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Comment by wj | Hacker News Reader

If you don't want to sit behind a seat that reclines you can pay extra for the first row. Or on Southwest pay extra for boarding group A.

Regardless, when you bought your ticket you buy it with the knowledge that there is a seat in front of you that reclines.

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Yes, I buy a seat knowing that when I sit in the seat my knees will be up against the seat in front of me. The seat in front of me has nowhere to recline. My knees have become used to the pressure over the course of hundreds of flights. At my height (2 meters) there is little alternative. Passengers in front of me have asked me to move seats, avoid air travel and invited me to go to hell.

In my opinion, your 'right' to recline ends where my kneecaps begin.

There's no denying the geometry of it, but you are being selfish by thinking you have the right to wedge yourself in a seat that's too small for you. Just because it's the cheapest option doesn't mean it's appropriate for you.

I'm 198 cm and I only fly in first, or in an exit row if needed.

I speak as someone who is also 2m tall but who never puts his knees up against the seat in front of him (and views that as a little childish). My perspective is that the airline has made the seat-space smaller in order to make the flight cheaper, and has gifted everyone with a button which allows their seat-back to not be vertical, for the convenience of those who wish to sleep on a plane, at the expense of the convenience of those who wish that seatback to be up for whatever reason (honestly it's more an issue for me with using a laptop than it is for my legs, which can fold or tuck longways underneath the seat in front of me or stretch into an aisle or many other things).

I don't think there is either a "right" to recline nor a "right" to not be reclined on; rights are not the correct word at all. Blame is not productive here; it's a matter of perspective who is infringing on whose rights, and the truth is that we live in a negotiated world, and this is just one of the negotiations that needs be made.

I do like the idea that us can't-sleep-with-that-engine-drone-anyway folks have a laptop-column in the plane which doesn't recline, for our mutual convenience. Until that's the case I'll ask the person ahead of me politely and/or request to be reseated into an exit row.

And if its' a business trip, or the front row seats are already taken? I've been stuck in the last row of an airplane before on a last minute flight... my knees were wedged into the joint from the seat in front of me, and when they tried to recline it popped my knee cap out of position. fuck you

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