Xeque
The truth is that the airlines blatantly use Economy Class revenues to subsidize First and Business.
I have seen this view repudiated in here on more than one occasion and expect that someone will be along in a moment to do so.
That is born out by the failure of such airlines as Silverjet and EOS who tried the one class Premium business model but found that it could not be sustained at current premium fares.
Both of them tried to start at the end of the biz cycle. They did so when other mainline competitors still had spare money to attack them and they did not have pockets deep enough to establish themselves. The business model has been proven to work in one form by Privat Air (part of LH) and I expect that is where it will remain.
Back to Y seating. There is something to be said for FR's approach that locks the seats from reclining - although they have ulterior reasons - it does prevent this problem.
It would be interesting if the seat manufacturers could put a 'damping' mechanism on the recline. So that, as the pax started to push the seat back it met resistance and only moved slowly - thus giving time for the pax behind to get their drink out of the way.
SMT Member Yes, that is the decision I came to some while ago. I am fortunate that I don't have children, so we could choose to travel more comfortably.