Passengers could soon have to pay for right to recline
<p>People taking liberties when reclining their seat on a plane is one of the chief causes of inflight consternation. But a controversial new study suggests this problem could be eliminated by asking passengers to pay for the right to recline.</p>
<p>Christopher Buccafusco and Christopher Jon Sprigman, two law professors from New York, believe passengers would be willing to pay an additional surcharge for seats with reclining capabilities, which could help to restore calm in the skies.</p>
<p>The professors surveyed a large group of travellers and found most would be willing to pay as much as $16 extra to the passenger behind them for the right to lean back. Interestingly, those in the seat behind say they would need at least $53 to sacrifice legroom, and would be willing to pay as much as $24 to stop the person in front of them reclining.</p>
<p>The study also suggests passengers would be open to bargaining to strike a fair compromise.</p>
<p>“People seem more willing to make trades when the objects changing hands aren’t dollars but gifts of equivalent value. When we analysed this data, it seems very likely that people are more likely to end up with an efficient distribution of seat space when bartering with booze than with bucks,” the professors wrote.</p>
<p>“When the exchange is money, we have successful transactions about 15 per cent of the time. When the exchange is a gift of equivalent value, however, we have successful transactions about 36 per cent of the time. That’s more than double the number of transactions.”</p>
<p>“Nobody likes the recent turn toward airlines charging for every service. But maybe what we need is more of that. Most airlines still hand out free drinks, and sometimes little bags of pretzels,” they wrote.</p>
<p>“Maybe instead they should charge for them and allow passengers to purchase them for one another. Everyone wins. Seat recline space is efficiently allocated. Airlines are marginally further from bankruptcy.”</p>
<p>Would you be willing to pay for the right to recline?</p>
