One other thing that annoys me re: seat recline/lack of...
Some aircraft have the facility of a seat lock-out which the crew unlock after take off, to allow the seats to recline as normal. Many times as I come down the cabin after t/o I'll see one seat in a row reclined... (the lock-out is checked prior to boarding, so it's definitely locked at t/o) and either the pax has
a) forced the seat back against the lock (which admittedly it doesnt go far but if they force it enough.. they can) and then rendered it u/s for landing...
or b) been a cheeky enough so-and-so to reach down and UNLOCK THE SEATS themselves!!!
Once, on approaching the pax re his reclined seat (with the seat lock still engaged) I was interrupted with "Oi this seat don't work, it dosn't go back (pax pushes against seatback repeatedly) it's broken!" Response?? "If you'd stop pushing the seat against the lock sir it wouldn't BE broken... followed by an explanation that they should wait for the crew to recline their seats!
As for the pax who unlocked the seat lock, he did this on t/o.... had we overrun and needed to evac we could well have had an entire exit row unuseable!! When I explained to him why he must not do what he did I was met with "I can do what I want this is my seat"
You can guess that the next step involved 'not any more it isn't!'
