Here are my thoughts on reclining seats on a flight:
1. If you are sleeping? No problem. The incline is slight but significant to helping someone snooze. If and while you are sleeping, I may not appreciate the seat shoved back inches from my face, but I understand why it's there.
2. If you are not sleeping? Dagnabbit, man up and keep your seat forward.
Hell has a special circle for the person who pushes their seat back 30 seconds after we leave the ground and only brings it back up when badgered by the stew as we head toward the destination runway.
3. If you need to recline your seat, please do so gradually. That push-and-push button-and-back combo lends instant relief, but could very well, I don't know, fracture my laptop screen.
And, yes, the ultimate sinners here are the sardine-packing no-sparrow-shall-fly-comfortably-unless-they-pay-extra airlines. I think I would rather have a marginally more expensive flight that I didn't have to think about than nickel and dime each extra inch to get me away from the dreaded recliner-before-me.
The Vicious, Senseless Abomination of Reclining Seats on Airlines
The woman sitting in front of me on this plane seems perfectly nice. She, like me, is traveling coach class from Washington to Los Angeles. She had a nice chat before takeoff with the man sitting next…
I always recline my seat as soon as possible and put back up when instructed, even if all I am doing is reading.
Also, the Knee Defender was featured on This American Life, and it made the guy who used it feel like a huge dick, and everyone that saw him hand the card to the person in front of him was rude to him for the rest of the flight.
On a flight last year the guy behind me told me to put my seat back up, and I responded to him that he should have found an exit seat or paid more money for early boarding.