Originally Posted by
corporate-wage-slave
Let's put it this way - there is a well known feature for those sat in 1C for them to be occasionally clobbered by rucksacks as people board the aircraft, or get their feet kicked. Not that I can recall any such incidents on a personal level. There are many references to this in the archives of this forum. But to the best of my recollection there has been no similar complaints about the curtain, which is as harmless as it gets. It's only covers the area above the seat in front if you are in 4F. There are complaints when (for example) the runner is damaged and thus no curtain deployed at all. The antimacassar is also fairly timid too, while I'm at it. The windows is not obstructed in any event.
We quite like row 1 but agree with CWS that being clobbered by rucksacks during boarding whilst sitting in 1c was never much fun. However, we found a workaround a while ago - all you have to do is take out the tray table from the right hand armrest of 1c and hold it in the vertical position until boarding is complete and then stow it. We find it works beautifully and all clobbering ceases! For my fellow row 1 lovers (let’s not start a debate about row 1 - there are more than enough of these on FT), do try it on your next flight and let me know what you think.