Please Keep Your Seatbacks Upright Always

Please Keep Your Seatbacks Upright Always · 13 July 2024

My wife, the Mindboggling Mrs. Miyoshi, thinks that airplane seatbacks should always be kept in the upright position.

Whether or not you have ridden in an airplane lately, you are probably familiar with the line, “Please place your seatbacks and trays in the upright position preparing for takeoff.” (Or landing.) Well, in the Mindboggling Mrs. Miyoshi’s mind, those seatbacks should always be in the upright position. Especially, if you have somebody sitting behind you. Which is always, since every flight seems to be filled to the gills. No seat is left unfilled. People are packed into planes like sardines. Well, you get the picture. There are always people in front of, behind, and beside you. So when those seatbacks are allowed to be reclined (ever so slightly), you get squished. Or at least practically so. Especially, if you do not recline.

As I was thinking about this, I realized that even if everybody in a column of seats, from front to back, reclined, there would still be one person who is squished beyond all recognition. That person in the very back row does not get to recline. So he or she gets the short end of the stick. Or seat, as it were. Squish!

Now, I am not saying that the Mindboggling Mrs. Miyoshi was thinking of the people in the back row when she said that nobody should be allowed to recline, but she might have been. After all, she is empathetic. And she certainly knows that she does not want the person in front of her to recline. Partly because she does not want to recline. Especially since reclining herself would put her closer to the person behind her. (Which is a completely different story.)

Actually, I am not sure which is worse. Being squished by the person in front of you because that person is reclined, or reclining to avoid being squished and getting closer to the person behind you. There are lots of reasons not to be closer to the person behind you, not the least of which is that you are closer to that person’s conversation. (Only part of the other story.) Sheesh.

But when you really think about it, airline seats are reclining anyway during at least half of the flight. The plane is tilting backward during takeoff and when cruising, that is most of the flight. Right up until it is ready for its landing descent, at which time the seats are supposed to be back to their upright position anyway. So why do you need to recline the seats at all? You really don’t. The plane reclines them automatically.

Now, I must admit that I figured this out in my own situation too. After the Mindboggling Mrs. Miyoshi figured out how to recline her own seat (even though she did not want to recline), she made sure that my two seconds of reclining were over by pushing my button. And to my surprise, since the person in front of me was not reclined, it did not make any difference to me. I was comfortable. I had enough room and was reclined enough due to the inclination of the airplane.

Which just goes to show that not only is the Mindboggling Mrs. Miyoshi always right, but that she is especially right when she forces you to keep your seatback in its upright position. Thank you for your cooperation in always keeping your seatback in its upright position.

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