What would you do if your seat wouldn't lock upright?
 

Background. I was seated in an F window today on a single aisle (2x2) short flight (about 1 hour). The flight was delayed due to the incoming aircraft by about 1:30.

As soon as I boarded, I noticed that the seat would not latch in the upright position. if I leaned back, the seat would recline all the way back, without touching the recline button. I tried for a few minutes to get it to latch, then pressed the call button and notified an FA.

I told the FA that I was willing to move to any open seat to facilitate leaving, or that I could deplane if the a/c was full. My seatmate also stated that she was willing to move to any open seat.

So the captain comes back and pushes on the seat a bit, says that's just play in the seat and is normal. I told him to try sitting in it, that this is not "normal play in the seat." So he decides that I can't just be reseated because if the (empty) seat falls back during takeoff, it blocks the person behind's egress path. Thus, maintenance gets called.

The maintenance tech was terrific (have you hugged your favorite A&P mechanic lately?): He came quickly and was able to repair the seat in about 10 minutes.

What do you think?

Seems very normal, whats the problem

But wait, there's more:

After we get to the destination, the captain walks with me off the bridge and into the terminal. I'm not quite sure what we was getting at, but I think the gist of it was that it might be better in the future if I didn't say anything, or if I made less of a deal of it (I'm not sure how, I called the FA and wasn't real loud, as I have a terrible case of laryngitis right now). The whole interaction seemed kinda pointless.

So the problem was fixed, and you sat in F.

Sounds good all around.

What would you do if your seat wouldn't lock upright?
 

I think what the captain was getting at was that he had no choice but to have it fixed but in truth it jeopardized no one so if he hadn't been notified you could have left on time. Not sure I agree with him as I probably would have said something to the FA as well. Although if the captain said it's just normal give I'd have let it go.

As is this thread, if I'm really honest :p

I've had a seat that wouldn't recline. Advised FA and maintenance came to fix it before we took off.

I've had a man in F on Qatar who would not put his seat in to an upright position for take off. Pleading with the man and the women he was travelling with did no good. We just took off with him in full recline! So much for safety.

I would have told the FA so it would be documented for repair later, but I wouldn't have made a big deal out of the whole thing.

FWIW, you did exactly what I would have done. The captain's comment is quite peculiar, because not only is the situation not entirely safe, it's not peculiarly comfortable, either.

I suppose I would have relented if someone (preferably, one of those who think that a broken seat is not a big deal) offered to switch with me so that I wouldn't have to deal with it. :)

What would you do if your seat wouldn't lock upright?
 

sounds like a job for Knee Defender! They should keep an extra one stored away with the blankets :-)

I've had a seat that went up but did not lock in the full upright position. The flight was overbooked and speaking up would have meant being taken off the flight or a delayed until it was fixed. As this was a connecting flight on a fairly important international business trip I didn't say a word to anyone. During take-off and landing I was careful not to press on the seat back and then reclined for the rest of the flight.

I've had a couple seats over the years that had this problem. If the plane was full, or if I was in F, I did not say anything. Right or wrong, it was a combination of not wanting to be That Guy and not wanting to take the chance that I'd end up getting an IDB or downgrade out of it...

This.

I've had seats that wouldn't stay all the way upright. It's not a big deal, and certainly not worth making a fuss over.

Yep. I've been in basically identical situations and I waited until after takeoff (because I didn't want to cause any delay or get reseated) and then given the FA a heads up so they can document it for repair.

I think technically they're not allowed to take off if there's someone in a seat that malfunctions like that. If the seat is vacant, then it's not an issue. I say that because I ran into the same problem once (in coach) on what was one of the last flights of the day. The flight attendant basically said to me that she could report it, but if she did, they'd have to have someone fix it before they could leave, which a) would cause a big delay and b) might have pushed them up against timing out. I checked with the person behind me to make sure they didn't mind me reclining in their face the whole flight, and we flew.