Jerks who are stupid is a deadly combination. I think people just don't understand the risk of these stupid behavior and why the rules are in place. The airlines really don't explain and enforce.

Maybe 2 years ago, I was at an exit row. The guy at the window seat had his device plugged in during takeoff. The FA made him unplug it. He did it again during landing and the FA did not see it. I asked him to unplug it. He would not. I told him "if you want me to push the FA button and cause a go-around" then I will do it. Only then, he unplugged.

Most FAs also want to avoid conflicts and don't take these things seriously. How much extra time does it take to check the exit row a little more carefully and enforce these rules?

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Why do people have to be so obstinate, stubborn, rebellious ???? These are the same morons who complain about all the reasons they hate the airlines, were treated "rudely", etc.

Whilst I agree with this in general, it would need to be done earlier than the OP did in this case. San Mateo bridge is about 2 minutes from touchdown - hitting the call button at that point will almost certainly garner no response. Repeatedly hitting it might, but could potentially trigger a go-around.

I had a similar issue BOS-EWR the other day and offered an option that he either put it away or I would ring the call button. Yep, that worked ... he was pissed ... not my problem ;)

Moderator note.
 

Please follow as the thread moves to the TravelBuzz forum. Although OP's incident happened on a UA flight, the topic is not UA specific and other posts relate this and similar incidents on non-UA flights. Ocn Vw 1K, Moderator, United.

Seems like this is for occupied seats

Nope. The seats work together as a unit as part of the 'Family of Seats' principle. Your face bashes into the seat in front of you, regardless of whether it is occupied or not. I don't want to get too far into the weeds here on FT. There's a lot of material out there on the subject -- you can start with Appendix 3 to AC No: 25.562-1B

An unoccupied seat has no face to bash into anything

A FA has the legal authority to give orders to a pax, another pax does not.

:confused: How does that work? Most airlines have seat assignments making it particularly easy to track down a passenger.

I was guilty last week of not paying attention to instructions to put seat up?
 

I was a sleeping with noise canceling headphones. I vaguely recall the first direction. I think I fell back to sleep. Next time the FA touched me on the shoulder and firmly instructed me to put the seat up. I did immediately. I felt she handled it appropriately and I felt bad for putting her in that position. I would have apologized if she had been at the front on the way out.

That assumes straight-line descelleration. Any side-loading would cause a passenger's unrestrained upper-body to angle left or right as it moves forward.

At the end of a red-eye flight I once saw the F/A wake an economy passenger who was laying down across his three-seat row. He sat up, looked around for a moment, then laid back down. The F/A returns a minute or two later and wakes him up again telling him that he has to sit up for landing. He replied, "I already did!"

Deployed tray tables can snap off more easily than when they are stowed. The same is true of head rests. Seats are less susceptible to break up when they are in the fully upright position, since reclined seats are less structurally integrated. Laptops flying around the cabin is the last thing anyone wants in the event of an incident.

It's all common sense, really.