Matt Milne vs. Luke Vigeant and then Paul Brown
Ok…with respect to this ongoing debate…I would say that it is not a question of inexorable rights, but your rights vis-a-vis the rights of the other passenger. Clearly the right to recline and the right to remain free of impingement from the recliner in front of you must be equal in weight, therefore canceling each other out. We are all potential victims of the seat in front of us and violators of the seat behind us. There are, of course, important exceptions to this principle. If you are seated in row 12 of an A320, you have no reclining seat in front of you, Therefore you cannot by rights inflict your reclining on the person behind you. If you are in the back row, your ability to recline may be impaired, so the person in the second-last row is an asshole to crunch in on you. Mr. Vigeant’s angry co-passenger exclaimed that there was not enough room when Mr. Vigeant reclined. However, Mr. Vigeant could have pointed out that had angry passenger guy reclined his seat, his seat back would have been once again parallel to Mr. Vigeant’s, creating the same amount of space that was there before. I believe that it was this angry passenger’s refusal to recline - to be the stubborn domino who refused to fall - that ruined it for everybody. The passenger cabin of an airplane is the arena for a social contract between recliners, Angry seat pusher guy violated that contract. 3 years agoPlease refer to THIS POST before reading any further… and possibly THIS POST.
Excellent, now that you have read the required content I will state my claim. Matt Milne made a valiant effort to disprove Vigeant’s claim that reclining your seat is a fundamental right a passenger has while on an airplane.
Quote. “Being able to recline a seat is really a privilege granted to you by the person seated behind you, here is my reasoning: when you buy a ticket on an airplane you are purchasing a number of things including a seat AND a specific amount of area around that seat.” -Matt Milne. End Quote.
Matt & Luke, in my opinion you actually have no rights other than essential human rights while you are a passenger on a domestic or international flight. It’s states clearly on your ticket that the airline can revoke your seat at time they wish and at best you are merely leasing a piece of space, with strict conditions for revocation on behalf of the airline if they, in any case, feel the need to do so.
Therefore, what you would define as your personal space that you are entitled to is loosely defined and is ultimately very cloudy. Furthermore, the act of reclining your seat on an airplane is neither a privilege nor a fundamental right. It is merely there, existing in a sort of purgatory or ambiguity if you will. Whether or not that action places the person behind you in discomfort is entirely an act of goodwill or negligence on your behalf.
I can assure anyone reading this post that your Human Rights are in no way being violated (More on Human Rights HERE) when the person infront of you reclines their seat.
This whole situation ultimately comes down to choice, that being; does the person sitting behind you really care whether or not you recline your seat? OR, do you want to be curtious to the person behind you or not?
What would my answer be? I for one don’t really care about the person sitting behind me and I sure don’t really feel any sort of need to be curtious. Am I an asshole? Probabaly. Do I care? No.
