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Lock 'Em
The Travel Critic · February 8, 1999

Should airlines lock their economy-class seats in the upright position and throw away the key?

Bill Zalenski, a medical underwriter from Nashville, Tenn., thinks so. "You know what happens to a 6-footer sitting in a cramped seat when the person in front reclines? Squish," he says. "Airlines should get rid of reclining seats."

Carrie Cargill of East Lansing, Mich., believes the recliners are a nuisance too. "My husband is constantly having problems on flights," she reports. "One time, the woman in front of him tried to recline the seat back. Since his knees hit the seat, she couldn't move. Instead of looking back to see what was going on, she slammed herself repeatedly into the seat in the hope of getting it to move. After the third time, I informed her that my husband's legs were in her way. She gave me the look of death and turned around with a "HHUUMPH."

Preventing the seats from going back isn't such a bad idea. Flight attendants would love it. Just think: No more "return your seats to the upright position before landing" announcements. Everyone in sardine class would already be locked in place, ready for their descent. And no more need to settle violent disputes between passengers because someone leaned into someone else's personal space. Everyone in steerage would have the same amount of personal space, to the millimeter.

Most major airlines claim to offer the cattle in the back of the plane roughly 30 inches of pitch between seats. But that legroom isn't fixed. Standard economy-class seats - except for those in the back and near emergency exits, which don't go back at all - recline by about 18 degrees.

For a man like Cargill's husband, who is more than 6 feet tall, the space shrinks quickly as the seat in front of him leans back. In effect, a fully reclined seat would leave him with as little as 26 inches of wiggle room. His only option at that point is to "create" more personal space by reclining his seat, prompting the passenger behind him to do likewise and triggering the dreaded domino effect.

It is the prospect of an entire cabinful of reclined seats that inspired a government emergency disaster planner to write me a few weeks ago. "My greatest concern regarding the tighter seating is the impact on emergency evacuations," she observed. "It can be difficult under ideal circumstances to extract oneself from a window seat. It would be much more difficult in an emergency - particularly when there are injuries."

It's worth pointing out that during an emergency landing, passengers would move seats into their upright positions (if they had time), and that the Federal Aviation Administration is none too flexible about keeping the emergency exit rows uncluttered. But that doesn't invalidate her point: Canning the recliners might make planes safer.

I'm not pulling your leg here. I really think this is a good idea.

I know the 35-degree angle at which the seats would be bolted tight is the same angle preferred by interrogators trying to deprive subjects of sleep. But honestly, I'd rather lose a little shuteye than get a bottle smashed over my head by a crazed passenger who thought I robbed him of his legroom.

And hey, the new policy would keep me from being inconsiderate to my fellow passengers - not the least of which are the unfortunate souls sitting in the rows that don't recline.

Of course no airline chief executive in his right mind would ever allow all the little seats to get locked in place. The ability to recline gives the peons in the back of the plane the illusion of comfort where there is none. Kind of like putting mirrors on a wall gives the illusion of space.

Would passengers demand it? Not likely. They'd rather take their chances that they'll end up with a bulkhead window seat, a couple of extra pillows and blankets, and a very short adult behind them.

Christopher Elliott is a travel commentator and author of A Bridge to Nowhere: A Year in the Florida Keys. All e-mailed questions may be edited, condensed or republished at the site's discretion.