This is my experience as well, though I understand that it's likely a function of where in the spine the problem lies. I have classic L4-L5 herniated disc causing back pain and sciatica which is made much worse by slouching/reclining. The best defense is for me to sit bolt upright as much as possible so my weight is on the "sit" bones. Unfortunately, that means that I am physically quite a bit closer to the seat back in front of me so that if the person fully reclines, we're kissing cousins. Hence, F/D1 for me for anything over 3 hours.

Touche.

This is correct. On the flip side to this, I have stenosis (only fairly recently diagnosed but neurosurgeon says I have had it for years and years) in C5-8. Yes, if I want to the most comfort in the rest of my life, I stay on the couch at home inclined slightly from horizontal. Further complicating is that I have some lower back issues too but don't have a definitive diagnosis on those.

But.... the airline *has* decided - they decided that the seats not only *should* recline, for the most part, but the level of recline should fall solely within the control of the person actually sitting in the seat. They could have easily (though not logically) put the recline button on the back of the seat so that the person behind could control it, but they *didn't* do so. Same with the window shade. The airlines have had 50+ years to fine tune a policy giving equal control of the shade to all member of a row (or even a cabin). But no airline that I have ever heard of has even gone so far as implementing a "majority rules" policy - so that if you are the lone open shade in an area, then you are required to fall in with the herd regardless of your desires. No airline that I know of has ever completely eliminated windows either - a move which would save an enormous amount of weight on every plane, saving them a gazillion bucks on fuel every year. I wonder why?

I think you are ahead of yourself. I don't use a laptop on flights. I never intimated that what you have said is irrelevant. My post was basically an observation on the general aspects of what was being said on this thread. The issue remains, to me, how others are willing to look at the world from other than their own point of view.

[QOTE=3Cforme;31001971]I don't believe that seat design is common across the AA narrowbody fleet.[/QUOTE]
Let me narrow it down to F cabin on 737 AA aircraft. Perhaps I should have done that. That's where I do most of my travel on AA. I only fly F cabin on AA and DL.

On AA F cabin, the recliner gives up his/her space in front of him/her. The recline does not go straight back into the space of the person behind. IMHO, that's how it should be.

I guess the only thing I can do is to appeal to the opinion of the subset of flyers who fly both DL and AA on 737 in F. There are sure to be a lot of them out there, and their opinion would be worth it to being heard.

Thanks

I fly DL SFO-JFK in the DL One cabin once a month and have not had a problem with recline, from anybody. They're all coffin seats. Makes for minimal stress for anybody.

You keep harping on this point. It doesn't make any difference. There is a fixed amount of space inside an enclosed tube. The airline, the designers of aircraft interiors, and to a lesser extent the aircraft manufacturer are not unaware of how the seats function. They were designed to work a certain way, and that way was not an accident. Some seats are designed to not recline at all. Some glide as they recline (a lot of Delta's C+ seats do this). Some simply pivot backwards on a hinge near the bottom seat cushion. If an airline decides to deploy the glider recliners in their aircraft, it is *not* so that you can be more comfortable. It is *not* so that the person behind you can be more comfortable. Those issues are incidental to the real reason, which is that it allows them to decrease pitch while reducing the likelihood of a mutiny among the traveling public.

There is no panacea for this issue. Some believe that if the airline didn't want their seat to recline, they wouldn't have put a button on the armrest which allows the seat to recline. Others fall in to the NoRAAA mindset:
No
Recline for
Anyone
Anywhere
Anytime

Like almost every other subject on FT, no one is going to change anyone's mind.

I have tried to follow the "logic", if any, of the elements in this post, but it has pretty much totally escaped me. That said, I agree with one element of it that nothing in it has changed my mind.

You've got the sequence wrong. AA - with its MAX 8 rollout (11/17) and now its Project Oasis 738 reconfiguration featured reduced recline in F and Y.

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/amer...2019-21-a.html

I can explain it to you, but I can't understand it for you. Sorry.

I recently found a long-lost uncle through DNA testing. Now you. You must be related. 5'11", bad back, will avoid this aircraft in the future.

What happened to articulating recline seats which, when you recline, move your seat pan forward so you reduce your own knee room? I know I've had one of those recently on either an AA or UA flight.

while I agree with F needing to get more pitch back, absent that change I fully support them reducing F recline. I fly paid F nearly 100% of the time and when my laptop is out and someone in front of me reclines, it can be difficult to get anything done. I frequently book bulkhead first for this very reason.