Have you ever had problems with the person sitting behind you on a flight.

Yes! First trip to HKG and on the return (overnight on QF), the couple behind did not speak a word of English. Post meal and lights being dimmed, it was time to recline to 'sleep' in Y. Did so, and had yelling and pushing of our seats back to the upright position from behind. Tried again later and had the same result. It was a long flight, I can play a long game. Waited till a flight attendant was nearby, threw my seat back and had the flight attendant sort it out when the yelling started. Never had a problem since, but now fly in J.
 
....it was time to recline to 'sleep' in Y....
This is not criticism and I do know that not everyone is the same but I've slept in an exit row seat, I've slept in bulkhead seat, I've slept in row 4 on a 737, I've slept in row 26 on an A320, I've slept in business class, I've slept in lounge chairs, I've slept on an airport floor, I've slept in a bed. I cannot tell the difference. For me sleep is sleep no matter where I sleep.

In my experience it's a misconception that one needs to recline to sleep. It's unnecessary conditioning to make people think that they need to recline in order to sleep or relax. My wife doesn't recline. Mum and dad have never reclined. And I'm proud to say that I've never reclined in an exit row or bulkhead seat and I have only ever reclined when I've been forced to recline.
 
This is not criticism and I do know that not everyone is the same but I've slept in an exit row seat, I've slept in bulkhead seat, I've slept in row 4 on a 737, I've slept in row 26 on an A320, I've slept in business class, I've slept in lounge chairs, I've slept on an airport floor, I've slept in a bed. I cannot tell the difference. For me sleep is sleep no matter where I sleep.

In my experience it's a misconception that one needs to recline to sleep. It's unnecessary conditioning to make people think that they need to recline in order to sleep or relax. My wife doesn't recline. Mum and dad have never reclined. And I'm proud to say that I've never reclined in an exit row or bulkhead seat and I have only ever reclined when I've been forced to recline.
In my experience it's a misconception
n=1

I haven't been able to fall asleep on my back since I was about 4 years old. I'm a side sleeper. If i roll on to my back in the night, I wake up from my own snoring. My father has sleep apnea and cannot sleep on his back either. I can "rest" just fine sitting up, but not sleep
 
This is not criticism and I do know that not everyone is the same but I've slept in an exit row seat, I've slept in bulkhead seat, I've slept in row 4 on a 737, I've slept in row 26 on an A320, I've slept in business class, I've slept in lounge chairs, I've slept on an airport floor, I've slept in a bed. I cannot tell the difference. For me sleep is sleep no matter where I sleep.

In my experience it's a misconception that one needs to recline to sleep. It's unnecessary conditioning to make people think that they need to recline in order to sleep or relax. My wife doesn't recline. Mum and dad have never reclined. And I'm proud to say that I've never reclined in an exit row or bulkhead seat and I have only ever reclined when I've been forced to recline.
I can sleep sitting in a chair sitting sideways but the issue with doing this on a plane in Y is lack of room to achieve the necessary position. Amd likely my knees would encroach on the passenger next to me. Ergo, it cant happen. And some people, like my son, can sleep anywhere. But many can't and it is nothing to do with conditioning.
 
I can sleep sitting in a chair sitting sideways but the issue with doing this on a plane in Y is lack of room to achieve the necessary position. Amd likely my knees would encroach on the passenger next to me. Ergo, it cant happen. And some people, like my son, can sleep anywhere. But many can't and it is nothing to do with conditioning.
If someone wants to ensure I am in the window seat and to leave the middle seat next to me vacant then this 190cm side sleeper might be able to get an uncomfortable nap without reclining (much)
 
n=1

I haven't been able to fall asleep on my back since I was about 4 years old. I'm a side sleeper. If i roll on to my back in the night, I wake up from my own snoring. My father has sleep apnea and cannot sleep on his back either. I can "rest" just fine sitting up, but not sleep
I love these discussions.

I opened the bedroom door this morning and my 7 year old daughter was sleeping on her back with her left leg on her right knee. Gorgeous to watch her sleep.

I snore with severe sleep apnoea but I sleep anywhere.

Here's another misconception. Jeans are tight. Slacks are loose. Why do people wear jeans for comfort? That slacks are associated with wearing them to work?
 
I had the evil cow sitting in front of me do the full recline into my face, on the gruelling lengthy trip from HBA to SYD. No more magazine or IFE for this little black duck.

