How to Avoid Being “That” A**hole on a Commercial Flight

To recline, or not. It shouldn’t even be a question

There are two types of people in the world. Those that recline their seats on airplanes and those that aren’t unmitigated, soulless asshats.

I count myself as in the righteous latter category, and yet always seem to find myself one row behind the former.

Space is a commodity on an airplane. We each pay for our little segment of existence. If we are better-off financially, we can elect to purchase ourselves into a better “class” of being. One where space is allocated much more reasonably, albeit at a premium.

I am sure that it serves as a form of allegory related to classism that only a small percentage of people on an airplane are allowed the “right” to a reasonable amount of personal space and accompanying comfort, while the majority are relegated to the austerity of steerage.

I am also sure there is much to rail at concerning the segregation of passengers into the minority rich and majority poor, as there is in real life as well. However, this text is committed to the relationship the majority share with one another in relation to seat position.

The principal fallacy behind the concept of reclining one’s seat is the idea that if everyone were to recline, the aggregate space allotment stays the same. That is not true, nor is it realistic to imagine that all will recline in synchrony.

The simple fact is that the space given up for knee movement and the ability to reach forward, is not reasonably paid back in the ability to recline one’s head and shoulders.

The “give” is not at all equitable for any “get” accomplished by reclining.

This stealing away of scarce personal space might motivate the encroached upon to, in turn, recline their seat in a gruesome form of “paying it backward”.

This is just a form of the “little guy” sticking it to another little guy. The time-trusted tool of the elite that concentrates the attentions of the masses to the tiny atrocities levied upon them by others in their own class, rather than identifying the real outrages of injustice where the rich few have all the space they could ever need.

The airlines themselves are complicit in this battle of space dynamics that is (mostly) silently waged on every flight.

Scarcity drives demand. If every seat had enough space for a reasonable-sized human, where would the motivation to pay significantly more come from? Not to mention the ability to squeeze more paying fares onto the plane. It is a win-win from the airline point of view as they have maximized capacity while still allowing for the principals of capitalism to create a manufactured demand through exclusivity.

There is a certain democracy to it, however. After all, any of us can purchase that exclusivity if we choose. In fact, the airlines have leveraged that concept expertly as well by creating an upper-middle class called “Premium” seating.

Here, have a small taste of what it is like to be in the company of the highest of commercial aerospace elite. A free cocktail on us, and a fancy chocolate. Oh, and also important, enough space that when that guy/gal in front of you reclines, it doesn’t seem so bad.

At least you aren’t back with the common folk.

So that explains why not everyone complains. Creating three or more classes takes away the “us versus them” argument, or at least dilutes it.

By why aren’t the people in the back of the plane, that are wedged into spaces reminiscent of Black Friday crowds, raising their voices in unison to create more favorable conditions?

Cue the reclining seat. It’s hard to see the big picture when that guy in front of you just rammed his seat-back into your knee, or maybe dumped coffee in your lap in a violent recline.

They become the enemy, not the overall conditions or the specific airline. The classic mis-direct. The distraction. The creation of discord which discourages collusion.

And it works. It is hard to think about anything else when you are fuming about how the person in front of you just unexpectedly ended up virtually in your lap.

So, don’t buy in. Don’t propagate the discord. Come on a journey with your other steerage-mates and create a new class of airline traveler — the forthright and just. Don’t use this instrument of division; show them how we can rise above.

The next time you consider whether to recline and wrest those precious inches away from your fellow pilgrims in your travel voyage, reconsider. Don’t be a tool for the man.

Give the one gift that is precious above all others in an airplane — space. Literally “pay it forward” by keeping your seat in its fully upright position.

Don’t do it for me. Don’t even do it for that poor soul behind you. Do it for the greater good. Leave it up for solidarity.

Smile smugly as you walk past the “First Classers” and the “Premiums” on your way to fight for the little guy; knowing that you and your fellow travelers in the back of the plane aren’t just simply flying to Cleveland or going to see Grandma. You are eradicating classism and sticking it to the man.

Keeping it upright for egalitarianism!

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Timothy Key spent over 26 years in the fire service as a firefighter/paramedic and various fire chief management roles. Now moving forward to writing and consulting. For more articles like this, join the mail list.