Agreed. Except for the VERY long-legged, a reclined seat-back in front doesn't remove leg space. It pivots at/above knee level and simply pivots marginally closer to me. I have never had a reclined seat obstruct my view of the entertainment screen or make me tray unusable.

On the other side, I don't recline the seat to create more space for myself. I recline it to alleviate discomfort from the absurdly upright default seat position.

What? The seat pivots below knee level by definition, unless you've found a plane where the base of the seat slopes down from the back to the front.

(Since the seat is level or slopes slightly upward from back to front then the pivot point is at the back of the base of the seat. Since the legs are sitting on - i.e. above - the seat, then the knees have to be above the pivot point and reclining does indeed remove leg space.)

Disclaimer: I'm over 6' with long femurs and have had exactly this situation happen to me on a flight. When the person in front of me reclines my legs do not fit in the remaining space, even if I'm sitting all the way back in my seat.

I understand the economic rationale airlines have for separate seat classes, but at the same time that rationale irritates me because I end up having to pay more for something that is entirely out of my control (genetics).

Same for me. On Southwest, my knees fit exactly (slightly touching) without the person infront of me reclining. Luckily I'm fairly wiry and usually angle my butt to the left of the chair, and knees on the right (or vice versa). Or I can put my feet and shins under the seat infront of me.

But a normal "feet on ground" sitting position doesn't work if someone infront of me reclines their seat.

Not by definition. Most people don't sit precisely with a 90 degree angle and instead extend their legs into the space under the seat in front of them.

If your bag is taking up all of that space, you are doing it wrong.

and the funny part is someone shorter but heavier than you pay same price as you though economically he cost airline in fuel more than you, so if we wanna be fair we should be charged per kilo of live with, same as with baggage, i am fine with smaller and lighter people paying less than me, i am not fine with someone voluntarily living unhealthy and reclining seat paying same as me

I'm under 5'7", I'll trade you your genetic shortcomings with mine, especially with the ladies;)

I have had people recline right onto my knees then continue pushing back when the seat stops moving. Some planes are much worse than others wrt knee space though. I am also a few inches over six foot.

Reclined seats can also make laptop use difficult and some people don't check what is going on behind them before blasting their seat backwards which can be disastrous if you have a drink on your tray at that moment.

I love to recline my seat and stretch out a little but I rarely do so since it is so annoying to the next person. The only time I recline is on long-haul flights when the lights are out and I can see that the person behind me is clearly sleeping. Even in this situation, I recline just enough to give myself some lower-back relief.

Personally I just like the extra space. I think it's really for everyones convenience not to recline before most of the people are sleeping in the plane. What if some one has to get out of the window seat? What if food is served? What if person wants to use laptop or read? Reclined seats are always on the way.

Anything on the tray table is the problem. Reclining reduces my use of my tray table. It also reduces the area I have to read my book, I can't hold it as far from my face as I like.

But IMO it should be enough that it intrudes into my space, which is already at an extreme premium. It doesn't have to be useful space, I'm already cramped and you're making my space smaller. Please don't.

The space the seat reclines into isn't your space.

I disagree. I could reach into that space when I sat down and now I can't.

Think of it this way: my house has 8 foot ceilings. I'm only 6 foot tall, so I could lower my ceilings by almost two feet and not hit my head. But it would certainly impact my comfort level inside my house.

You can reach into the space next to you before someone sits down too. Does that make it your space or their space that they haven't occupied yet?

I don't like people that recline (or planes for that matter), but I'm also pretty tall (6') and long legged. It's already painful to squeeze into the seat, and I either have to move my feet all the way under the seat in front of me (I kick the little footstand a few times), or I have my feet flat on the floor, and my knees get stuck behind someone reclining.

Laptops are my concern.

In fact, with my MBP sitting on the tray when someone declines, the top gets caught where the tray fits into. I have seen my screen bend slightly when someone reclines quickly. I expect to get a laptop destroyed that way at some point.

Even when I do recline (not often), I do it slowly so if the person behind me is using their laptop, they're not surprised.

Can't use laptops, can't eat on the tray because there isn't enough space left, and can't watch the monitor on the back of the seat because it's facing down.

So it's pretty inconvenient.

Pro tip almost all of those screens allow you to pull the bottom out to make it flat again. I don't think I've ever been on a flight this wasn't true on actually.

Honestly, if you fly coach, don't plan on using a laptop. There really isn't enough room for your elbows and there probably isn't enough room for the laptop itself unless you have a mini version of some kind. I'm not saying it's the way things should be but it's the realistic expectation in standard coach.

Don't most of these monitors swivel so that the monitor point is moot?

I've done all three of those things on a reclined seat. Why weren't you able to?

Different seats? I travel frequently and there are differences across airlines and also laptop sizes.

Depending on the airplane/seat, it actually makes my legs have a tighter fit. I'm 6'2".

Whenever I fly for work I usually pay the extra money for a better seat personally.

I typically don't recline my seat on a plane, because in most cases it makes my ride less comfortable to be behind someone who reclines.

That's just the thing "pay the extra money"--okay, fine, but we are doing this all time just to get back to where we were a few years ago minus the "pay the extra money" part of the equation. It's not just airlines that are screwing us, but grocery chains come quickly to mind, and basically any place where the runaway inflation is being passed on to us all the while everyone thinks this is "normal" and "fine" and all the while I think I'm going crazy because I'm the only one who noticed that 14.2oz. is the new 16oz. and ice cream that used to be sold by the half gallon is now 1.5qt. and NOBODY raises a stink about this?

It is NOT OKAY.

It is the kind of thing previous generations would start fights over when a merchant was so blatantly screwing them over.

Cut the entitlement lines. "previous generations" mostly couldn't afford to fly at all because it was so expensive relative to normal incomes. Today people can afford to fly on very low incomes in these economy seats you're getting flustered about.

Here's a hint, pay for first class. That's the equivalent level of service and price range that previous generations received (inflation adjusted).

I don't really have a choice if I want to use air travel.

Or my other choice is be (more) uncomfortable.

> in what manner does it inconvenience you?

The seat will literally sit on top of my knees the entire flight, full weight. It is more than an "inconvenience" it is damn painful.

I support reclining, but almost had the screen of my Thinkpad mangled when someone reclined and the tray table hook caught the top of my screen and started forcing it downwards in a way it shouldn't go. I was fast enough to scoop the laptop out of the way, but it sure was scary.

It also made positioning the laptop a little trickier, but it was totally manageable and just a price you pay on an airplane.

For me, it's very uncomfortable. There's a reason why office chairs are not all fixed in a reclined position.