Now because this was HBA we'd been waiting the usual few hours for the flight which replaced our last-minute-cancelled one, as a result of this I'd had a couple of fruit juices & a couple of beers while waiting ... and needed to use the bathroom before we could land. Wasn't possible to avoid jostling said cow's seat when getting up, she was the whole way back. As a result, when I got back from the bathroom, her short-man-syndrome angry partner decided to have a bit of a scream at me. It was ... very embarrassing, frankly.
I think the FA figured it was all my fault, but when he directed them to another seat (which I should frankly have noticed myself when she first reclined & just moved there myself), I thanked him profusely for "fixing it".

Anyway, I guess this means Reclining Cow and Angry Short Man definitely had a problem with the person behind them (and I suspect they probably run into problems with other people around them wherever they go).
 
I had the evil cow sitting in front of me do the full recline into my face, on the gruelling lengthy trip from HBA to SYD. No more magazine or IFE for this little black duck.

Now because this was HBA we'd been waiting for a few hours for the flight which replaced the one which had been cancelled, as a result of this I'd had a couple of fruit juices & a couple of beers while waiting ... and needed to use the bathroom before we could land. Wasn't possible to avoid jostling said cow's seat when getting up. As a result, when I got back from the bathroom, her short-man-syndrome angry partner decided to have a bit of a scream at me. It was ... very embarrassing, frankly.
Hopefully only embarassing for their behaviour and not yours. Which sounds extremely reasonable. Most people nearby observe when others get jammed into their seats and likely think, thankgoodness it's not me, on short flights. I don't think I've ever lowered my seat on a domestic flight and not has husband.
 
I had two guys behind me playing some sort of game on an ipad or the like where it involved reaction time hitting a button I think. The ipad was on the tray table behind my seat so each hit made my seat jerk. I withstood it for a while but then I stood up and gave an angry glare at the pair of them and I may have tutted under my breath. It sure showed them!
 
Kid behind kicking and pulling my seat on an overnight flight, and that‘s before I reclined my seat. Mother of the child next to him is fully awake watching IFE and aware of what’s he was doing but did nothing to stop him. Fortunately I have an empty seat next to me right in front of the mother, so I swapped seats and fully reclined both seats for the entire flight

Another time had a mother behind me do a baby Nappy change on the seat tray table, no pax or FA stopped her. Didn’t fly VA for almost 10 years.
 
Australia's highest-earning Velocity Frequent Flyer credit card: Offer expires: 21 Jan 2025
- Earn 60,000 bonus Velocity Points
- Get unlimited Virgin Australia Lounge access
- Enjoy a complimentary return Virgin Australia domestic flight each year

AFF Supporters can remove this and all advertisements

I had the evil cow sitting in front of me do the full recline into my face, on the gruelling lengthy trip from HBA to SYD. No more magazine or IFE for this little black duck.

Now because this was HBA we'd been waiting the usual few hours for the flight which replaced our last-minute-cancelled one, as a result of this I'd had a couple of fruit juices & a couple of beers while waiting ... and needed to use the bathroom before we could land. Wasn't possible to avoid jostling said cow's seat when getting up, she was the whole way back. As a result, when I got back from the bathroom, her short-man-syndrome angry partner decided to have a bit of a scream at me. It was ... very embarrassing, frankly.
I think the FA figured it was all my fault, but when he directed them to another seat (which I should frankly have noticed myself when she first reclined & just moved there myself), I thanked him profusely for "fixing it".

Anyway, I guess this means Reclining Cow and Angry Short Man definitely had a problem with the person behind them (and I suspect they probably run into problems with other people around them wherever they go).
anyone why recline their seats should expect jostling from the person behind if the latter wants to get in or out of their seats. If they are unable to understand that they deserve the hell they created
 
anyone why recline their seats should expect jostling from the person behind if the latter wants to get in or out of their seats. If they are unable to understand that they deserve the hell they created
Just yesterday on a shortish SQ hop from Thailand to SIN, a person sitting in the whY front row bulkhead window seat did full recline after Safety demo (ie while still taxiing!).

SYD+1 was on the aisle seat of the row behind and I was across the aisle. The meal service started quite shortly after takeoff and the partner of the recliner decides to do the full recline as the FAs start service. The couple behind were quite rightly having a conniption. After the CSM had a word, the partner put their seat up but insisted the first offender was asleep and needed to stay that way.

