GBadger

While likely not true in this scenario, there are cases where the person behind you actually is tall enough to not allow recline. Hopefully in that case, you would not be so quick to call the FA.

Artagnan

Agreed. Take pity on those of us who measure 6'3"! Our knees really do get pressed against the seat in front of us, and believe me, it's not comfortable for us either.

safigan

A few weeks ago the person behind me seemed disturbed when I reclined my seat in front of him. Instead of being aggressive, he was passive-aggressive, mostly by hitting the back of my seat with the heel of his hand every once in a while. His wife sitting next to him finally asked me nicely to move my seat up a bit, which I did. Sometimes niceness counts.

GBadger

Totally agree...

6'3" and up!!


Don't get me wrong...I think in this case, what happened is totally absurd. However, I've gotten my fair share of seatbacks jammed into my knees (6'4" here), and have only rarely had an issue with someone who wouldn't reduce their recline when I asked them politely.

fdog

(A) I would have pressed charges. Absolutely. What about the next time he explodes...?

(B) I, too, have had knees in the back of my seat...when turning to ask ..., seen the pain in the eyes of the tall guy behind me...and ended up being the one appoligizing!

I admire your restraint, OP.


All the best, James

Jazzop

Out of 19 replies, only one (above) suggested giving an immediate and direct consequence to the man's inappropriate actions? Everyone else wants to sue, press charges, tell their mommies, or write a scathing satire for the New Yorker? What happened to stopping people from crossing the line immediately and authoritatively? What has this world come to?

idayvuelta

A similar experience happened to my parents a few years back on Iberia (sans the physical assault), except the culprits were two middle aged and otherwise dignified ladies on a long haul flight. They started pressing their knees into the seat, and eventually resorted to - I kid you not - sliding onto their backs and kicking the seats with their feet. An FA arrived immediately and the women proceeded to explain they could not sit comfortably if the seat in front of them was reclined. The FA told them in no uncertain terms the passenger in front had the right to recline, and if they needed more space they should have booked business class.

Ten minutes later, sure enough, they were at it again. This time the FA said the captain had been informed and if there were any further incidents they would be restrained for the duration of the flight and arrested in Barajas. That quieted them down for good.

I as a general matter cannot stand it when airline staff threaten the "nuclear option" on people (have them arrested), but some people just don't seem to understand anything else.

Denolloyd

Wirelessly posted (iPhone 3G: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7C144 Safari/528.16)

What would you suggest?

itsaboutthejourney

Bingo! If anyone nicely asks me to not recline/move my seat up, I'm glad to do so.

+ 1

dgwright99

^ +1

The OP showed great self-control. It is good to give oneself time to think rather than acting impusleively in a situation like this. My view is that those who seek to violently bully others in such situations need to be made examples of, and therefore I would have asked for LEO on arrival, and sought to press charges.

I am wholly opposed to FAs who threaten LEO on arrival, rather than handling things firmly themselves. From the OPs account, the FA did not make such threats, and correctly put the OP in the driving seat of how the matter was handled - kudos to the FA.

In this case, the OP was assulted by somebody who had previously gone to extraordinary lengths to, in effect, bully you into not doing something that you were 100% entitled to do. He deserves a night in the cells - though I am in no way criticizing the OP for his personal decision not to go down that road.

mkgrip

So you'd do what, beat up a 65 year old guy and face the charges for that?
I'm sure "well he started it" would be a solid defense in court..."

Anyway, terrible situation for the OP and good job controlling your nerves.

Never had anything quite so serious happen to me, but I had an experience with I think BA, where the passenger (an average height guy maybe in his 30s or 40s) banged my seat back upright (seems you don't actually have to press the button if you just use force enough) after I reclined (about half way down). He seemed to learn his lesson though after I immediately reclined the seat again, this time all the way down.

Has anybody experienced these to be used on their seats by the way (and what did you do)? I'd probably ask the FA to politely tell the PAX behind me to shove them up his... they shouldn't even allow companies to sell those... Sure, could be handy for the tallest of us to make sure that their knees don't get crushed, but I kinda have the feeling that 95% of the users are standard height, and just think that it's their right to keep the guy in front from reclining on a redeye. And even that 5%, as said, just just ask nicely and most people would comply.

hokiekev

I'm a little confused on what filing charges would have done in this situation. I am not trying to defend the person who was totally out of line, but I'm not really sure an assault took place as the person did not seem to touch the OP.

I am sure this behavior is not normal in Utah but calling someone an a-hole in NYC would not be a surprising thing (not that it makes it right). As for the hitting of the seat violently, I'm pretty sure a judge would throw it out as there was no injury to any parties involved. So my analysis was that it was a good idea not to press charges as there was really nothing to press charges about. If this person continues this type of behavior then he will get his eventually. Karma has a way of working these things out.

It is disappointing that people act in these inappropriate ways but I'm not sure taking up the time of the police and the court system would be productive.

PaulMSN

If you responded with violence, I think that both of you would be facing arrest after the flight.

Reasonable people are unlikely to react that way in such a situation, because those that did would likely end up in jail. You might get away with a fight on the street, but you're stuck in a plane -- you can't walk away after committing violence.

To mcmitchell: reflexes don't cover unbuckling your seat belt, getting up and turning around, and then injuring someone enough to put him in a stretcher. That surely wouldn't fly as a defense at your trial.

dl0170

He absolutely touched me. I apologize if I did not make it clear, but he slapped my arm left arm several times as I blocked his attempt to reach my seat recline button.

Thank you for taking the time to read my post and reply.

dl0170

At 6'2" I'm on the ragged edge of fitting into a a coach seat anyway. I feel your pain. And I always try to be open to reasonable requests from fellow passengers. Emphasis on reasonable.

There has been some great feedback here. As far as the Instant Smackdown opinions go, I here you too, but I never actually felt physically imperiled. Just bewildered. That's the line for me.