Originally Posted by Gotta Requalify
I just flew back on QF94 - LAX to MEL. The plane was delayed by an hour in LAX - waiting on 34 passengers coming in on QF108 from New York. I was on the lower deck in Business Class. QF94 was a non skybed flight.
While waiting, the passenger in front put his seat back into the full recline position and fell asleep. Once all the connecting passengers arrived, they were getting settled and lots of crew walked past the guy but never said anything. The safety demo was done one row in front of him, but the plane took off with his seat in the full recline position.
The business class seats work best when everyone is in the same position - all sitting up right or all fully reclined. With me sitting upright during take off, their was almost no room between the back of his chair and my knees. In fact with the amenity kit in the seat back pocket, the chair was touching my knees!
In case of emergency, is seat back upright for the safety of the passenger in the seat or the seat behind, so they can get out quickly?
Should I have done the crews job and woke the passenger - and get him upset for the remainder of the 15 hour flight. Or paged the crew and told them to do their job? And pissed them off for the start of the 15 hour flight?
I can't believe how many times they walked past the seat and never said anything (during the 10-15 minutes that it took for the QF108 passengers to get settled and we start to taxi). Let alone the safety demo is done manually one row in front of the person and still nothing was done.
The critical reason for having seats upright during take-off/landing and taxi is safety. All seats upright will ensure the quickest evacuation possible as well as allowing the brace position to be enacted if needed. Same goes for ensuring "all hand baggage is stowed in the overhead lockers or well under the seat in front of you."
I would have asked the crew to resolve the situation rather than approach the pax directly in the first instance. If they refused to act, which is highly unlikely, I would have asked to speak to the CSD about this or ultimately the person who has overall responsibilty for the aircraft and its safety - the Captain.
If the crew refused to get the CSD I would have spoken loud enough about the safety issue to them that they would have woken the pax in front or he would have woken up.
If you are really concerned I urge you to write to QF about this as I would hope they would at least be interested in unsafe practices occuring on board their aircraft and take action if required.