Reclining Seats
PREGNANT AND SQUASHED BY A SEATOne of the worst flights I had ever been on started as one of the best flights. I was 8 ˝ months pregnant, almost 6 weeks from my due date and had no choice but to fly from Frankfurt Germany to Sacramento CA. Yeah a long flight. All the gate agents/attendants were really nice and made sure that I didn’t need anything. I usually arrive early for flights so as I was sitting in the waiting area I started speaking to this woman. She was telling me she didn’t much like her seat because she was right next to a bathroom and on the aisle. I laughed and told her here I was huge as can be and stuck in the middle seat in the middle of the plane. She offered to switch with me which was AWESOME since, being pregnant, I had to pee very often. So we get on the plane and I am talking to the woman next to me. She notices I am very fidgety and asks me if I am ok. I told her I had heard horror stories of women going into labor when they were flying and was a bit nervous about it. She laughed and said I don’t have to worry, that she was a doctor and if there were any issues she was right there to help me. So I was finally calm. Finally we take off and the guy in front of me lowers back his seat normally that would be fine for me even pregnant (I'm only 4ft 8in and was about 120 lbs) but his seat was broken and ended up right on my stomach. I asked him nicely if he could pull it up a little bit and that it was on my stomach but he just glared at me and told me it was his seat and he could do what he wanted. Everyone, the flight attendant, and other passengers asked him to put it up and he wouldn’t. I finally stood and stayed in the galley with some of the other passengers for a while. The flight attendant came to me and told me that she had found a passenger who didn’t mind sitting with the seat up and the CPT had the men switch seats with a bit of an argument there. I finally made it back to Sacramento without any more issues but I did have plenty of passengers who told me they were ready to knock that passenger out! 6/09
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SPACE INVADER
I was on the 2nd leg of a trip back home, flying from Vienna to Washington D.C. I was already desperately tired after being in Armenia for a few weeks. It was daylight out for the duration of this flight, and I was looking forward to tilting my seat back a few inches in an attempt to get a little sleep.
Well, I put it into position, put in some earplugs, closed my eyes, and as soon as I was reclined, I felt someone pushing against the lower back of my seat. I thought maybe it's a kid playing around and kicking the seat. I thought it would stop after a few minutes, but it didn't. I turned around and lo and behold, it was a middle aged Indian woman who didn't appreciate me trying to invade 4 inches of her space; the kicking continued. I refused to bring my seat up, however, and let her deal with it for the rest of the flight. (Did I mention I'm 6'3"?!?) 6/09
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REQUEST TO SIT BY GRANDMOTHER DENIED
On a Friday night I took a United flight from Boston to Chicago. I was sitting in an aisle seat with extended leg room when this 20ish woman asked if I would change seats with her so she could sit with her grandmother who was sitting in the middle seat. When I asked her where she was sitting, she replied that she was sitting in the middle seat in regular coach. I told her that I wouldn't.
The flight was delayed and they allowed the passengers to get up. The young woman then proceeded to stand over the top of me for 3 hours and chat with her grandmother. Once they opened up rebooking for the next day I was Out of there! 6/09
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TWO SHORT RECLINING SEAT STORIES
I was flying to Los Angeles from St. Louis and the man in the seat next to me set up his laptop to do some work. He opened it up and started working, all of a sudden the seat in front of him reclined back and his lap top was stuck in the groove from the tray and cracked in half. Needless to say he was very upset, and the guy in front of him did not even know it happen until the man started yelling. 6/09
On a flight from Paris to Cincinnati, I was in front of a woman who was kind of annoying. Periodically, she kept punching and kicking my seat. When I was just about to say something, she leaned forward and asked me to put my seat up straight for a moment because she had a CAT under my seat. I immediately thought we'd all be smelling cat poop soon, but fortunately the occasional punch and kick was the worst of it. 6/09
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RECLINING SEAT DEFENSIVE MOVE
My biggest issue of flying on these airlines. I hate nothing more then having my tray table out, working on my computer and the 400 hundred pound bald guy reclines his seat. Now you would think this rude over weight guy would slowly recline his seat but no! He uses all of his 400 pounds of weight and pushes his seat to the rear at 120 miles an hour. When this happens it almost breaks the screen off my lap top computer.
Now this really upsets me and if I had a weapon I would of used it. Well here is the first of many defensive moves to follow from "Jammin Jay." I put away my computer and take out the newspaper. I turn on the air vent full blast and direct the air towards his bald head and quickly begin to read the paper as to hide my smirk. Now in a few minutes the guy will start to look around to see where the cold air is coming from. I start to giggle and try to ignore him. A few more minutes goes by and he finally sees what I am doing and he slowly reclines his seat back.
