Opinion: People who recline their seat on the plane are the worst

There's a special place in hell for people who recline their seat on a plane. Photo / 123RF

COMMENT:

It's my first day back to work after a long holiday in the sunshine so it's fair to say I'm not feeling at my most positive and inspirational today. In fact, I'm jetlagged to hell and a little bit cranky so I'm going to use some of my time at work to talk about the worst part of my trip.

I spent 30 or so hours flying back to New Zealand and, through day flights and night flights, turbulence and peaceful skies, one thing was remained constant: the fact that there is always a moron out there who'll only think of themselves and fully recline their seat.

Air travel, for all its wonders, is still, in 2018, an absolute sack of sh*t for people who can't afford business class. The air is dry, the food is terrible and the threat of deep vein thrombosis is real. The last thing we need to add to that smorgasbord of awfulness is a selfish monster who thinks it's okay to take over other people's personal space.

Yes, I'm talking about you, person who sat in front of me yesterday on the flight back to Auckland. I get it. You want to lie down and you're trying to make yourself as comfortable as you can in an already confined space. But should you do it at the expense of the person sitting behind you, who's at least as uncomfortable as you are?

I was just sitting behind you, minding my own business, trying to watch a poorly-formatted TV show on a screen with duller colours than my first cell phone, enjoying my wine from a plastic cup when, out of nowhere, high up on the so-called friendly skies, bam, the back of your head, the screen, the wine, the tray table ... all a lot closer to my face. Now I can't see the screen properly, the tray table is trying to cut through my stomach, and you're only 10 per cent more horizontal than you were before, so we're all losers here.

It's a matter of common courtesy. Just because you have the option to recline, it does not mean that you should. You can, of course, there is no law to stop you doing so. But why would you do that to the person behind you? Why would you invade their personal space like that, especially as their personal space is already so small?

You don't even have to be a tall person to be uncomfortable on a plane. If you have legs, with knees, you're not likely to have a good time on a long-haul flight. The last thing you need is someone reversing the back of their seat all the way up to your nose just so they can be under the illusion that they're lying down (they're not even remotely lying down, they're just being rude and not even for that great a gain for themselves).

The one thing that unites us all inside that plane is the fact that we all paid a whole heap of money to be incredible uncomfortable for a long period of time. That could be a strong bond but you're ruining any possibility of us ever getting along by acting selfishly. If you recline your seat, you're making a bad situation even worse for someone else. That makes you an asshole.

To the person who sat in front of me on the flight back to Auckland yesterday morning: I'll never see your face - although I'm all too familiar with the back of your head - but you, sir, are a selfish moron.