Described are passenger seats (102) having a seat bottom (122) connected to the seat frame (108) at a hinge (130) at an aft portion of the seat bottom (122), and having a release mechanism (132) operably connected with the seat bottom (122) that, when actuated by a user, cause the seat bottom (122) to be released from a locked configuration to an unlocked configuration, whereby the seat bottom (122) is free to rotate downward, independent of a seat back (142), about the hinge (130) to a tilted position in order to increase a range of available angles between the seat bottom (122) and seat back (130).