A FUCKING PERSON."
17. "Best plane I ever went on was an Air Asia plane, where the seat didn't recline, it sort of slipped forward. So if you wanted to 'recline', you sacrificed your own legroom and it had zero impact on the person behind you. For a 6-foot-4-inch person, it was heaven."
18. "I find it's children and entitled parents who are the worst."
19. "As a 6-foot-3-inch gent, I'll damn well recline, as it's freaking uncomfortable otherwise. I'll be respectful of someone behind me, but that seat's going back."
20. "You can recline your seat in the following circumstances: 1) You are going to sleep. Not reading or on your phone. Eyes closed, not moving. Asleep. 2) After dinner service on a flight with more than two hours remaining. 3) You have some kind of legitimate medical condition that actually requires it."
"You may absolutely not recline your seat 1) on a flight of under 90 minutes or 2) before meal service, on a flight with only one meal service."