This reclining seat defense normally works and I recommend it. 5/09
Signed, Jammin Jay
"TOO BAD" FOR TOO TALL
I flew Continental from Indianapolis, IN to Manchester England for spring break. I am a tall man, 6'5" and simply sitting in the seat is a crunch with my long legs. Not only did the passenger in front of me lean his seat back all the way, he would constantly be readjusting it during the flight. Yep, 7 hours of this, and when I asked politely he said, "Well, I need to recline to sleep, so too bad". Flight attendant didn't help, she said there was nothing she could do. Honestly people, how hard is it to turn around and simply ask if you can recline slightly? People can be such jerks. 5/09
Signed, "Too Tall" from Indy
I'LL TAKE AN AISLE SEAT
Last April (2008) I flew from Calgary, AB, CA to Orlando, FL. I had purposely booked an aisle seat on the right side of the plane (A "C" seat) because of a recent elbow injury to my left elbow that I wanted to protect from passing drink carts. I should also mention that although I love flying, I can get very claustrophobic and don't like sitting anywhere but the aisle. I get to my seat and found a family seated there and the father - seated in my assigned seat - tells me that I booked my seat before they could and that there were no seats left together for their family (like it's my fault I picked my seat and screwed up their plans) so I could just sit in his seat. Thankfully it was an aisle seat, but it was on the other side of the plane and I sent five hours paranoid that something was going to hit my elbow and I'd spend my vacation in as much pain as I'd spent the last few days before my vacation. 1/09 | <<Latest Stories
Signed, AH
UNNECESSARY BEHAVIOR
I don't fly very but it happens. But on a regular basis something amazingly happens to me and/or others. This flight was from Switzerland to USA. I thought I was lucky since I got a row with lots of legroom, but as soon as I tried to sleep like everyone else I noticed the passenger behind me had his knees on the back of my seat. That is ok for me. I do it myself. However, when I do that I try to do it with the least annoyance as possible.
THIS person was apparently trying to be as annoying as possible. For a while I thought he would fall asleep at some point. How wrong. He kept changing and kneeing my back constantly. I finally told him to stop and his answer was, "If you don't want that, you should have booked business class".
I was so surprised by that rude attitude that I really didn't see any solution to it. At the end of the flight I told him when we were leaving the plane that this behavior was really unnecessary. He made some weird coughing noise which I think was him laughing. 12/08
A MEMORABLE FLIGHT
On a recent flight from Orlando to Rochester NY, the guy next to me continued to recline his seat, virtually crushing the legs of the guy behind him. He asked on 3 occasions to please put the seat up. Then a short time later while he (next to me) was snoring and breathing on me (gross), it dawned on me that it was his girth that kept pressing the button and causing the recline. This time turned out to be the final straw for the guy behind him. He shoved the seat, jostling the three of us in front and proceeded in a loud voice to tell the guy that he's been nice up to that point but was not going to be any longer. Then the guy next to me had the nerve to tell him to get a bigger seat next time. This left me shocked, as he had consumed the arm rests and some of the leg space for those of us on either side. Some nerve. I was expecting a fist fight to ensue, or an altercation to occur when we disembarked. The guy behind him showed incredible restraint. Then to cap my flight experience, I get home to unzip my suitcase and find that someone had dumped out my large Ziploc bag with power adapters for the camera, phone, kid's Game Boys (each in their own bags), and stole a camera memory card and two games my kids had packed in their respective bags. Thanks AirTran, or the creep at Orlando airport, that made the trip so memorable. Next time we won't let Disney cruise lines take our bags right to the airport hours before our direct flight. Makes them easy pickings. 7/08
RECLINED SEAT LEADS TO DECLINE IN CIVILITY
June 14th, '08, I flew back from DCA to STL in seat 24E. After we reached cruising altitude, the gentleman two rows in front me, and one seat to the left, reclined his seat. About a minute later the guy directly behind him (in the row in front of me), we'll call him "D.B.," starts violently shaking the reclined seat with both hands. He stops, then nothing happens. Again, less than a minute later, he does it again, prompting the gentleman in said seat to turn around and ask, "Is there a problem?" To which D.B. responds in a rude tone, "I'm trying to work; put your seat up." The gentleman responds that he is trying to rest, and to contact a flight attendant if there's a problem. D.B. shoots back, "You contact a flight attendant," then grabs the seat again with both hands and starts violently shaking it. Believe it or not, the gentleman in this seat remains extremely calm, then puts his seat up halfway to straight (I was flabbergasted that he gave in to the rude and hostile behavior). Anyway, nothing else happened the rest of the flight, which was amazing to me. Except when we landed, waiting to deplane, and of course D.B. has to rudely reach across the gentleman's face to pull his jacket out of the next overhead bin (which was unnecessary since we were still 2-3 minutes from being able to move forward in the aisle). The gentleman stared him down, and then D.B. wisely waited a good two minutes to leave the plane after him, I assume so as not to get his body smashed into oblivion by the guy he was purposely harassing. I admire the poise of the gentleman in the shaken seat, as he handled the situation perfectly, but it's a true shame that this violent behavior was allowed to go unchecked. Someone does need to teach this old D.B. that he is not the only person in the world, and that such behavior is unacceptable. 7/08
