

Third flight in nine days diverted by fight over reclining seats - markmassie
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2014/09/02/another-flight-was-diverted-after-passengers-fought-over-a-reclining-seat/

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panarky
Clearly the solution to squabbles among an infinitesimal percentage of
passengers is to disable the recline button on all airline seats.

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protonfish
It's not small. My wife was doing some research recently about complaints (to
help determine which airline to choose) and discovered that a vast majority of
the "horror stories" online are about seat reclining.

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Mithaldu
The article would be more interesting if it actually followed up on what the
consequences for the passengers were. I'm also curious to know how many
cameras there are in planes monitoring the passenger area, that would help
settle such disputes after the fact.

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k-mcgrady
The passenger should be banned from flying for 12 months. Seriously. I'm
actually on the side of not reclining your seat unless the lights are out but
if you're such a moron that you are happy to start a fight over it and force a
plane to land you should suffer pretty sever consequences. A flying ban for 12
months seems fair and not too extreme (e.g. large fine, prison).

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protonfish
I think the airlines should just make it clear. They should either disable the
seat reclining or explicitly state when you buy the ticket and at the start of
the flight that the person in front of you has a right to recline their seat.

It should not be necessary. If you bought a ticket for a reclining seat then
you should be able to recline your seat. However there seems to be a
persistent belief that nobody should be allowed to recline but you. The
airlines need to correct this misinformation.

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k-mcgrady
>> "If you bought a ticket for a reclining seat then you should be able to
recline your seat."

I disagree. When travelling in such cramped, close quarters with lots of
strangers you need to be respectful of other people. If it's day time on a
short (3-5 hour) flight and the person behind you is watching a movie on the
screen on the back of your seat you shouldn't recline. If you don't think it
will bother them, turn around and ask. Besides, you didn't buy a ticket for a
reclining seat to begin with - all the seats recline. Maybe the solution is to
allocate a certain section of reclining seats and charge for them separately
(if demand dictates).

