Some sticklers insist the answer to this question is ‘never’, especially if you’re only on a short-haul hop, but that strikes me as priggish. Unless you’ve gone really budget, there’s probably a button in your armrest. Why not use it? Better a gentle recline than spending a ten-hour flight to Los Angeles as upright as an Edwardian governess.
Not while still on the ground, though. This is unbridled, and you’re only going to be barked at to put it up again for take-off. It’s similarly uncivilised to slam back your seat back within 10 seconds of the seat-belt sign going off. Instead, after a few moments, cast a polite glance behind you, check that you’re not about to send a drink, a laptop or a baby flying, and then carefully and gradually slide back. You’re in 56E, not a racing car.
Go steady, too, if you can hear the nearby cry of ‘chicken or beef?’ Some airlines ask passengers to shift forward at mealtimes, so everyone can eat their frozen bread roll without having to bend over their tray as crooked as a question mark. This can be especially galling on night flights. One friend was recently incensed to be woken and asked to move her seat forward on such a flight to Sri Lanka. It was one of those night flights where very few people bothered with dinner, but the chap behind her wanted his chicken curry, so the air steward insisted my sleepy friend sit forward again. It is easiest, in such scenarios, to do what the officious air steward says. Otherwise you might find yourself banned from the airline altogether.
Last year, a couple on a Cathay Pacific flight spent some time loudly haranguing the woman in front of them who’d reclined her seat, before they started kicking it. These people were adults and have since been put on Cathay’s black list.
(While we’re on the subject of seat etiquette, could you also try and avoid heaving yourself up or sitting down by clutching the seat in front of you like a handrail? I’ve had my hair yanked numerous times by some oaf behind me lowering himself down using his fore arm and my headrest, and flying several thousand miles in a tight and confined space with 230-odd others is quite bad enough without being injured at the same time.)
Although there is an alternative to all of this drama, and that’s simply to fly Business or First.
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