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Comment by dawnerd | Hacker News Reader

Few months back I was in coach working away on my laptop and the person in front decided to jam their seat all the way back. I barely managed to move my laptop before the screen got caught in the table lip thingy.

Personally, I'd be fine with less leg space (despite being 6') if it meant wider seats. I really don't enjoy being shoulder to shoulder or being smacked whenever they roll the cart by.

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I'm 6'6" with broad shoulders. I can't take the window seat because of the curve of the plan. I usually have to take an aisle seat where I can (and also pay the extra for the legroom). The problem with the aisle seat, on long-haul flights at least, is that my shoulder sticks out a little, and every. single. fucker. walking by strikes it. I can walk down the aisle without hitting anything, but apparently no-one else in the known universe can. Tall, short, fat, thin, all of them. It's like people just slalom off the sides of chairs for fun.

It's not like I'm taking up a third of the aisle with my shoulder, it's only a couple of inches, but my opinion of the general public is notably worse after a long-haul flight.

Worse is when boarding and you're in the front row of econ and people will their bags and wheeled luggage smack into your face and knees. Just the other day I was hit in the face pretty good by some guys backpack. Confident people just don't care about anyone else on a flight. That's not even counting the people that can't wait to remove their carry-ons from above and they're way too heavy and fall down.

That's the scenario that scares me on flights. I've rescued my laptop in the nick of time a couple of times. I was pretty sure it was going to break one time.

The worst part is would they pay for it? The airline obviously wouldn't. Would the passenger? If they refused would the airline give me their info to file a claim? I assume not.

So I'd be stuck buying a new computer - and probably without a computer for part of the trip - while I did nothing wrong.

The airline wont pay, nor should they imo, and the person in front is just exercising his/her right to recline. The dangers of laptop crunch are obvious. If your employer expects you to work without paying business then they should pay, if not working put the laptop away or get a small tablet/netbook. Look at the space between upright and fully reclined as not really yours, just like sticking your leg in the aisle, at some point a trolley is going to accidentally hit you, so be it.

1. There are reasons to use a computer beyond just working.

2. If you damage someone else's property - whether on purpose or by accident - the decent thing to do is try to make it right. Are you required to in many situations? Probably not.. which is the cause of my original comment.

Working, youtube, giant ebook reader, candy crush desktop, vlc etc.. whatever it's your free choice to use a laptop in an environment that is not setup for such and deliberately in the space where the person in front can rightfully recline their seat at any moment. The airline sells you a seat from A to B, and in economy a very basic one - no one reasonable has any false expectations about this, they did not sell you a co-working hot working desk 38,000ft in the air with accidental damage insurance for your very important laptop.

If you put your laptop in the middle of the road and my car runs over it then I wouldn't be making it right, not the best analogy but its a similar shade of grey. Your position that this is either the airline or the guy/gal in front fault, and you've done nothing wrong, is laughable - it's your choice, your fault, was it a shock that the seat in front can recline and the person hasnt got eyes in the back of his head? how is a non-aisle dude even meant to know your using your very important laptop? I can barely move my feet nevermind my neck 180o and 50cm over the headrest..

Now, out of manners, if I noticed you had a laptop when I boarded or after going toilet, I'd probably try to give you a heads up presuming you werent on your noise cancelling headphones too, a brief 'hey dude, Im going recline in 30 seconds' but that's just me being polite, it's not mandated and I definitely don't expect it of the guy/gal in front of me when travelling economy.

Go business, or get company to underwrite the laptop use in economy, or just put it away... I don't think anyone in the seat in front would make you whole for your own careless mistake, anyone?

> Few months back I was in coach working away on my laptop and the person in front decided to jam their seat all the way back. I barely managed to move my laptop before the screen got caught in the table lip thingy.

If it was really pressing down on the top of the laptop's screen with significant force, wouldn't it push the tray table to extend toward you, relieving the pressure? Or are you not opening your laptop beyond 90 degrees?

To a certain extent, yeah it'd move a bit. The bottom of the macbook pro screens likes to catch on the edge of the tray table enough to be a problem.

I don't undrstand this. You know the seat can recline. I always position my laptop so the screen would be pushed closed instead of being jammed, in case the seat in front of me suddenly reclines. Maybe there isn't a configuration that allows this; then it's a calculated risk to use the computer anyway.

This. People just slam their seats back all the time. Slowly ease it back, or even turn around and make eye contact before you do it...

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