I am a big guy, 6’8″ tall, and broad shouldered… flying is nearly always hell for me because I have to practically fold myself in half and sit the entire flights with my arms crossed so as not to ‘spill over’ into my neighbor’s seat (and cause someone else to have a story about having to sit next to the huge man taking up lots of space), plus my knees are jammed into the back of the seat in front of me and I cannot move my legs.
Anyway, I am on a DC-10, and have the misfortune of being assigned to the center section in a middle seat (2 seats on either side of me), and this older gentleman in front of me starts trying to recline… and rams the seat into my knees. I gasp in pain… and then he does it again… and failing that he does it AGAIN! I had managed to turn my knees to the side a bit and that was enough to let him recline, but he racked that seat so far back I could literally look down at his face which was now almost in my lap.
That’s when I finally tapped his shoulder, got his attention and showed him the situation, and he then raised the seat but only partially, so my knees remained still jammed in the seat the whole way. Of course the flight was full, and no other seats were available.
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You should have gouged his eyes out.
for that old goats lack of situational awareness.
Most airplanes are not designed with people over 5'10" in mind. I share your pain, brother 🙁
When that happens to me, I just squirm and bump my knees over and over and over so they do not get to sleep any more than I do.
At 198 cm and about 120 kg, I can identify with your story. Inevitably, the shortest person in the plane will sit in front of me, recline their seat all the way back, THEN LEAN UP TO READ OR SEE THE IN-SEAT MONITOR! More than once, the seats are mysteriously non-functional when the midget returns from the bathroom after leaving their seat reclined.