INCONSIDERATE FOOLS
I was on a flight with my boyfriend from Las Vegas to Austin. We were sitting in front of an exit isle and could not recline our seats back at all. The passenger in front of me was a male. He reclined his seat all the way back. I asked him if he could please not recline his seat pointing out that we could not recline our seats and I had no room in my sardine can space. He did not seem to care and ignored me. I then spoke to a flight attendant who spoke to me. The guy agreed to not recline back as far. As soon as the flight attendant walked away the guy proceeded to recline his seat all the way back again. This time I stuck my face around the front of his seat and demanded that he move his seat up. He did and at the same time his ugly girlfriend said in a very sarcastic manner that next time I should fly first class. I told her that was a good idea and that she and her boyfriend should consider doing the same. After that I had no more problems for the rest of the flight. The airlines should severely limit how far back a person can recline their seat due to the space restrictions. There are many inconsiderate fools who fly these days. 6/08
SEAT BECOMES A PUNCHING BAG
I was flying back to the U.S. after a vacation in Germany. I knew I was in trouble from the very start when I found my seat and realized that the seat pocket in front of me had six magazines in it. I look over and the elderly man sitting next to me and his wife sitting next to him have no magazines whatsoever and are studiously avoiding looking at me. OK, whatever, I just stashed all the magazines in the overhead bins. Then the flight attendant comes on to make announcements. Of course, this is an international flight so after making her announcements in English, she proceeds to repeat them in German. The guy starts huffing and complaining that he's sick of hearing that damn German gibberish already! Uh-oh, I'm thinking. But the fun had only just begun. He proceeds to order two double scotches as soon as humanly possible and downs them in nothing flat. Then the woman in front of him tries to recline her seat. He plants his feet and presses with his fists against her seat with all of his might (of course he had HIS seat reclined as far back as possible). She looks back to see if something is wrong and he pretends that nothing happened! Shortly, he fails to remain vigilant and she manages to recline her seat a little...so he starts punching the seat! As hard as he could, he punched the seat in front of him. The poor woman was going to get whiplash. I'm watching this in total disbelief. His wife is just sitting there reading. Finally I could take no more. I said to him "You know, that's really RUDE!" He looks at me and says, "Wha-?," and I said, "What you're doing is REALLY RUDE!" Well that took the wind out of his sails. He kind of stammered and then sat quietly for the rest of the flight. I looked over and I swear his wife was smirking into her magazine. Did I mention that this guy was about 50 years older than me? He was the worst child I have ever had to sit next to during a flight! 11/07
IMMOBILIZED BY A RECLINING SEAT
I was on a British Airways flight from Miami to London, and my friend was seated behind one of the most obnoxious passengers I have ever seen. He was somewhat surly when awake, but he almost immediately put his seat all the way back in her lap and did not move for the entire seven hour flight. The flight attendant made him get up for takeoff, but that was it. My friend could hardly even move to go to the lavatory. It was like she was strapped in. 10/07
RECLINING SEAT VS. LONG LEGS
I was on a flight from Dallas to San Jose, CA. The pilot had just turned off the fasten seatbelt sign, and the man in front of me tried to recline his seat. I say tried to, because I am six feet tall, sitting in a window seat, and there was no way he could recline without crushing my legs. I said to him that he could not recline his seat and explained why. A flight attendant overheard me, and said, "You're kidding, right?" I replied that I was not, and explained why. She said "You can't tell another passenger they can't recline their seat. He has the right to recline." I said ,"So I don't have the right to fly without extreme pain because my legs are crushed by his seat?" Anyway, after that I dropped it, because I didn't want to get in trouble for arguing with a flight attendant. The man in front of me understood, and had no problem. I thought the flight attendant was rude. So next time you can't recline your seat, look behind you! Passengers have a right to recline, but all passengers have a right to be as comfortable as possible. There has to be compromise somewhere! 10/07
CRUSHED LEGS RUINS REST
I boarded a plane and sat in my seat in second class. Wanting to relax from a very long day, I put my seat in a reclining position. Suddenly the man behind me let out a blood-curdling scream - MY LEGS! MY LEGS! GET OFF MY LEGS! All eyes in the cabin were on me. I felt like I committed a crime. An attendant ran over to see what happened. The guy behind me, now nursing his legs, said his legs were too long for the seat in front of him to be reclined. The attendant told him that I had the right to recline the seat. The guy told her that he wanted to be moved to where there's more leg room. I suspect that his "injury" was a ruse to try to get into first class. He ended up staying in the same seat, and I ended up sitting in my seat in an upwards position, unable to get much needed rest. 10/07 Signed, New York John
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