My pastor - very big guy - was flying and the man in front kept trying to put his seat back, hitting the pastor’s knees. After repeated hits, the pastor leaned forward and said, “why don’t you come back here and sit in my lap? It’ll be easier.”
Try sitting in front of a 4 year old who kicks the seat from Atlanta to Paris for 8 hours......................
Some people need to sleep, some need to work. If you can't work out a reasonable compromise, then purchase a higher priced seat.
reclining seats make it impossible to use a real laptop to do work.
If this were cattle it would be illegal.
I remember the no recline devices. Did not know airlines made them illegal.
I’m 6’3” and find many planes to be short on knee room. Nonetheless, I like to be able to recline my seat when flying, and accept that the person in front of me does, too. It’s not their fault that the seats are too close together to give me decent knee room. I deal with the best I can.
“A flight attendant asked him to remove the device and he refused.”
Game, set, MATCH.
The lady would have done well to let this play out.
1. Those seats are designed to RECLINE.
2. The “Knee Defender” is not part of the aircraft.
3. The deviced mentioned in #2 (above) interferes with a designed feature of the aircraft.
4. Instructions/requests/DEMANDS from aircrew are to be followed, per FAA regs and federal law.
I feel sorry for people who are large/tall or need to work, but an arrangement should be discussed before you decide that the seat in front of you (which the person occupying it has purchased) should not function as designed.
The jerk with the device should have been arrested at destination for tampering with an airplane. End of problem.
This sort of thing is why I fly First Class or United’s Business/First.
I resolved never to fly Economy again if the flight is more than 1.5 hours. I simply refuse.
I almost scratched United Airlines off my list of even flying with them again about five years ago, but they’ve made serious effort and headway into improving their airline since about 2011.
If i saw some clown with a device on my seat keeping me from reclining then having a problem with me having a problem i would have gone APESHIT.
If i was calm enough i’d wait till we landed before knocking the crap out of the guy.
What frigging NERVE.
unbelievable....
What the FAA Says
The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) was asked about the use of Knee Defenders.
As reported in the October 28, 2003 edition of The Washington Post:
“FAA spokesman Paul Takemoto said the clips were not against federal aviation rules as long as they weren’t used during taxiing, takeoffs or landings.”
Knee Defenders™ are specifically designed to be used with your tray table lowered, while your tray table must be up and locked “during taxiing, takeoffs or landings.”
So, as long as Knee Defenders™ are being used as they are designed to be used in flight, their use does not violate any US aviation law, rule, or regulation.
http://www.kneedefender.com/goods/kneedefender.html