I was on a transatlantic Lufthansa flight today, flying economy. The woman sitting behind me wouldn't let me recline my seat.
For context, she was overweight, so I understand where she was coming from. But at the same time, my husband is 6'3" and has basically no room for his knees in economy either. We chose the cheapest seats knowing exactly what we were paying for.
Anyway, I won't bore anyone with all the details. Early in the flight, she politely let me know that she didn't want me to recline. I told her that if extra legroom was important to her, she probably should have booked a seat with more space. It wasn't a particularly friendly exchange, but it remained civil. She let me recline for some time but kept pushing against the seat until I was all the way up.
A few hours later, after lunch and about 4-5 hours into the flight, I tried reclining my seat. She immediately started violently pushing and shoving it from behind. Things escalated from there and it honestly became less polite. I called the flight attendants. She became aggressive with them as well, to the point where they had to warn her that the police could be called upon landing if she didn't stop.
After all of that, I honestly didn't feel comfortable staying in that seat. I asked if there was anywhere else I could move. Lufthansa was incredibly kind and ended up upgrading both my husband and me to Premium Economy for the rest of the flight. Huge shout-out to the crew. They handled the situation professionally and were genuinely caring. I'm not even sure every airline would have done that.
My question is: will anything actually happen to that woman? Will there be some sort of note or flag on her record because of her behavior? And is it worth writing to Lufthansa about the incident, not to seek compensation, but simply to make sure the situation is documented?
Edit1: I was the one in front of her, not my husband.
Edit2: Tbh we think they upgraded people from Premium Economy to Business and then us to PE, because they gave us the best seats in PE and there were a few cups left in front of us. So she may well have got 4 people an upgrade.
TLDR: I was seated in front of a fat lady who wouldn't let me recline my seat. She became violent. My husband and I were changed seats. Will something happen to her?