Airline Seating Squeeze and Reclining

This is probably one of my biggest pet peeves with traveling these days.  I appear to not be the only one as altercations between passengers are making the news more lately.  In fact, a flight was diverted because two passengers got into a heated argument over this issue.  What is this issue?  Passengers reclining their seats during the flight.  It is very inconsiderate of the passenger behind you and downright rude and insensitive.

Years ago, seats were wider and had much more legroom.  One could easily recline their seat with no imposition on the person behind them.  This was a great feature when on a long flight and you wanted to kick back and take a nap.

However times have changed.  Airlines have found ways to squeeze more seats into a small space.  It has gotten to the point where you have a very limited space to so much as pull down the tray in front of you.  I recently flew on United Airlines and they do offer the ability to "upgrade" to a row of seats that do offer a bit more legroom than their economy seats.

For the economy seats where space is very limited, it is my belief that airlines should either physically fix the seats so that they can not recline, or at a minimum make it a policy that if someone is sitting behind you then you can not recline your seat.  Some will argue that they paid for their seat and thus should be able to recline if they so choose.  I argue back that the person behind you paid for their seat and deserves their seat space without feeling like the person in front of them is in their lap.  If you have a long flight and wish to be able to recline then feel free to upgrade to a seat with more legroom.  I have no problem with that.  But back in the economy seating, reclining should be forbidden outright, or at a minimum when a person is seated behind you.

I am encouraging all Airlines to revisit their policy on this and look at it from both passengers point of views.