This morning I flew SFO to DEN in paid F, on my way to Kansas City. After wheels up, I did what I always do and slowly reclined my seat, preparing to settle in to sleep. Apparently, the passenger seated behind me decided he was entitled to his space, and part of mine as well -- I started feeling sporadic kicks against the back of my seat. I ignored him, figuring he'd get the message and give up, but no. He opened his newspaper and rested the top of it on my head. At first, I didn't realize what he was doing and just brushed at my head. However, when it happened again, I grabbed the paper, turned around and said, "Could you please keep your paper off my head." He said, "I want to read my paper and you've reclined into my lap." I said, "When you've paid for my seat, you can tell me what to do with it." He said, "Well, put it up a little."

I'm having a particularly bad week and I didn't feel like a confrontation, so I moved the seat up a tiny bit -- a token concession, as it was. That appeared to satisfy this guy and I had no further trouble with him.

This is First Class. Seat pitch on a UA 757 in F is 38". I paid the premium to sit in F because I was exhausted and needed to sleep on the 2-1/2 hour flight -- that's what F is for, a little extra room and a little extra comfort. I'm of the opinion that the recliner gets to determine whether and how much to recline (though not during meal service), but I understand why tight seat pitch in coach makes this a controversial topic. However, this is a first class seat, for crying out loud!

The guy in back of you acted childishly. Very sad. Of course you have the right to recline, provided it's done slowly. IMHO, you do not need permission to do so.

This is crazy! I fly F with AS a lot and have never had any issues with someone reclining in front of me. Are F pitch's diferent on diferent airlines?

Next time just get a FA and tell him or her what's going on. So what if one taddle tells (is what they still call it these days?).

I am not a recliner, so I do feel like I am losing some of my space when the person in front reclines. The pitch in F on 757s (at least with UA) is not great - I have to keep my laptop closer to me than is comfortable when the person reclines, and I do have problems retrieving items from under the seat.

That said, I don't complain because the person in front does have the right to recline, and it is just something I have to accept. As long as they are willing to go upright so I can retrieve something or get out of my seat, or accept getting bumped in the process.

I'm open to any kind of reasonable accomodation, and always try to accommodate those around me. Of course the cretin behind me wasn't seeking accommodation, he was seeking to impose his will on me, and in a most infantile and offensive fashion.

Just tap my shoulder and I'll move the seat to let you out. Or, feel free to bump me -- when you gotta go, you gotta go.

The guy's issue should have been with the airline, not with the OP. When they cram us in the plane like sardines, this kind of thing happens.

Don't forget, this was in "F." Those weren't lie-flat sleep seats, we weren't exactly crammed in. Now, if you want to see crammed in, you should have seen my Shanghai Airlines flights a couple of weeks ago -- no one reclined because, frankly, it would have been impossible to do so.

I've gotta say, my own reaction to the incident is that it's getting ridiculous on the airline's part to call it a "first class" when this sort of thing is even an issue.

Although I've never hit any sense that space was an issue on AA MD-80s in first, and they're only 38" pitch. Either United 757s have much deeper recline, or more likely the guy seated in back was being unreasonable.

Then again, the worst seat I've had on American bar none was the once I was in first on a Fokker 100. I'm not sure what the width on those were, but even the seats on the little Saab 340 turboprops were more comfortable and seemed wider. I don't remember for sure what the flight was, but it was short - BOS-ORD maybe?

That's what I did in Y. I reclined, slowly after FIRST checking that the one behind me did not have tray table down or anything up that I could damage.

I then had kicks and proper shoves trying to push the back of my seat up.

Eventually I grabbed an FA and asked to be moved to another seat so I could recline and have some sleep. The FA instead went and quite firmly told the man behind me to knock it off or else.

His complaint was that he couldn't see the screen on the seatback. It is tiltable for cryinoutlowd just so that the seat CAN be reclined.

*sigh*

If the seat is reclinable, then recline it! The pax behind you has every right to recline his/hers as well. If it was against the law to recline, the seats would not be made to recline. The OP was totally in the right on this. The flight attendant has no jurisdiction on seat reclining, only bad behavior.

If no one would recline their seats all problems would be solved. Recliners are selfish.

Another great post! ^

I say if everyone reclined there would be no problems. Non-recliners are selfish.

I really think you should do a poll on that specific question and see what everyone else thinks. It is a great question ^

If you can't phrase the question correctly, I would be happy to PM one of the other psychology students/alias' and see if they will start it.