You should've turned around in your seat, looked at the man who'd deployed the clamp, and then slapped him across the face with a live fish. That is beyond bad etiquette, that is aggressively rude. Clamp him.

I've found that the difference in the opinion on this topic tends to relate directly to a persons height. Being long legged, it takes everything I have to fold into a seat in the first place. When someone leans their seat back, I literally have to sit absolutely straight up to keep my femurs from taking all the pressure of the seat in front of me. Not to mention that if I have to open a laptop for work I can barely see the screen without tilting the entire computer at an angle. I despise the recline function, and make it a point to never use it (so as to not be hypocritical, I'm convinced karma is on my side, though to this point it hasn't been). I understand people want the slight bit of added comfort that comes with reclining 3 inches, but those inches make the difference between a relatively uncomfortable flight and bonecrushingly painful flight for me. Be kind, don't recline.

Have to agree with "guest" whose uncle is a pilot.

What if the guy placed a cover over your light because it bothered him or plugged up your AC vent because he was too cold?

If he doesn't want someone reclining back into him, then he needs to get the very first seat in the cabin that has a bulkhead and no seats in front of it. If he's not willing to pay for the 1st or business class seat or get there early enough in the case of Southwest, he should have to deal with recliners.

This is a guy who doesn't want to function in polite society and is borderline sociopathic... and by "sociopathic" I mean that he's a dick.

Here here! I'm all for live fish slapping. I bet that guy with the clamp is also the guy who piles his briefcase, coat and lunchbox onto the seat next to him on the Metrolink and refuses to remove 'em for another passenger to use when all the seats are full up.

#4 - You're more polite than the guy with the clamp, and so that could be used to your advantage, but the fact is, you're asking someone to give up their comfort (perhaps someone's reclined into their lap) for yours. Ask for the first row of seats when booking travel -- the leg room is greater, and there's no seat in front of you. Otherwise, get into business class or first class. If someone's obese, do they have a right to spill over onto your shoulder, chest and thigh? Be kind, don't whine?

Also, agreed: well said #5.

It's also your right to fart on the plane, but you don't do it because it's rude (I hope). If we all enforced our rights to the fullest extent all of the time, airplanes and the rest of society would be pretty unpleasant.

It can be very painful on the knees/calves of the person sitting behind you. Having experienced this myself, I never, ever, ever recline.

But, if you must recline, please accept the limits of the chair -- do not try repeatedly to push it back an extra half inch after you've reclined it as far as it will go. This is excruciating, and if you do it, I will use all of the space I'm entitled to, which means slamming my knee into your back as hard as I can.

#13 is effing brilliant.

I wouldve turned around and stabbed him in the throat with my eyeballs. im not sure what that means but im POSITIVE I wouldve done it. I hate everyone on airplanes, they all sicken me. fuck being overly sensitive to others when no one gives a rats ass about you or your space.

-torch

Agree with others here that the clamp device was definitely inappropriate and that you really should have insisted that the rule against such devices be enforced. It's terrible to see people get away with selfish, anitsocial behavior just because they pitch a fit when challenged.

Really, though, it was the flight attendant's job to enforce the airline's rules, whether or not you thought it was worth the hassle. If he got unruly, the flight crew could call ahead to have law enforcement officers waiting at the gate.

Flying sucks for everyone. If you have legitimate legroom issues, ask for specific seats or ask the person in front of you nicely. If they won't comply, ask the flight attendant to find someone who will. There's no reason for one person to unilaterally take away what little comfort other people might have.

I would have took that clamp and clamped his nutsack! I paid for my seat and I have to option to recline or not recline! I never recline when I travel, I nap in the upright position. I still want the option to do so and someone with a clamp is not going to stop me!

i've had plenty of people just push back, which is only slightly more annoying than whatever this clamp thing is. i was on a plane yesterday, and they asked everyone to lower their shades, so people could watch spiderman 3.

thanks, but no thanks. i get the aisle seat so i can watch the outside world, which is much more fascinating than that godawful movie. the grand canyon, for one, was as spectacular as ever from 32,000 feet.

if it's that uncomfortable, sit behind one of the exit rows. those seats don't recline. or spring for an upgrade to first class... there's an idea.

Terribly, terribly not cool.

Really, all it takes is asking.

This is what happens when people are wedded to the privacy of their cars. They seem to forget that a commercial airline flight is also a form of mass transit.

I mean, do I really want to make all my routine daily travel as annoying as economy-class airline travel?

Hmm. Maybe if subways came with "first class" cars that had more legroom (and fewer passengers who smell like vomit and piss), then mass transit would become more attractive to people who can afford cars.

And maybe the MTA would have less trouble making its budget balance.

OTOH, this is probably as bad an idea as congestion-priced 'Lexus lanes'. I suspect we ought to be looking at ways to solve these problems for everyone, not just for people with spare disposable income.

I don't recline my seat all the way because I know how much I hate it when the person in front of me does it, and if it bothers me (I am 5 feet tall and don't need as much space) I can imagine how annoying it would be for someone tall. I think it's a matter of being courteous so everyone can at least be slightly comfortable in a mostly uncomfortable physical situation.

What an utterly retarded device. Who's not going to notice that a clamp is preventing them from reclining? If the person in front of you doesn't recline, then you didn't need the device in the first place. Only the dumbest of the dumb would spend money on such idiocy. If someone tried to pull that shit, I would have made sure to recline as far as possible for the duration of the flight. You should have told him off. That jackass had no argument to support his use of the clamp.

That being said, they need to eliminate the reclining feature from the economy cabin. I can't get mad at someone who decides to recline, because it's not like they're going out of their way to annoy me. But I'm 6'5", and when someone pushes their seat back, my knees are literally in the back of the chair. For all the aggravation that it causes, the benefits of reclining are minimal.

While I can partially empathize with the guy behind you (me being 6'2" and subject to some aggravation when the person in front of me reclines) his covert tactics and reaction to the attendant calling bullshit make him to be a total douchebag and it's a shame he didn't get taken to task for it.

My wish is that it would become a point of order to announce that people raise their seats upright during meal service, but I also dream of being able to slam dunk a basketball and neither's going to happen.

So in the real world I do the same as polaroidgirl in #29: choosing to recline only if the person in front of me does and I'm all for qwerty's suggestion just to do away with the feature in the main cabin.

BTW, Knee Defenders have been on the market for three plus years, and this debate was all over the internet back then. I'm surprised this is the first you've heard of them.

Stephen -

I think they mostly do pretzels now instead of peanuts b/c a lot of people have peanut allergies that can be inflamed even by touching them, or touching something that has touched them.

But I flew Southwest for the first time in several years last week and they're still doing the peanut thing.

Back on topic for a second, I *always* recline. I don't really like airplanes (I love travel, so I put up with them) and I cannot sleep through the flight if I don't recline.