wow, ladies and gentlemen, let us take a deep breath 
in this particular case a jerk was a jerk, who then was a jerk to a jerk, and that jerk was a jerk to all involved. there are no winners here. all the technology in the world canāt prevent angry people from being angry (well, except perhaps ether and zip ties, but i digress).
Seems like the only winner is jerk chicken, which is getting inexplicable search traffic today.
Iāve been on a couple flights lately (possibly Delta) where the coach seats āreclineā by the seat bottom sliding forward. Thus the person reclining is the one giving up leg space.
By all means interpret things in whatever manner makes you feel most superior. I was responding to:
Have you ever politely explained your position to the person in front of you and been refused? Most people are pretty decent if you treat them with respect
by asserting that less than 100% of people are considerate. I can see how you could read that a different way, if you wanted to, though perhaps the structure could have been more clear.
And no, not āfuck the person in frontā, the difference is extreme discomfort for me or a sense of mild satisfaction for them at exercising their ārightā to recline when asked not to, because āthey paidā for the privilege of being a dick.
Anyway, Iām done with your belligerence. Have a nice life.
Thatās actually a pretty aggressive belief system, friend.
Iām 5ā 8ā. I always have plenty of legroom on planes. However, I also hate sitting up straight, I hate entitled assholes, and I hate being told what to do with my shit even more.
So, welp, Iāve got a button on my seat and a button is meant to be pushed. As soon as that light dings at 10,000 feet my seat goes back for the full duration of our trans-continental flight. Even if I end up strolling the aisles or sitting up and not leaning back for the whole time.
You may like space in front of your knees; I like space in front of my face and this space is mine, mofo. If the space wasnāt mine the pilot wouldnāt have built me this button to use! Buttons were meant to be pushed (pun only slightly intended) but I only push my own.
Finally, respect and listen to your flight attendants. Theyāre generally good people who are forced to deal with the worst dipshits during their worst temper tantrums.
tl;dr - In other words: if the seat in front of you can recline, you should be prepared for it to recline at any moment and stay that way until you get off the cattle car (which you paid to board).
He means the other way around. That space doesnāt belong to you.
Should he have doubled down on his assholish sabotage? Actually pretty easy to say.
Have you tried asking nicely? If a 6ā7" guy towering over me in my seat said, āKind sir, could I trouble you to keep your seat up?ā Iād say, āAbsolutely, dear fellow. In fact, let me lean my seat forward. Better yet, let me buy you a first class ticket. Please donāt kill me!!! Please! Please! Please!ā
As an excessively tall Martian, I LOLed. Iām always trying not to accidentally loom at people 
Of course, when irresistible recliner meets immovable knees, no-oneās going to be happy. Unless we swap seats, which solves your problem and passes mine on to the person in front.
On a side note, why is it that pilots wonāt ever consider swapping seats? Selfish arseholes. Anyone would think they were entitled to be there or something.
Hehe, certainly, Iāll even try to reach a happy medium where we can both be comfortable if thereās a little room. But some people seem to refuse to be decent humans. Perhaps I should try more towering 
In fact, my āattitudeā is generally one of ādo not slow other people down, do not take up excess space, do not get in the way of the crew doing their jobs.ā My goal is to avoid using the overhead bins, avoid bothering anyone including the crew, avoid making the plane late by getting my ass on board and in my seat, and so forth. Please donāt assume I have some kind of āattitudeā or am in the habit of making scenes. I spent an entire flight in the toilet once because the woman next to me would not stop flinging her arm across me every time she dozed off, and I couldnāt think of how to bring this up to the flight crew (this was before they barred the use of half the toilets on the plane to everyone but the 8 people in first class - Iām a reasonable person.)
I just took non-stop flights SFO ā JFK and back again, nearly 6 hours each way. I didnāt use the KDs on either flight because one took off at 7am (meaning everyone was going to be miserably tired) and one I wasnāt sure whether Iād get out my laptop or not. On the outbound trip, Iād had 4 hours of sleep and would have loved to recline to get some more, but I was unable to get the attention of the guy behind me who was absorbed in something on the seatback video, and I didnāt want to climb up in my seat and stare him down over the top, so I made do between a travel pillow and leaning my head on the window. On the inbound, I asked the person behind me if theyād mind, and they didnāt, but my seat wouldnāt recline anyway (at least not without a lot of hassle/forcing that I didnāt want to make a scene over), so I just let it go.
I seriously do not have an āattitudeā when enduring the misery that is cattle class. However, Iāve been made totally sick of having seats thrown back at me and crunching my laptop, people hitting me in the head with giant bags trying to stuff them in the overheads, people yakking at the top of their lungs to their seat-mate about their disruptive new database blah blah blah (that would be the JFK ā SFO leg, two hours of a guy talking in tones appropriate for a loud cocktail party, not a plane with 300 people on it), and so on. I have even exclaimed āOW!ā or āHEY!ā when someoneās slammed a seat back at me and gotten not so much as an āoh, sorryā¦ā So yes, occasionally I have got to get some papers graded or something and I get a little serious about wanting my two inches to protect me and my $2000 MacBook. The airlines arenāt going to change anything any time soon, so.
Zodiac 5751, available only on some flights.
One product from Zodiac is the 5751 slimline economy class seat. This particular model of seat uses a unique recline mechanism where the seat bucket moves forward while reclining. This model of seat is currently used by Delta Air Lines and American Airlines on all several aircraft including Deltaās 717, 737-700/800, 747-400, 767-300, 777, MD-90, and international/premium transcontinental 757-200, as well as American Airlinesā 777-300ER and all reconfigured 737-800 and 757-200 aircraft.
Iāve still got bruises on my knees from a flight last week where someone rammed their seat back into my legs. Only pushing your own? Might want to check that.
Chris Morris, is that you?
I completely agree, this is a pretty disturbing read. Maybe the ones who find this device shocking donāt see a need to put that in writing, since it seems so obvious that something designed to prevent the seat from functioning normally is absurd and unconscionably rude.
That canāt happen, the tray table is completely independent from the seat back, in fact the Knee Defender relies on it being separate to work.
You do realize you can buy a ticket for a part of the plane with more space, right? This whole ācattle classā thing isnāt your god given right, to be defended with gizmos that impact the experience of other peopleā¦ Right???
Whether you realize it or not, youāre part of the problem of cattle class, not someone whoās cleverly figured out a solution to it.
Hang on. YOU were assuming things about your rights on airplanes that you do not have. I am not assuming anything. I am suggesting that maybe you check the I, me, mine attitude at the gate. Iām starting that your actual words which you chose above to describe your own behavioral choices as regards your actual fellow passengers on airplanes when you have VIP project before youā¦ those words reflect an attitude of entitlement which, get this, if you behaved on a plane the way you have here, you would likely and correctly be thrown off the plane, Pharoah.
