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There’s one button on a plane seat that inspires intense emotion from travellers - the “seat recliner knob”. Which, incidentally, is exactly what one half of a plane call other passengers who choose to tilt their seats backwards between takeoff and landing. Ever since economy cabins introduced the feature as an ill-conceived gesture of comfort it has divided travellers into two camps: the Recliners, and the Decliners.

While Decliners refuse to tilt their seats back out of moral obligation to other passengers’ comfort , Recliners see it as their right to recline. Many feel genuine outrage at the suggestion that they should pay for a reclining seat and not use it, just because the row behind wants to sit upright. These two contrary approaches often rub against each other.



Literally in some cases. It would be tempting to say it’s travel’s most enduring paradox, where the impassable object meets the unstoppable force - jabbing somewhere into your shins. The Herald ’s team of travel experts has leaned into the issue to provide a definitive answer to travel’s ultimate hard problem: To recline, or not to recline - that is the question.

Don’t be a berk, there’s a baby on board ❌ Jennifer Mortimer, NZ Herald lifestyle editor - Decliner I am a big believer that reclining your seat on a short-haul flight is totally unnecessary and rather rude. In fact, I will audibly gasp and point to you should you recline on a domestic flight. As someone who has breastfed her bab.

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