Originally Posted by
bocastephen
I think the new seats with DirecTV don't go back as far. I flew one of the -800s with 20F, mid-cabin lav and the older seats (first time on a non-TV ship in a long while) and the person in front of me reclined basically into my lap.
No room to use a laptop - and my seatmate even commented on it (the person in front of him didn't recline). What made it worse was this person kept bobbing around in the seat making it move back and forth constantly throughout the flight - I wanted to whack him with a rolled up inflight magazine, it was so annoying.
The DirecTV seats aren't new. They're the same seats that were there to begin with. The center armrests were modified to accommodate the DirecTV controls and power ports. The seat itself is the same seat.
I can assure you the seats with DirecTV on the 738s recline every bit as far as the seats on the remaining 738s that don't have DirecTV. I've had two recent cases of 738s with DirecTV where the person in front of me was fully reclined, and my laptop would not open fully, and I could not reach down and pull my laptop bag out from under the seat in front of me.