The decline of the recline: Southwest limits seat mobility
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Reader John asks:
Is it just me, or does it seem like they’ve been restricting each and every year how far the seats can recline?
It’s not just you. But it’s not every airline, either. Yet.
Scott McCartney reports in the Wall Street Journal that Southwest Airlines is standardizing recline across its fleet to 3 inches. Previous recline had been anywhere between 2 and 4.5 inches. Compare this to American, Delta, and jetBlue with 4 inches, United with 5, and Continental with 5 to 6 inches.
I’m always wary of these generalizations, since it seems that the recline, pitch, and width of the seat differ by aircraft type within each airline. A 737 might give you, say, four inches, while a 757 might give you three. (I’m pulling these numbers out of thin air.) On Southwest, however, with their all-737 fleet, it may be easier to standardize.
Whether or not you should recline is a matter for debate. Always look before you lean to avoid crushing any laptops.
Frankly, I’d guess it’s not really necessary for most people to lean back on short flights, say, sub-two hours. As the flight gets longer, the more permissible it is. If you’re sitting in an economy seat with extra legroom, such as Economy Plus or in front of an exit row, go for it. (The irony: Most seats in front of the exit row are locked in the upright position.)
But having one standard recline angle across an entire plane may be inappropriate. I agree with this sentiment:
How close the seats are to one another, measured in “seat pitch” at airlines, should determine how much recline is allowed, seat manufacturers say. “The bigger the pitch, the more recline is possible,” says a spokeswoman for Recaro Aircraft Seating GmbH, a major airline seat company based in Germany.
In any case, it’ll be interesting to see public reaction to Southwest’s reduced recline. Will the masses be upset? Or will they even notice?
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December 1st, 2006 at 7:05 pm |
Part of me wishes they would do away with reclining, all together. I’m 5 feet, 10 inches tall and it’s not at all comfortable to be sitting behind someone with their seat completely reclined.
It’s quite uncomfortable to eat like this and this happens regularly that I have someone in front me of that feels it’s perfectly okay to invade my space in this way.
I rarely recline my seat. On the rare occasion that I do, I barely recline it.
December 7th, 2006 at 3:53 pm |
I agree. I could care less if they just set the default pitch just a bit further back and then got rid of reclining entirely. I am more than sick of having people lean all the way back the moment they can, oftentimes almost crushing my laptop. As it is now, the reclining goes too far back.