Remember when reclining your plane seat was free? Not anymore

Flying used to be one of life’s simpler pleasures—book a ticket, pick a seat, and recline for a quick nap before landing.

Those days may soon be gone, replaced by a new era of ‘pay-per-comfort’ air travel.

For one Canadian airline, even the right to lean back now comes with a price tag.

WestJet, Canada’s budget carrier, announced in September 2025 that it would begin charging passengers for seat recline.

The airline revealed that 43 of its Boeing 737-8 MAX and 737-800 aircraft would be reconfigured, with the first updated planes entering service by the end of October.

Here’s the catch—only 12 seats on each aircraft will have reclining capability, and they’ll all be located in the premium section.

Everyone else gets what WestJet calls a ‘fixed recline design’, which in plain English means the seats don’t move at all.

Expert Reaction to Paid Recline

Aviation expert John Gradek from McGill University didn’t hold back when asked about the move.

WestJet, however, painted a different picture.

The company claimed that in guest testing, around half of passengers said they preferred fixed recline to avoid being disturbed by other travellers encroaching on their space.

Whether that’s genuinely customer feedback or a convenient justification for a cost-cutting decision depends on how much faith you put in airline surveys.

Three-Tier Cabin Design

WestJet’s Chief Experience Officer, Samantha Taylor, described the redesigned cabins as providing ‘welcoming service at every budget’.

But many passengers are questioning whether removing a long-standing comfort counts as ‘welcoming’.

The new setup introduces a three-tier system that clearly divides passengers by how much comfort they can afford.

At the top is the 12-seat premium section with recline and added perks.

Behind that sits a 36-seat ‘extended comfort’ zone featuring extra legroom and limited reclining ability.

Finally, there’s the standard economy section—no extra space, no recline, just the basics.

Even within economy, there’s a hierarchy.

WestJet’s website notes that seats in rows 20–31 at the back offer the least space, while rows 15–19 provide slightly more, and front-row economy passengers get the best deal of the bunch.

It’s a clever revenue strategy—turning what used to be a single product into multiple price points.

This move follows a familiar playbook used by budget airlines like Spirit, Allegiant, and Frontier, which removed reclining seats altogether years ago.

Paid Recline and Operational Impacts

But WestJet’s twist is unique—it’s charging extra to bring recline back.

By doing so, the airline can add another row of seats compared to the old layout, meaning more passengers and more profit on every flight.

Even the company’s own pilots have spoken out, with their union criticising the cabin redesign on social media, noting that pilots often travel as passengers too.

When the employees themselves are unhappy, it’s usually a sign that comfort has been sacrificed for cash.

For travellers, the implications are clear.

As airlines worldwide look for new ways to boost revenue, policies like this could easily spread to carriers serving domestic and international routes.

What This Means for Flights

For now, Jetstar, Virgin Australia, and Qantas still allow reclining in economy, but as industry trends go, that could change faster than passengers realise.

Aviation expert Gradek summed it up bluntly: ‘I think that this is the future of aviation. If you want space, if you want the reclining seat, if you want entertainment systems, you have to pay.’

Airlines have long mastered the art of ‘unbundling’—breaking down what used to be included in the ticket price and selling each piece separately.

The question now is how much travellers are willing to pay for comfort that used to come for free.

If airline policies on comfort and accessibility are causing frustration, it’s worth looking at other situations where passengers faced unexpected challenges during flights.

One incident highlights how even standard services, like wheelchair assistance, can go wrong and affect passenger experience.

This story provides a real-life example of how airlines handle such situations and the lessons travellers can take away.

Read more: Jetstar issues apology after incident with wheelchair user

As airlines continue to find creative ways to increase profits, passengers may soon face a new dilemma—what’s the price of a little legroom and the right to lean back?