A rule every traveler should follow

Read time: 52 sec

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Don't Recline Your Seat

There is a button on your armrest that is technically legal and completely selfish.

Don't push it. Not on flights under five hours.

Here is the math: you gain two inches. The person behind you loses four. That is not a trade. That is a tax you are collecting from a stranger who did nothing to you.

I flew Maui to Long Beach last month. The guy in front of me reclined before the seatbelt sign turned off. For the next four hours I ate my tray table. Laptop wedged at a 40 degree angle. I wrote half of this newsletter like that.

He took a nap. I did not.

The recline button exists because an engineer put it there. So does the middle seat. Neither one is a good idea.

Five hours or less, sit up. Flights over five hours, recline, sleep mask on, no judgment.

I wrote this at a 40 degree angle somewhere over the Pacific. The guy in front of me is probably still sleeping.

If you are newer here, a few past issues worth reading: Why Albania should be your next trip, how to skip the landmarks and actually experience a place, and the honest guide to booking European hotels.

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Until next Thursday, 

Jeff