Reclinable seats

Ever wondered how a three and a half hour journey aircraft would be WITHOUT reclinable seats? Ever had to travel between countries sitting in such an upright position that your behind started feeling numb? I have answers to these questions because I underwent precisely this during my last holiday (with family) to Malaysia (truly Asia). You would ask how could an international flight not have reclinable seats? The answer to this lies in the particular Jet Airways aircraft that accompanied my family and I to the city of Kuala Lumpur, or should I say we accompanied the aircraft. How did this happen? Here follows the account..

When we checked in our baggage (no excess ! PHEW !! ) we got our boarding passes and the stewardess there asked the head of our family ie my father as to where in the aircraft we'd like to be placed. We were quite particular about the four of us ( my parents, my brother and I ) sitting side-by-side, but that wasn't possible in economy class (atleast not in this aircraft) as the seating arrangement consisted of two three-seater rows. The polite stewardess behind the counter suggested the last row seats which consisted of three seats together and one along the same row but separated from the other three. At this, the brilliant brother of mine made a worthy note and rejected the stewardesses proposal as the seats in the last row cannot be reclined. So, the stewardess instead gave us seats right in the centre of "economy class" next to the emergency exits having the same seat arrangement. Only on reaching our seats did we find out that sets near the emergency exits in aircrafts (atleast in Jet Airways ones) are NOT reclinable !! Oh, hell ! Three and a half hours of torture ! Well, not entirely cos we're supposed to sit upright during takeoff and landing, but still keeping my back upright for more than two hours seems like torture enough to me. What's worse, this was my first trip abroad and it just HAD to start like this and this apparently was only my 3rd trip in ANY airliner. I RECLINED to my fate saying : "yea well, life's tough!" (atleast there was something I could recline to).

One would think, here ends the "curse of the un-reclinable seats", but then again, THAT I thought before my return journey in which I had only my brother for company (my parents had come back to India on a previous date ). Did I say company? I think not! We got the same seats near the emergency exits even during the return trip as the man behind the counter didn't give us any choice of seats when we collected our boarding passes. After we got seated in the aircraft (me, with a lot of moaning and denial), the air-host (yes, MALE! For some reason this aircraft had more air-hosts than air-hostesses) seemed to have a problem with a large wrist-band-like-thing my brother was sporting for the return flight. The air-host asked my brother to move to a (reclinable) seat at the back as those near an emergency exit should be physically and medically fit, (the lucky ass) while I was stuck with the UN-reclinable seat. Later after the flight took off and the "seat-belt" button went off, the same air-host (where're the ladies when you need them) stated that my "friend" was calling me to the back. Only after going there did I realize that there was actually another RECLINABLE seat, unused, right beside my brother (actually there were TWO :D ). My brother grinned at me and said, "I thought you'd prefer reclinable seats". THE HELL I WOULD !! I took up the seat near the window and marveled at my brother (Thank you brother! Thank you ! ). I reclined the seat to the full extent and got myself ready to a much deserved sleep (deserved because my cousin and I had managed to get ourselves kicked out of a club the previous night, the account of which will be available in future posts ).

Later, breakfast was served. At this point of time I'd like to get to your notice that the table, in an airliner such as the one we were in, and a cup-holder for a seat is attatched to the seat in front of it. Anyway, breakfast was served and I ate with my seat reclined(what the hell, when you have reclinable seats keep it reclined I thought). This caused apparent discomfort to the passenger behind me as my seat was reclined and he had to stoop lower than normal to eat his breakfast, so he did the sane thing and let the air-host know about it who in turn approached me and asked me to straighten my seat so that the passenger behind me could have his breakfast in peace. I said okay and jus pushed the button to straighten my seat which caused my seat's back-support to jerk straight immediately and this in turn caused the passenger to have his entire breakfast on his lap (upside down) and his drink (alcohol if I'm not mistaken.. Carlsberg! Australian for beer! .. waitaminit that's not Carlsberg that's Fosters. I dunno what it is for Carlsberg) inverted on his head. Well, if you still haven't figured out how that happened continue reading this paragraph else read the next. Since the table and and cup-holder are attatched to the seat in front, the sudden movement of the front seat (when I pressed the button to straighten my seat) caused the plate with food on the table and the drink in the cup-holder to get out of their respective places and find temporary home on the man's body rather than inside him.

I apologised profusely and considerably, not to the passenger directly though cos I couldn't see him but to the air-host. The man was in considerable distress but I didn't care much after that, after all I did exactly what he wanted me to : to straighten my seat ; not the way he would have liked but what-the-hell, I was more interested in the movie that was being screened : Hitch !