Have you ever sat behind a passenger who is convinced that if he keeps trying, he can get his seat to recline even further? I had the pleasure of sitting behind one on my Los Angeles-Chicago United flight yesterday.
Right from the start, he had his seat all the way back and was pushing his head back as hard as he could against the seat. Every few minutes he would bang his head against the back of his seat, squarely into my knee.
It came time for takeoff and one of the flight attendants instructed him to put up his seat. He wasn’t happy, but complied. Immediately after liftoff, he was in recline mode again and he again tried to make his seat recline further.
I was sitting with my right leg over my left knee and felt every move he made. To be honest, I felt like ramming into the seat with my knee, volleying his head into the seat in front of him, but that would not have been nice.
This guy was an odd character. He downed his breakfast quickly, then went back to the same routine of trying to get his seat to recline further. About an hour later, he rang the FA call button and asked for a second breakfast. He was obliged, but when the tray was delivered he took only the banana and sent the rest back.
He then got up and paced around the cabin for a bit before returning to his seat and reclining again. Thankfully I dozed off, but this guy was quite a case.
Apparently, it does merit repeating that you cannot force your seat to recline further by trying to push it back with all your might. It’s also rude.
Maybe this guy just needed a cigarette…
geez… Such odd behavior, all I could think of is FAM?
I think you nailed it with thinking it was nicotine wtihdrawl.
90% of rudeness is really obliviousness to others. We like to think it’s the young people who are guiltiest but you see / hear it from all ages these days.
I almost wish that the seats didn’t recline at all. Personally, if there’s someone behind me that looks as if they need the room, I won’t recline my seat at all, If there’s no one there or the passenger has plenty of room, then I will carefully recline my seat just enough to be a little more comfortable. It’s not like they’re Lazy Boys or something, right? When I get the passenger in front of me that keeps jamming the seat back shoving the lid to my laptop dangerously close to disaster, I hold the seat in front of me hoping that they get the picture. I have even asked if there were something that I could ask the flight attendant to do to make them a little more comfortable or simply ask if they would mind not jamming back on the seat. After all, when my son is sitting with someone in front of him, I have him meet the person and show respect while using the tray table, so why wouldn’t you show respect to the person behind you!
The best is when the passenger is in the row in front of the emergency exit row. Those seats don’t recline into the exit row – and often the passengeres sitting there don’t know it. They think the seat is defective and will keep banging away just like Matthew described.