Sunday 19 November 2006

Backrest right-of-way?

I was on a flight back home yesterday...I got strapped in, settled down, read the papers, and then the plane took off.

Since it was an evening flight it started getting dark soon after the plane took off, so I decided to take a nap. I lowered the backrest of my chair, and got comfortable. Suddenly I was tapped on the shoulder and the lady behind me said "Sempit lah!"(its cramp), and wanted me to straighten my backrest. I was reluctant of course because I want to get comfortable, since I'm a rather large guy too. However in order not to cause a scene I obliged by straightening my backrest somewhat, but not all the way. I was rather uncomfortable throughout the entire 2.5 hours of flight.

This started me thinking: Who has the right of way here? Do I have the right to lower my backrest, since that's what the chair is designed to do, or does she have the right to tell me NOT to lower my backrest? We all know that airplane sits are uncomfortable, but we have to make do with what's available, unless you wanna pay for business class or first class seats.

If you pay for economy do you have the right to complain when the person in front of you lower their backrest?

What do you think?

2 comments:

Nicholas Ng said...

Hmm.... i personally think they don't have the right to complain about 'sempit la' if they're paying like what u r paying, i mean it is ur right if u wan to lower ur backrest, it's part of the plane seating assesibility, she therefore if sempitla ask her lower her back rest also and take a break, what is she? i bloody fat ass? i board air asia before, even with the backrest down i don find it that sempitla, ah, next time anyone say sempitla, show them the way to the business class seats or the toilet, nvm pol, forgive the oversize lazy i mean lady for she is suffering from extreme claustrophobia

CFC said...

Actually, in a Gentleman sort of way, we would just put our seat back into upright position, and take the uncomfortable ride like a man.


Because our Lightsabres are all locked away somewhere else in the plane.