Man blocked the recline of two seats!

[dacca]

Long story short - The man sitting behind me (aisle seat) prevented the recline of both my seat and the one next to me (my daughter's seat). He had one knee firmly placed against the back of my seat and his other knee against my daughter's seat.

Full story: I have back problems and really wanted to recline as it takes weight off of my spine. When I tried to recline (slowly), he shouted at me that I was crushing his knees. He then forcefully pushed my seat back into the upright position (even pushing it even more forward than the original position). When I mentioned that I had back problems he did not seem to care. FWIW, the guy in front of me reclined too (because that is apparently his god given right). I was going to switch seats with my daughter (middle seat) so I could recline and relieve my back pain, but she was not able to recline either. When I peeked back, I saw that this guy was leaned far forward with each one of his knees pushed up against each of our seats. (The guy had his young son next to him in center seat). I thought about calling the flight attendant to help us resolve this, but really did not want to make a whole scene out of it. I also was not sure what the official policy is for this kind of dispute and honestly, I just wanted to get home. To make matters worse, the guy had his young daughter up in our row (window seat) completely unsupervised and this girl made a point to poke at my daughter and constantly and intentionally invade her space (despite my daughter asking her repeatedly to stop poking at her). I was terrified of making the situation worse by asking the guy behind me to control his daughter. Another side note - twice the flight attendant yelled at me to control the guy's daughter (probably thinking I was the girl's mother (her mother was in the window seat behind her - also not controlling this kid)). I can't help but think this whole situation would have not happened if my 6'2" husband was present. I seem to run into these kind of situations whenever he is not around - which is frustrating as women should be able to travel without encountering this borderline bullying behavior. Thoughts?

[bec102896]

Sorry to hear of your recent experience. Unfortunately some people are just rude and entitled such as the dad and even the daughter who kept poking. 

i know the feeling of not wanting to start a fight/argument. Personally I would have called the FA and either expressed my concern or wrote down the concern so it’s more discrete. Another option is always making a trip to the restroom and talking to a FA there so they can walk by and see what’s happening and then take action if able 

you are 100% entitled to recline your seat the only row that can’t is directly in front of the exit row (for safety reasons) I probably would have told him to move him knee (nicely the first time) 

You can definitely fill out the contact us form but clicking the link at the bottom of this page and let Southwest know about your experience so they can document it and possibly offer a voucher for the unpleasant neighbor (no guarantee but worth a shot) 

[05bardic]

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@dacca wrote:

Another side note - twice the flight attendant yelled at me to control the guy's daughter (probably thinking I was the girl's mother (her mother was in the window seat behind her - also not controlling this kid)). 

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100% without a doubt I would have told the FA that you were not related to that girl and that her parents were in the row behind you!

[floridaguy]

You should have reported the incident to the flight attendant.  Coming here is an interesting story, but the solution was on the plane.