Meanwhile SYD+1 chips in with a bit of a “Send them off Ref, they’ve been doing it all flight” (in particular the serious safety consideration). Eventually the partner must have moved them into a more upright position.

This is one of many reasons I rarely select a window seat on a narrow body ac but if I was behind, they’d certainly would have been told to go upright for takeoff and probably experienced a bumpy ride thereafter….Those touch screens can be unresponsive - even if it’s just looking at the map…
 
this is a tricky one because so often the touch control on the TVs is pretty much useless.
Happened to me too, but I was the one pecking. Was asked nicely to desist an did. I hadn't realised I was doing it. Happened only once ever, and I fly regularly. The eraser end of a retracting pencil works on Qantas but not on others as different technology.
 
and someone whose wearing headphones for music but doesn't realize the bluetooth isn't connected...hang on, that was me.
And me once. Had fallen asleep without realising that my bluetooth had run out of battery. I was watching a IFE on my tablet. A nice gentleman altered me.
 
We were - very politely - told by Finnair staff to not let our toddler play with the divider screen between seats in their new business class. I thought nothing of it as I was exhausted, but of course it makes sense to me that it could break the mechanism.
 
I suppose this is just the joys of travelling. Sometimes we an do something about it and sometimes we just have to suck it up. I was once annoyed that someone would think to recline on a 2 hour flight (I don't usually recline) but I am used to it now.
 
I remember well the time I was able to get the recliners in front of us to remain upright in front of us. We were flying Air Asia BKK - HKT.
It was May 2009. The 2 young Russians in front of us reclined as soon as we taxied out to the runway. They were both wearing masks which meant I now knew what to do. I coughed a few times and said damn this Swine Flu. They immediately put their seats into the upright position and stayed there the whole flight.

Yes it was the year of the Swine Flu pandemic.
 
I had the evil cow sitting in front of me do the full recline into my face, on the gruelling lengthy trip from HBA to SYD. No more magazine or IFE for this little black duck.

Now because this was HBA we'd been waiting the usual few hours for the flight which replaced our last-minute-cancelled one, as a result of this I'd had a couple of fruit juices & a couple of beers while waiting ... and needed to use the bathroom before we could land. Wasn't possible to avoid jostling said cow's seat when getting up, she was the whole way back. As a result, when I got back from the bathroom, her short-man-syndrome angry partner decided to have a bit of a scream at me. It was ... very embarrassing, frankly.
I think the FA figured it was all my fault, but when he directed them to another seat (which I should frankly have noticed myself when she first reclined & just moved there myself), I thanked him profusely for "fixing it".

Anyway, I guess this means Reclining Cow and Angry Short Man definitely had a problem with the person behind them (and I suspect they probably run into problems with other people around them wherever they go).

Hmmm… if you were at the window, bad form for the aisle seat not to get up to let you out :(

If you were in the aisle, you can release the armrest and have unimpeded egress.

Very rarely, if ever, is it essential to grab the back of the seat in front to get out into the aisle.

Can understand pax in front getting upset if their seat was jostled :(
 
it's a misconception that one needs to recline to sleep
Nope. You might be able to but not me.

I can't sleep on a plane. Full stop. Nada. Zilch.
Doesn't matter if in Y, J, upright, reclined, fully flat. Flying = no sleep.

But I gotta say just the mere fact of being upright, even reclined is sufficient stimulus to keep me awake. I think I once had a 15 min snooze in a lie flat J seat but that was after easily 1.5 days of travel & was just sooooo tired.

Why do people wear jeans for comfort?
+1. I don't get it either. Unless they're so loose & baggy that they've completely lost all sense of fashion & style & only good for house painting (in which case quite comfy) I also can't understand the concept of jeans being comfortable.
 

Become an AFF member!

Join Australian Frequent Flyer (AFF) for free and unlock insider tips, exclusive deals, and global meetups with 65,000+ frequent flyers.

AFF members can also access our Frequent Flyer Training courses, and upgrade to Fast-track your way to expert traveller status and unlock even more exclusive discounts!

AFF forum abbreviations

Wondering about Y, J or any of the other abbreviations used on our forum?

Check out our guide to common AFF acronyms & abbreviations.
Back
Top