This Airline Will Start Charging Travelers To Recline Their Seat

Airlines have managed to find ways to nickel and dime customers. From charging for extra luggage (or sometimes any luggage, depending on the airline) to paying for a specific seat, flights seem to be getting more and more expensive. And now, WestJet, a budget airline based in Canada, is going to be charging people to recline their seats. Or rather, it's going to be only putting reclining seats in certain sections of some of their airplanes.

In an update to 43 of the airline's Boeing 737-8 MAX and 737-800 planes, standard economy seats will no longer be able to recline. This is less than a third of the airline's fleet. The only seats in these renovated planes that will be able to recline will be in the Premium and Extended Comfort class of seats, and those will come at a higher cost. The new seat configurations should be completed by early 2026.

A WestJet representative explained part of the reason behind removing the recline option. "Through our guest user testing, half indicated they preferred a fixed recline, to avoid feeling impacted by other passengers encroaching upon their space," the rep shared, via ABC News. However, it's not exactly a ringing endorsement for the plan to have just half of the people who tested the seats think it was a good idea to eliminate the reclining option.

The response to WestJet's no more recline update to its fleet social media largely seems negative. One person on X (formerly known as Twitter) said, "So cruel to have to pay to recline. Will never fly them." And it sounds like it could be costing them some customers. One traveler posted, "Removing reclining seats? I'll take my frequent flyer status elsewhere." We'll have to wait and see if that online irritation at the change actually translates to a decline in passengers when the rollout of the new seating arrangement is in place.

Whether or not to recline one's seat on a plane is one of those hot topics, right up there with the debate over standing up once the plane lands. We can think of one positive to this situation. Now if you're in standard economy on one of these planes, you know that the person in front of you can't recline. If you are in one of the reclining seats on a plane, it could be time to brush up on the unspoken etiquette rules when it comes to reclining your airplane seat,