<p>Next, airlines with standing room only.</p>
<p>The airlines certainly aren’t helping by cramming three rows of seats where they really should put two. However, people can help make a stressful situation easier for others. Many people are nervous, tired, under pressure, stressed out, and flying can be extremely unpleasant when you are squished in a small area next to so many others.</p>
<p>Sure, you can resist showering for a week, belch, fart, sniff loudly and constantly, let your loud kids kick the seat in front of them, shuffle decks of cards loudly exactly ten times before dealing, open up the window shades to bright sunlight when everyone is sleeping, grab the seat in front of you when you get up, talk loudly to your seat mate, eat strong smelling onion laced foods, and quickly lower your seat to a full recline. Probably nobody is going to stop you.</p>
<p>Or you can look around and see if there’s anybody behind you, and how tall they might be, considering reclining slowly and not all the way if you must. You can help people with their luggage if they’re struggling, give the flight attendants backup when they need it, be considerate of others around you. It’s really not that hard, it just consists of being aware and caring about others just a little bit.</p>
<p>Though I think most people aren’t trying to be inconsiderate, they are merely oblivious and caught up in their own misery.</p>
<p>I can deal with reclining, but I can’t deal with kids kicking my seat or someone pulling on my seat to get up.</p>
<p>@oldfort, I have trained my brain to think of the kicking as a back massage. Oddly enough, it really works. Haven’t come up with anything for the seat pulling yet, though I have been known to yell, “Ouch,” loudly, when someone yanks my hair in the process, or bangs me in the head with their bag.</p>
<p>Most of the domestic flights I take are only an hour long, so I suck it up with the tight seating. That being said , I am 5’4" tall and with short legs . My knees are often right up against the seat in front of me, so I can’t imagine how awful it feels to someone with any height or even bulk.</p>
<p>I once flew on an international flight where all seats reclined for sleeping. There was an Indian woman sitting behind me that was complaining about my seat reclining ( my then baby was sleeping in my lap )
The flight attendants didn’t have a lot of patience with her because she not only was difficult about my seat , but also tried to put her entire bare foot and leg through the small opening between the seats, putting her rather nasty foot on my armrest…that was a fun flight ;)</p>
<p>I was on a flight once, sitting on the side where there were only two seats. The man sitting next to me was absolutely enormous, spilling all over my seat, must have been at least 400 pounds. I asked the flight attendant if I could sit elsewhere, and she pointed me to a row of three seats, where there was only a lady sitting in the window seat. When I sat down on the aisle seat (leaving the center seat open), the lady snorted and said, “The gate agent said I’d have the entire row to myself!” Not knowing what to say, because it was so incredibly selfish, I just laughed and said, “Well, you’re not THAT big, I’m sure you’ll have plenty of room.” She had nothing else to say after that, and though I hate to say snotty things (at least to people I don’t know), that one felt great.</p>
<p>See, this is one of the things I like about Southwest Airlines. I can pick my seat once I get on the plane and see where others are sitting.</p>
<p>H and I recently returned from Seattle on the same flight. I had a higher boarding number than him (because I paid for early bird), and knew I’d find a row with one person already in it, so I could pick someone reasonably sized. I didn’t look for Twiggy, just someone who could obviously fit in his/her seat without spilling over. H and I alternate on those flights, who gets the middle and who gets the window or aisle. Whichever one of us gets the middle knows we can lean into the other if need be, but if we’ve picked a row with someone who is reasonably sized, then it’s not an issue… no having to ask the flight attendant if we can change seats. </p>
<p>Of course, this doesn’t work if you get in the middle to end of the C boarding group, because by then, we all know what the C stands for… center seat. But early enough along in the boarding process, you can usually find a row where only one person is sitting and you can pick that person out by taking a quick glance down the plane as you board.</p>
<p>I learned on this trip that, if you have a long flight (this was four hours), a lot of people pre-purchase the early bird boarding for an extra $12. It’s been a while since I was on a Southwest flight of that duration…now I know how people do it. </p>
<p>“The gate agent said I’d have the entire row to myself.”</p>
<p>Now that’s a laugh!</p>
<p>I had a 6’10" co-worker who was always miserable flying, as you can imagine. He was on a small regional jet, and was rooting around by his small seat for his seatbelt. The woman behind him screamed! He had grabbed her foot accidentally. He was mortified. She glared at him like he was some sort of pervert. I travel a fair amount and am SO glad I’m pretty small.</p>
<p>I recently flew Vueling Air (discount) from Bordeaux to Barcelona. I am 5’4", normal weight / size. We were packed in so tight my knees were pressed up against the seat. I truly don’t know how taller people handled it. There could not have been more than 8 inches from my nose to the seat in front. </p>
<p>I think one solution is to designate one side of the plane fully reclining and the other side non reclining. </p>
<p>Remember “smoking” and “non-smoking”? Wow, that seems like a thousand years ago.</p>
<p>Flying is cheaper than driving. I recently flew a trip in three hours a distance that would take three days driving. My air ticket was cheaper than the cost of gasoline for the nearly 2,000 mile drive. Not to mention the cost of hotels and meals. </p>
<p>Bring a good book. Three cramped hours is no picnic but its better than driving.</p>
<p>Thanks Mainelomghorm for a blast from the psst that puts some annoyances into perspective. I remember. Smoking flights…</p>
<p>"…I have trained my brain to think of the kicking as a back massage. Oddly enough, it really works…"</p>
<p>busdriver11, so funny to read this, as this is exactly what I did yesterday. I got on the plane, and this guy behind me kept jamming his knees into the seat - I was not reclined 
- I don’t actually remember feeling that before on a plane. At first I was really tired and kind of grumpy, and so it annoyed me. After a while of just closing my eyes and resting, I decided I actually liked it, and my lower back needed a little knee-jamming. I figured he probably didn’t mean any ill will, and just didn’t realize what he was doing or maybe couldn’t help it.</p>
<p><a href=“http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/travel/flights/2010-05-11-businesstravel11_ST_N.htm?csp=hf”>http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/travel/flights/2010-05-11-businesstravel11_ST_N.htm?csp=hf</a> indicates that Spirit Airlines has seats with non-adjustable recline.</p>
<p>Vueling Air, that was the one that I could barely squeeze my knees in to (and I have short legs) and Mr. Fang had to put his knees in the aisle. Don’t fly Vueling unless you are a tiny person.</p>
<p>I figure if the button to recline is on my seat, its mine to use or not. EK, many post ago you refernced not needing to nap or slleep during daytime hours, but you are assuming everybody is on a 9 t 5 schedule. Most flights I take are after working a night shift with NO sleep, so I do want to sleep on the daytime flight and want to recline. Edit…just reread that if I need to sleep during daytime hours, I should buy a business class or first class ticket…really???</p>
<p>GAMom, don’t count on being able to recline your seat in first class, either. The average height/build guy sitting behind me blocked my seat from reclining, then promptly fell asleep, and the fligt attendants were reluctant to wake him up because he behaved like a real jerk shortly after boarding the plane. Yup, it was a red eye flight, and he slept all the way! </p>
<p>Ha, my budget doesn’t allow for first class jerks, only coach jerks!</p>
<p>@teriwitt, can the Southwest early-bird boarder save a seat for others in their group/family who don’t have the early-bird boarding? Did you look for the one person in an aisle, so that you could take another seat and save the third for your dh? </p>