Whose fault is it when your laptop is destroyed by another passenger on the flight?

Last December, I returned from a business trip in Orlando and decided to use my two-hour Delta flight time to read emails. I was there, happily typing and perhaps listening to some horror movie synopsis podcast on my headphones when the unthinkable happened.

The person in front of me recline their chair …and that’s where the story begins.

Usually, I can easily overlook little things like reclining my chair after a drink and a few Biscoff cookies. Until airlines stop allowing economy class passengers to travel recline their chair, you can’t do much when someone leans back, making your already small space even smaller. I’m not one to focus on petty inconveniences.

The beginning of the end of my laptop

However, this special occasion is not only inconvenient.

The passenger in front of me threw their seats back at breakneck speed, crushing my laptop screen and rendering it useless. My friends and I sat at the table gawking when we saw our laptop stuck to the back of the chair. It only took a second or two, but it felt like it was happening in slow motion. The screen was compressed until it cracked, and we looked at each other incredulously, wondering if what we were seeing really happened.

Unfortunately for me, it already has.

I am currently using a Macbook Pro 15 inch and, until then, love the larger screen size. However, the larger size can be its downside in this situation.

When the passenger in front of me reclined, my laptop got stuck in the small hole in the back of the seat that held the tray table in place when it was in the locked position.

With my laptop corner stuck, there is no way out. Both my laptop and a tiny piece of my soul were crushed. I didn’t know this could happen physically, so I didn’t know what to do right away. As a travel writer, I decided my first course of action was to document the incident to help protect others from a similar fate. I may not have a laptop anymore, but I’m pretty sure I’ve got a useful story.

I couldn’t be sure if the passenger in front of me knew what had happened. Sure, they must have felt resistance as they tried to lean back and the exclamatory chatter between me and my seatmates, but they never turned around or acted like they knew something was wrong.

I don’t like confrontation, so I chose not to confront them myself, but a part of me hopes they are aware of the situation and thereby change their aggressive recline. For better or worse, visitors are in their right to reclinebut doing so gently and giving a quick warning to the passenger sitting directly behind you should be the norm.

I didn’t see any flight attendants nearby, so I did something I’ve never done before: I pressed the button to call the flight attendant.

After about 10 or 15 minutes, a friendly flight attendant came to my seat and I explained what had happened. To my surprise, his first question was whether I had discussed it with the offending passenger. I told him I didn’t because I didn’t feel the passenger was at fault (not to mention you never know how people will react and I don’t care about the problem on the flight). In my opinion, it was Delta’s reclining device design that caused the problem.

The flight attendant told me he had never seen anything like this happen before and went to speak with the flight chief to determine the best way to handle the situation. When he returned, he offered to reward me with 1,000 Delta SkyMiles.

Based Current valuation of TPG because Delta SkyMiles, his generous offer amounted to a whopping $15. That could be about 1% of the cost of a replacement laptop.

Of course, it wasn’t his fault; as a flight attendant, he can only donate up to a certain number of points for “customer inconvenience”. His advice was to take pictures and contact Delta customer service after I landed. Although he had never witnessed this exact situation before, he told me he had heard of Delta offering to assist in similar circumstances.

Related: Can you recline the chair??

When I landed in Atlanta, that’s exactly what I did. I stopped at one of Delta’s customer service counters, and the staff told me to speak to someone in the baggage claim area when I reached my final destination. I thanked him and headed to the gate for the last leg of the flight.

Get assistance at my home airport

When I got home, I went to Delta’s baggage service counter and spoke to an employee there. She also had never been in a situation like mine and called one of Delta’s Red Coats – Delta’s premier problem-solving customer service agent – for assistance.

After describing what had happened, the Red Jacket was sympathetic but told me there was not much he could do for me either. The most he is allowed to give in compensation for the damaged property is $100. He explained that most property damage occurs when a flight attendant accidentally spills a drink on someone’s clothes or luggage. In those cases, Delta pays to clean and replace the item.

Knowing that repairing or replacing my Macbook would cost over $100, he took my information down. He promised to check on my situation with Delta customer service and get back to me next week.

Unfortunately, his answer is the same as Delta’s canned answer on baggage liability. Basically, Delta is not responsible for undelivered items damaged in flight unless they are delivered to Delta employees for storage. At the time, I wish I had just received $100.

Technically, I agree with Delta that they were not directly at fault for the incident because they didn’t mishandle my computer. However, I also don’t think it’s my fault or the fault of the passengers with proper reclining seats. We’re both doing what chairs are designed to do – working on tray tables and leaning back in chairs.

Maybe it was just a weird one in a million accident, but I certainly was hoping Delta would try to work it out with the $15+ SkyMiles. I suppose I could have redeemed those SkyMiles to drown my sorrows with a buy premium drinks at Delta SkyClubbut right now, they’re sitting with my other SkyMiles waiting to be used.

Stop destroying the laptop before it starts

In addition to owning a Delta ticket and a new laptop, I have a plan to prevent incidents like this from happening again.

First, I sometimes leave my laptop in hand luggage during flights. If I don’t take it out, there’s no chance of damaging it. If I really need to use my laptop, I make sure it never gets pushed back into the desk tray. I have already replaced my Macbook with another Macbook of the same size, but I am contemplating buying a smaller Macbook next time to minimize the chance of the same thing happening again.

I’m also trying to muster up the courage to kindly ask the person in front of me before they recline. Honestly, though, I still don’t quite get it, because you never know who’s sitting in front of you or how they’ll react to any level of demand.

Of course, I would definitely buy expensive items like a laptop with a built-in card. purchase protection. Many credit cards come with purchase protection benefits. If something you buy with a credit card is damaged, stolen or, in the case of some cards, lost, you may be able to get a refund for the cost of repairing or replacing the item for a period of time. after purchase.

Those protections don’t last forever, but they can help in the event that damage occurs within the insurance timeframe. Or, at least until more airlines install “reclining” seats in economy class.

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Delta Air Lines did not respond to a request for comment for this story.