Good morning from beautiful Seattle! MrsMJ and I flew up last night in coach and lived to tell the story! 🙂 Seriously, it wasn’t that bad. We saved some money using the companion certificate that comes with my Platinum Delta SkyMiles Amex Card, had Economy Comfort seats, great flight attendants, all was well. I was a little sad to see that the upgrade list was one of the shortest I’ve ever witnessed since flying Delta. After all were cleared, there were only 6 people on it. The day before a holiday, we might have cleared. C’est la vie!
One thing that 5 hours in coach did for me was remind me how fortunate I am that I spend more time at the front end of the airplane than in the back. That’s a good thing, because even in Economy Comfort, where one gets a tiny bit more legroom, you get this.
Hey, it’s your seat, and it’s not your fault the airlines shoehorn us into these confines. Recline if you want, but please do so carefully. Consider that there is probably a person behind you that you’re about to lay down on. Don’t just slam your seat back, you could take out a laptop. And when you get up to perform 10 minutes of stretching exercises in front of the whole cabin (yeah, that happened), kindly consider returning your seatback to it’s full and upright position so the person behind you can have a little breathing room while you are preventing thrombosis.
After about 3.5 hours of this nonsense, things finally came to a head when recliner guy started thrashing around in his seat looking for that ultimate comfort spot. Seriously, the guy’s coffee cup started moving around on that tray table, and he’d finally had enough. He rather politely, I thought, tapped recliner guy on the shoulder and said something to the effect of “dude, if you knock my coffee over I’m going to beat your a$$.” A sense of calm ensued, and finally, they made peace.
Ah, the joys of coach.
-MJ, July 4, 2014
[…] It’s Not the Recline, It’s the Way You Recline […]
[…] was fairly empty, I had some room to work my feet into the space and stretch out. After takeoff, I carefully reclined about 1 inch….nowhere near max recline, and not without looking to see that the […]
Ah, the joys of coach! People keep getting bigger and taller, while the seats get closer and narrower. Between that, fun with security lines and procedures, wildly variable service, and the veritable cornucopia of fees (soon to be increasing yet again), it’s no wonder we love our airline travel these days. Sadly, I still haven’t lost the wonder, in spite of all of the above.
I once got drenched with a full glass of wine when someone slammed their seat back, and that was in first. Please don’t recline during meal or beverage service.