[regularfry]

The space between the seats is a commons, just like the audio spectrum.

You chose a seat expecting that it would recline, I chose a seat expecting I could actually sit down without dislocating my kneecaps. These expectations overlap, and might require grown-up negotiation to resolve.

[genericuser]

Maybe you should take your own needs into account when buying your ticket, and choose seats without reclining seats in front of them then. Such as those in the exit row, or those in the front row.

I won't book a ticket if I have to sit in front of the exit row, or in the last row on an aircraft. The idea that you should not have to factor in similar preferences when booking your flights strikes me as nothing more than entitlement.

[regularfry]

And when I do exactly that, but the airline moves me and sticks me somewhere I don't want to be? Or I try, and all the extra legroom seats are taken already? Maybe you should be aware that your fellow passengers have almost certainly already done all they could to avoid making an unpleasant experience worse.

[genericuser]

Then they should take it up with the airline and not make my experience worse when I am dealing with the airline screwing me also.

By trying to tell the person in front of them not to recline they are effectively saying "I didn't get what I wanted so I am going to take it out on a person who may have"

[regularfry]

> Then they should take it up with the airline and not make my experience worse when I am dealing with the airline screwing me also.

How do you propose that both of these should happen? "Take it up with the airline" - when? The cabin crew can't (or won't) do anything about it, creating a fuss on the plane is a recipe for getting thrown off. That means it's got to happen after the flight. That means we both have to get through the flight somehow.

> By trying to tell the person in front of them not to recline they are effectively saying "I didn't get what I wanted so I am going to take it out on a person who may have"

If you believe that there is some sort of implied right to recline, then the airline has screwed both passengers over by double-selling the space. If the passenger in front can assume a right to recline, it's certainly the case that the person behind can assume the more fundamental right to actually sit down. If you say that the person behind must allow the person in front to recline, you're saying that all the downside of the airline's action must fall on only one of the two people affected.