Loved the Cathay seat recline idea, all airlines should follow suit. Great way to calm easily frayed tempers. There's enough tension and irritations on flights (long-haul especially) so one less conflict is a welcome change.
However, I thought the knee-defender gadget, while clever, is just a sh1tfight waiting to happen.
There's nothing worse than a discourteous, self-centred passenger. While tall people may think it's not cricket to recline without the person in front first checking for knees behind them/warning passenger behind them in advance of the oncoming recline/coming to an amicable halfway-house arrangement with person behind, similarly, it is not cricket for tall people armed with a knee-defender to not discuss it with the person in front before they decide to use it.
As others have said, if a seat reclines, a passenger should have the
option to use it. If a tall person removes that option by way of a knee-defender before showing the person in front the same courtesy of discussing it first, that makes him no better than the person in front who does not discuss things with the person behind before he reclines.
In reality, I hope the airlines see sense and ban these gadgets if they see them in use on their aircraft. They will only cause more problems.
I understand it's frustrating for tall (and short, pedantic) folk to be battered by seat-backs but using a knee-defender to increase one passenger's comfort will also serve to deny someone else of theirs, so this daft knee-defender will only ever be bought by similar, self-centred, discourteous, and above all hypocritical passengers trying to get their own back. The knee-defender will only serve to increase tensions between passengers.
The airlines (and their ever-decreasing seat pitching policies) will never admit blame for creating the
short vs tall/can I recline or can't I recline arguments, but it really doesn't matter, especially if you are caught up in a situation like this yourself. You just want it to be resolved so you can 'enjoy' your flight. It just takes a bit of decency, consideration, calm attitude and a bit of give and take to resolve the situation. And if a compromise cannot be met, or your fellow passenger is being difficult or aggressive, call Cabin Crew, and let them mediate to help get the situation resolved.
I can't stand selfishness from airline passengers. Makes my blood boil. My
MIL is the worst. On a flight from Perth-HongKong she embarrassed the hell out of my poor wife the entire trip. She committed the cardinal sin of reclining on the guy behind while he was still eating,
and she also managed to continually piss the guy off in front of her for good measure too. Whenever she (frequently) needed the loo, she grabbed the back of his headrest to haul her very-firmly wedged fat arse out of her seat, making him dip violently backwards every time. Poor chap must've had the patience of a saint because each time she did it she also grabbed and pulled his hair with her fingertips and he only ever quietly moaned about her to his wife!
MIL was completely oblivious, my wife was absolutely mortified. On her return home, rather than telling me all about her holiday, my wife ranted about my
MIL's embarrassing, non-existant airline passenger etiqette instead!
Lucky I wasn't on the flight, I'd've given her a right (quiet) mouthful, bloody vacant old fart. Sorry for the thread drift but I do feel better now. Why are
MIL's such a massive pain in the arse, even more so when you're stuck on a frigging plane with them?!
