While on-board a flight, is it ever OK to recline your seat?

It’s perhaps the most annoying – albeit appealing – part of flying in economy. But when it comes to this feature, not everyone is in favour.

There is something about flying that brings out the worst in people.

Tolerance levels drop dramatically with the knowledge that we are strapped into a metal tube with a bunch of strangers for a heck of a long time with no exit, no internet and limited access to snacks.

The list of things that can spark rage is long. A TV screen that isn’t working properly, the fact that they’ve run out of beef stroganoff by the time they serve you, not enough space in the overhead lockers, a swift drinks trolley to the elbow … any of these things can tip a traveller over the edge. That cabin is a pressurised space in more ways than one.

But perhaps the biggest trigger point is the reclined seat.

Is it OK to hit that button on the side of your seat?

Many of us have experienced the flood of white-hot rage when someone tips their seat back at an inopportune time, stealing some of the precious centimetres we have to ourselves in cattle class. Hugh Morris describes it in poetic terms when he writes “you have literally pilfered a percentage of my territory. It’s a land grab. It’s the quiet annexation of my northernmost boundary.”

It’s such a rage-inducer that people have been arrested over it and flights have been diverted because of it. Sixty per cent of international flight cabin crew say they have witnessed a fight over a reclined seat.

There have even been products developed to try to win the war against seat recliners.

The creatively named Knee Defender attaches to your tray table, preventing the person in front of you from tipping their chair. In 2014, the use of this device on a flight from Newark to Denver prompted a conflict so wild the pilot was forced to make an emergency landing in Chicago.

The lack of legroom caused by a reclined seat can often cause arguments.

As such, many airlines have banned the device.

But there are plenty of people who can’t see what all the fuss is about. In an article titled “Why it’s my right to recline my plane seat, and I refuse to be told otherwise”, Annabel Fenwick Elliott writes: “It all comes down to indisputable science. The passenger who reclines is only cutting into the space of the person behind them if this person doesn’t also recline.

“So if you’re the sort of person who tuts when the seat in front lurches into your sphere but refuses to follow suit and make like a domino, you are the one putting a spanner in the works. Would you rather be a spanner or a domino? The choice is yours, but spanners have no cause for complaint when the solution is in front of them”.

Some airlines, like Ryanair, have ditched reclining seats to save the kerfuffle caused by moving your seat.

It’s such a point of contention that some carriers (including Monarch Airlines, Ryanair and easyJet) have ditched reclining seats to save the kerfuffle. When British Airways followed suit on their short-haul planes, they pointed out that these seats would be “preset to a gentle recline” position, which touches on Fenwick Elliott’s suggestion that for the system to work, every seat should automatically be bent back slightly.

But if you’re on a plane that does offer a reclining seat, there are a few key things to consider before you push that button …

DON’T RECLINE WHEN FOOD IS BEING SERVED

Eating a meal in a plane seat is only marginally easier than eating in a straitjacket. Your elbows have nowhere to go, your plastic cutlery is flimsier than OJ Simpson’s alibi and beverage/yoghurt containers are so pressurised they gush everywhere you when dare look at them sideways. Add to that somebody reclining their chair so your dinner tray almost clefts you in two, and your rage metre can go from zero to 100 in seconds.

Rule 1: Don’t recline when food is being served.

CONSIDER HOW LONG THE FLIGHT IS

If you fully recline your seat on a short domestic flight (i.e. Melbourne to Sydney) you are literally one of the worst people in the world.

But if you’re enduring a marathon flight where you’re crossing the date line and you really need to catch some sleep on the plane, reclining is A-OK. Just take the temperature of your environment before you throw yourself backwards – if the cabin lights have been dimmed for sleep and lots of people around you are reclining, join the layback party.

YOU GET SPECIAL CONSIDERATION IF YOU’RE REALLY, REALLY TALL

Lots of tall people claim that to be comfortable on a flight (and not have their knees around their ears the whole time), they need to recline their seat for extra leg room. If this irritates you, console yourself with the knowledge they are probably going to hit their head on the overhead compartment when it’s time to disembark.

OK fine, you get special consideration if you’re really, really tall

CHECK THE SITUATION BEHIND YOU BEFORE YOU RECLINE

The person behind you might have a child on their lap, a hot drink on their tray table or – and this is where it could be really dangerous – they’re doing that weird sleep move where they rest their head on the seat or the tray table in front of them. You wouldn’t back a car up without checking behind you, so maybe just do a courtesy check before reclining your seat.

DON’T RECLINE QUICKLY

Even if there’s no food or drink around, the cabin lights have been dimmed and almost every other passenger on the plane has reclined their seat, you make that movement so gentle and subtle it’s almost imperceptible to the human eye. It’s like a lengthy, apologetic bow – regretfully acknowledging that you’re prioritising your comfort over that of the person behind you.

Simone Mitchell is a freelance travel writer. You can follow her on Twitter.