Source: Wall Street Journal
Author: Scott McCartney

With airlines squeezing more seats onto planes and flights more crowded than ever, some nasty battles are brewing, pitting passengers who recline their seats against the squished travelers sitting behind them.

Most U.S. airlines still allow seats to tip as far back as four or five inches, even though they have shrunk the space between rows. But now Southwest Airlines is doing something to reduce the threat of bruised knees and spilled drinks. The carrier is reducing the maximum recline in many of its seats so that customers can use laptop computers, for example, when the person in front of them wants to lean back.

Southwest found that its seats had varying degrees of maximum recline, from two inches of movement at the top of the seat to 4.5 inches. The airline decided to standardize recline at three inches, adjusting seats as planes go in for major maintenance work. "It was impossible for a customer to use a laptop behind someone who had reclined fully in a seat that allowed four or 4.5 inches of recline," said Linda Rutherford, a Southwest spokeswoman. The airline determined that a three-inch recline provided "maximum comfort and usability," she says.

While Southwest offers 32 inches of space for each seat row on its Boeing 737s, many competitors have seats with less room -- 31-inch rows for the most part, with some as tight as 30 inches. Yet most other airlines also allow at least four inches of recline in seats. Continental Airlines reports the steepest coach recline among major airlines -- a spokesman says most of Continental's coach seats have five to six inches of recline. But Continental is less kind to the knees of the passengers behind -- most seats on its 737s have 31 inches of space for each row. UAL Corp.'s United Airlines has a similar squeeze in its main coach cabin: Five inches of recline with seats in 31-inch rows. AMR Corp.'s American Airlines and Delta Air Lines say all their coach seats are set to recline four inches.

"I've seen laptops break when seats come back fast," says Gary Taggart, a frequent flier from the San Francisco area.

Many tall travelers admit to trying to send a message through a seatback by repeatedly bumping and kneeing the reclining passenger in front, or holding a newspaper up high so it brushes the head of the recliner.

Like window-seat lovers and aisle-seat devotees, travelers are split into two philosophical seat-recline camps -- recliners who believe they are entitled to a little more comfort (and perhaps sleep) versus upright travelers who prefer to use their tray tables for reading or working. Battles over cabin space can get nasty, from annoying kicking of the reclined seat to heated arguments. Many tall travelers admit to trying to send a message through a seatback by repeatedly bumping and kneeing the reclining passenger in front, or holding a newspaper up high so it brushes the head of the recliner.

Gene Wojcieszak, a technology consultant, says he's more of an upright flier because of the lack of leg room in planes, and he's not afraid to push seats back up. "I usually just say, 'Hey, Dude, there's no space here,' " he said. Business travelers usually respond well; infrequent fliers sometimes are miffed, he says.

But Scott Lamb, a recycling company executive, is a devout recliner -- he says he needs the extra space to get his work done. "Usually the person in front of me reclines, I recline and then the person behind me reclines and it works out for everyone except for the guy in the last row who can't recline," he said. A Travelocity poll of 1,300 customers in 2004 found that almost one-third said they recline their seats "frequently" or "all the time."

Manners mavens say there's a genteel way to recline. Peggy Post, an etiquette expert at the Emily Post Institute, says the polite procedure would be to turn and alert the person behind you that you will recline, or kindly ask the person in front of you not to recline if you are working. But recliners, Ms. Post said, have the right of way. "People are entitled to recline," she said.

That may be, but airlines could make changes to improve seating. "If airlines took an inch or two off the recline, it would really help," says Stanley Plog, a consultant who has conducted extensive research on passenger comfort issues.

Those sitting in first class or business class are relatively protected from the space crunch occurring in coach. Airlines, in fact, have literally been bending over backward in international business class to please passengers with bigger recline, trying to turn seats into beds that lie flat, or close to it. Standard first-class seats on domestic flights offer more recline -- but lots more leg room so that seats don't encroach on customers.

Travelers sitting in souped-up coach seats on some airlines also have a bit of a reprieve. United says it has the same seat recline -- five inches -- in "Economy Plus" section, as in its regular coach seats. (These seats are open to elite frequent fliers and other passengers who pay extra.) But, because those seats have several extra inches of leg room, reclining isn't usually a problem. Allen Cary, a San Francisco area technology company sales manager, says there's no seat-recline problem in Economy Plus, but working is impossible for him, at 6-foot-3, if he's in a regular coach seat. "The design of the reclining seat is inconsistent with the seating capacity of modern airlines," Mr. Cary said.

Some companies have devised gizmos to thwart recliners. Among the gadgets are a wedge that fits in with a tray table to restrict seat movement and a car-key size contraption called a "Knee Defender" that slides onto the arms of a seat-back tray and up against the seat, limiting recline. But airlines say they have prohibited use of recline-limiters, which can lead to broken tray tables when passengers push back forcefully.

Tim Allen, a Boston consultant, says he knows the pressure point to push on the seat to prevent recline. "They try and they can't, or you push the seat back forward when they lean forward," he said. "Seats are too close. They shouldn't recline."

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.

Seat manufacturers say that long-haul international airlines tend to put a bit more room between rows of seats and want more recline. Airlines with lots of short trips, including U.S. domestic carriers, typically opt for less recline -- usually about four inches. "The objective of most airlines is to have as much recline as they can," says Larry Gaither, director of sales and marketing at Weber Aircraft LP, a major seat manufacturer.

Weber, a subsidiary of France's Zodiac SA, has developed a seat that can pivot at its base to push the seat bottom forward as the chair back reclines. That prevents the seat from moving back into the knees of the passenger behind. But the seat is more expensive than a regular airline seat, and while it has sold well at some foreign carriers like Dubai-based Emirates and Singapore Airlines, sales in the U.S. have been slow.

Good news, however. Delta will begin installing it in July in some of its narrow-body planes, Mr. Gaither said.

Until the seat catches on, Mr. Plog, the cabin comfort consultant, says a simple enhancement would be to make seats recline slower, reducing the chance of spill, broken laptop or knee injury. "A lot of those seats go back with a crash," he said.

And Steve Reed of Allen, Texas, who spent 38 weeks on the road last year has another idea: Segregate upright fliers into a "no recline" seating section, and put all the lean-back people together. "There really needs to be better etiquette on planes," he said.