it´s the hard way of flirting !! ^

OP: Was the FA fairly big? I can't think of an instance when I've had a FA do this constantly, but I have been repeatedly bumped by other pax walking by. What works most of the time is if you stiffen up before they bump into you. ;)

This brings to mind the hostess with the nun's guitar in the movie Airplane (or Flying High as it was named in Australia).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYUK1BwaFOg

"Window seat - I don't particularly like being blocked into things. I'm not a crowd person, and need to be able to get out of my seat and into the overhead - it's not viable to have my laptop bag under the seat in front of me if I can avoid it."

What you're missing here is that this is your choice. It's perfectly easy to keep your laptop bag under your seat. Once you hit 10k feet, you can pull it out from under your seat and stick your feet in there. It's a very good seat for someone who has shoulder problems who should take responsibility for his own actions.

"Middle seat - are you actually serious?!"

Yes. It's easier to get out of than the window and would solve your shoulder problem.

"As for agony - yes, I was in fairly serious pain. My joints are particularly hypermobile and my left shoulder - the one which was being bumped - I have dislocated several times. By the time I got to SYD I had to go and find some ibruprofen to control the inflammation and try to keep my shoulder functional."

Someone with such a physical ailment should take responsibility for themselves and book a seat that would avoid this. It's your shoulder that's sticking out into everyone's aisle. Not vice versa. You don't own the plane. Should your health be such a concern, you do have choices of picking seats that are more appropriate to you, not flying or buying a business fare.

"While it may not have been surgery related agony; I had to work; move house (and country); and then get on another longhaul flight in the subsequent 24 hours. It was painful."

So painful that it didn't warrant you booking a seat that would have been more comfortable.

"You may be willing to sit in a window or middle seat for flights, but I'm not if I can avoid it. You may also have a higher pain threshold than me, in which case, great for you. Maybe you don't even have to travel several times a week.... However I don't see how people lacking common courtesy and consideration in the aisle is my problem."

If you're not willing to do what it takes to avoid the problem, you really lose the higher ground in whining about it. Common courtesy? Let's see the quote below...

"but I have broad shoulders and when I am sitting upright in economy, my shoulder will jut into the aisle"

You shoulder juts into the aisle that the FA's announce has to be kept clear. Don't you think that those 25 people who bumped into you might be a tad pissed about the guy who's halfway into the aisle? You don't see dozens on posts on here with people complaining about this. Given that you're admittedly large enough to block the aisle, you might want to be more considerate of others and either buy two seats or get a business class fare.

Did you ever stop to think that if your shoulders are so big that they just out into the aisle that your left shoulder will, unless your body is magically non-symmetrical, take up the space of the person in the middle seat. Perhaps you can make a post on here complaining about how the person in the middle seat keeps hitting the arm you have in his or her space.

You're perfectly able to take responsibility for yourself here. It is your choices, not the actions of others, that are causing your own discomfort. You're also ignoring your duty to others to keep the aisles clear.

I was on a flt SEA-LIH last week. Big guy in front of me in exit row. He had wide shoulders that stuck out into the aisle. He must have gotten wacked no less than 5 times by FA's. Probably a few times by PAX too. That's what you get for being a big guy in an aisle seat on today's 17.5"-18.0" wide Y seats.

Last summer I flew back from Rome on a domestic-configuration 767-400 so I was able to snag an aisle seat in "first class." There was one flight attendant who kept hitting my chair (and other chairs as well) at ramming speed with the dinner and drink carts. I thought the chairs were going to rip out of the floor. It was very irritating. I think the attendants are in such a hurry they forget how irritating this is. I did finally ask her to please stop hitting my chair and by golly, it actually worked!

I got whacked so hard by someone putting their too big bag in the overhead bin (the bag was so large they couldn't actually lift it themselves and it was dropped on my face) that it broke my glasses, broke blood vessels in my eye and left me with a shiner like nobodies business. Didn't even get an apology, I just got a rather rude "well if you would have helped me you wouldn't have gotten hit"......please........ the flight attendant did come and tell the person they had to check the bag because it was not a carry on, but give me a break.

Yes, I was wondering whether the OP was using British English or American English.

If it had only been the former, this could have been a very entertaining OMNI thread.

I had this happen the one time I flew in F on NW. The aisle was plenty wide, so I suspected the male FA had taken a dislike to me and was exacting revenge a few times when he walked by (sans cart and w/no other aisle traffic), thinking I had been upgraded to F for being a squeaky wheel. In reality, I had been upgraded for being patient and pleasant while the TA unraveled some problem with my family's reservation.

I spend about 10-12 weeks in England each year, so you can try to guess whether I chose the title carefully.

And actually, it's used the same way over here, probably not to the same percentage, though.

I usually fly in the aisle seat so as not to let my nervous bladder inconvenience other pax (I actually prefer the window for the view). I've never noticed an inordinate amount of whacking, although it happens occasionally. But when I walk to the lav, even when I take great pains not to bump anyone, I always end up still bumping at least one person. Either someone is spilling over and the aisle is too narrow to correct for the obstacle or we hit a little turbulence bump (usually it's an overlapper). I always apologize, but I swear that going down that aisle is like that game Operation where you have to avoid touching the sides.

I always select a window seat for that reason. My shoulders are wider than the seat and I either have to do an uncomfortable shoulder tuck or invade my neighbor's space. I get my window seat 90% of the time so it's okay.

OP- Ya' know... you could always choose an aisle seat on the other side. Ummm, your sore sholder would be to the inside.

No offense, but I too find it hard to believe that simple bumping as FA's walk by would cause such a sore shoulder.

Anyways, kind of along the same lines, but I hate when the FA's stomp up and down the aisles. You can feel it as they approach from behind or in front, and especially so as they pass by. Some tread more lightly than others, but I'm amazed at how many walk as though they have concrete blocks affixed to their feet. Very annoying, especially as one is trying to fall asleep.

At something over 6'2" and with a size 54L suit coat, it's not my gut that overhangs the seat, but my shoulders which inevitably protrude into the aisle (Economizer Section). No amount of exercise or diet will reduce my wingspread, so over a half-century plus of flying, I've been bumped by svelte stewardae and smashed by more beverage carts than at which you could shake a stick. I'll take a blow from a prominent pelvic girdle any day, if the alternative is the sharp metal corner ofa careening cart....

Did she have a big arse? Or was she just clumsy?

:D