Originally Posted by atlas_shrugged

Yes, the business cabin was full. The entire flight was full.

I suspect the seat belt was jammed into the back of the seat, and hence the back of the seat was stuck in position. The leg rest would come up and down, no problem there.

They re-set the entertainment system in an attempt to allow the seat to move (I suppose the systems/controls are related). That took about 15 minutes for start-up, in the middle of the flight.

It was a red-eye flight, meaning about midnight departure from Shanghai, arriving at Istanbul at 5:30am. I was quite worked up about the seat not reclining but didn't want to cause too much trouble with the cabin crew -- although I did complain, and they did try to fix the various issues. I was quite tired and trying to sleep in whatever position possible that I didn't make a stink about the seat belt not buckling as I was concerned they would move me out of business class (I didn't yet know about the reclining seat problem).

A comedy of errors, and I will live. But it's TK's response that really miff's me.