Greetings,

Had a bit of a surly FA last night on IAH-SEA when it came to laptops on departure and arrival. Normally, I put my laptop vertically either at my side on the seat on the window side, or I place it vertically on the floor, slid between the retaining bar and the wall. Last night I had it on the floor vertically, with about five inches sticking forward of my seat front, the rest was not visible.

I've placed the laptop in this exact spot probably over a hundred segments in the last couple of years, this is my airplane routine. In fact, I once had a FA tell me that this was a good idea and location. Anyway, the FA told me last night that this was was not allowed, and then continued to chastise me in front of the F/C class cabin for the placement, where she was quite loud and embarrasing. I did give a quiet sigh (who wouldn't if you had to travel on Labor Day and had done this a hundred times), but did not give her any lip, as much as I certainly could have.

I really do feel that the lecture was way out of line, especially given the nature of the travellers who are usually sitting in first class, who are usually not ma and pa kettles transporting chickens and children. She went on to lecture that this laptop could come loose and kill someone in an emergency situation (unlike the lap children sitting in the back). In the end, she did stow it in the overhead and get it just as soon as we got to 10,000 feet. I really feel that had this just been indicated in the beginning, sans the lecture, I would have been more than happy. But with the lecture, and her serving F/C, it made a very uncomfortable situation on a long flight.

Now, I though that you were allowed to place this in this location, as I thought that so long as it does not obstruct the aisle and the exit path, you were good to go. Is this not the case? Maybe they should make the bulkhead pocket larger so that you can get it in there? How about giving cubby holes at the bulkhead, like they have on some models?

For those of you who are going to indicate that I should not put it under my own seat, it is not under the seat, it is along side it, in a location which is unusable and unreachable by the passenger behind me. If this was not the case, I would never think of placing it in this location.

I should mention she took another laptop in 1E where the guy had it in his seat with him. Makes you wonder if she went through the entire plane and took all laptops, DVD players, eBooks, Kindles, hardcover books and stowed them for safety if the passenger happened to be holding them. Wonder what she did with those babies?