The manners around reclining one’s seat never fail to ignite internet debate.
A survey once found that 77% of travelers believe it is rude to recline the seat for the entire length of the flight, while some hardliners insist they can use the seat in any way it was designed to be used, anytime they please.
That said, the ability to recline one’s seat is a standard feature available on almost every commercial airline.
This week, Canadian airline WestJet became one of the first to try to switch the ability to recline into a paid “perk” by announcing that it was reconfiguring 43 of its Boeing 737-8 MAX and 737-800 (BA) planes to have what it classifies as a “refreshed range of seating options.”
In actuality, this means making customers pay for a seat that reclines.
WestJet sells seats that do not recline as “welcoming service at every budget”
According to a press release from the airline, economy seats on the retrofitted planes will have “back support with a fixed recline design,” which in simpler terms means the seat will not have the ability to recline.
The Premium section at the front of these planes will have “ergonomically contoured seat cushions, reclining seat backs and a large headrest with four-way adjustment capability.”
The 36 seats between the premium section and the rest of the cabin will, in turn, also have reclining ability, alongside extra legroom and slightly more space than the higher fare class.
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“The cabin has been thoughtfully designed to offer WestJet’s welcoming service at every budget,” WestJet Executive Vice-President and Chief Experience Officer Samantha Taylor said in a statement. “It reflects our commitment to elevating every aspect of the travel experience and meeting guest demand for a broader range of product offerings.”
As WestJet is not a low-cost airline but one of the two main airlines in the country alongside Air Canada, the decision was immediately met with criticism over what many see as a slippery slope toward carriers finding ways to charge for things that used to be included, such as seat selection and carry-on baggage.
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“The imagination of airline marketers never stops to astound me: the depths they will go through kind of give people an impression that if I pay more, I get more,” John Gradek, an aviation lecturer at McGill University and airline passenger rights advocate, said to Canadian national broadcaster CBC. “Right now, it’s like you pay more to get what you had.”
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While WestJet’s announcement immediately triggered a large outcry of very similar sentiment across Canada, a few travelers who do not like to sit behind someone who reclines their seat welcomed the change, as it would mean that those who insist on reclining would be in a different section of the plane.
Over the years, midair altercations among passengers who dislike that someone is reclining their seats have continued to periodically spring up. On one American Airlines journey between Miami and Paris, the fight escalated to the point of the pilot making the call to divert the plane to Boston.
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