FAA must reconsider regulating airline seat size as spacing continues to shrink

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Derg said:
As if you don't want a gristly steak, you'd leave The Sizzler to go to Ruth's Chris.

If you want more space, you'd go to economy to first class.

It all comes at a cost.

Otherwise, we're legislating that Subway give you more meat and more delectable cheez.
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Does the consumer have any idea how little space they'll be given before he or she purchases a ticket? They could at least ensure that the airlines communicate to the passenger before purchase how much room they'll be given with their fare. These ULCCs and the mainline's that are following them are going to cause some serious pandemonium soon. Throw in some delays, some crampt spaces, some horrible customer support and I wouldn't be surprised if some brawls start breaking out. I can only imagine how many people don't realize how uncomfortable their cheap fares will be until they're sitting in them and at that point it's not like you can upgrade or do much about it.
 
Derg said:
People know exactly what they're getting into with a $29 fare and they need to be adult about it.
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The problem is that it's not just the ULCCs looking to cut costs. This is from the article. If American's offering $29 tickets that's news to me.

This year, news leaked that American Airlines planned to order new Boeing 737 jets with just 29 inches of pitch in the last three rows to make room for an extra row of premium-priced seats toward the front of the plane.

American Airlines CEO Doug Parker said Friday that after objections from customers and flight attendants, the airline backed off. Those rows will have 30 inches of pitch — still a tighter fit than the airline's current planes.
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I tried booking a fare on Delta and American and saw no mention of seat size, just that business and first class offered larger and more comfortable seats. How can a customer make an informed decision any more when even mainlines have been shrinking seats?
 
srn121 said:
The problem is that it's not just the ULCCs looking to cut costs. This is from the article. If American's offering $29 tickets that's news to me.



I tried booking a fare on Delta and American and saw no mention of seat size, just that business and first class offered larger and more comfortable seats. How can a customer make an informed decision any more when even mainlines have been shrinking seats?
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That's like ordering a pizza and saying "yeah, how am I supposed to know if it's going to taste good? Will it fill me up?" and blaming Domino's when it tastes like crap and you're hungry 20 minutes later. Either buy the ticket or figure another way to get yourself from A to B. Want the comfort? Buy Economy Plus/Delta Comfort, etc. Otherwise just deal with being mildly uncomfortable for a few hours to get where you're going. People act like it's a 20 hour bus ride through Guatemala with a chicken in your lap.
 
JordanD said:
That's like ordering a pizza and saying "yeah, how am I supposed to know if it's going to taste good? Will it fill me up?" and blaming Domino's when it tastes like crap and you're hungry 20 minutes later. Either buy the ticket or figure another way to get yourself from A to B. Want the comfort? Buy Economy Plus/Delta Comfort, etc. Otherwise just deal with being mildly uncomfortable for a few hours to get where you're going. People act like it's a 20 hour bus ride through Guatemala with a chicken in your lap.
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When I order a pizza I know how many inches in diameter it will be.
 
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srn121 said:
When I order a pizza I know how many inches in diameter it will be.
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https://www.seatguru.com/

Literally the first result if you google "airline seat size". If people are too lazy to do their own research, that's their own problem. A basic coach ticket isn't a guarantee of comfort for three hours, it's a seat from A to B.

Also, two clicks on Delta's website got me here.

https://www.delta.com/content/www/en_US/traveling-with-us/airports-and-aircraft/Aircraft.html

Seat size of every single aircraft in every configuration in their fleet.

https://www.united.com/web/en-US/content/travel/inflight/aircraft/default.aspx

And same with United.

Sorry, but I'm over this "we have to hold everyone's hand and spell everything out in crayon for everyone and hold it right in front of their face mentality. Be an adult, do some legwork, or stop complaining. Don't like the seats? Pay for a bigger one. But don't say you "deserve" a bigger seat for the same price while shouting"free market!"
 
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JordanD said:
https://www.seatguru.com/

Literally the first result if you google "airline seat size". If people are too lazy to do their own research, that's their own problem.
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A third party website that guarantees nothing. Good luck getting a refund or having any sort of recourse if United or American shrunk your seat another 2" in the 5 or 6 months that you've purchased your fare and I don't think whining "but...but...but... seatguru said my seat was x big... refund!!" or maybe "noones going anywhere until seatguru fixes this •t". Hell there was just in the news a week or two ago about a controversial author getting bumped from the bigger seat she paid for and reserved to a smaller one for no reason and what recourse does a passenger have in that instance when they did everything right?

It's not just the lousy ULCCs pulling this crap. United and American have been eagerly following their cost cutting practices with things like basic economy, not to mention the paying for checked bags which was following spirit and now they can't wait to shrink seat sizes further.
 
srn121 said:
The problem is that it's not just the ULCCs looking to cut costs. This is from the article. If American's offering $29 tickets that's news to me.



I tried booking a fare on Delta and American and saw no mention of seat size, just that business and first class offered larger and more comfortable seats. How can a customer make an informed decision any more when even mainlines have been shrinking seats?
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I don't know.

But if you're buying a $89 fare a long distance, you can assume price is more important to you than comfort.

If I get a "Hot N Ready" pizza from Little Ceasars for $5, it's an unrealistic expectation that it's going to be as large and as high quality than Grimaldi's.

I don't think the federal government needs to step in and mandate size and quality of either.

That $89 fare is often a "Loss Leader".
 
srn121 said:
A third party website that guarantees nothing. Good luck getting a refund or having any sort of recourse if United or American shrunk your seat another 2" in the 5 or 6 months that you've purchased your fare and I don't think whining "but...but...but... seatguru said my seat was x big... refund!!" or maybe "noones going anywhere until seatguru fixes this t". Hell there was just in the news a week or two ago about a controversial author getting bumped from the bigger seat she paid for and reserved to a smaller one for no reason and what recourse does a passenger have in that instance when they did everything right?

It's not just the lousy ULCCs pulling this crap. United and American have been eagerly following their cost cutting practices with things like basic economy, not to mention the paying for checked bags which was following spirit and now they can't wait to shrink seat sizes further.
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Dude, are we really going to cite Ann Coulter wigging out over nothing?
 
Derg said:
I don't know.

But if you're buying a $89 fare a long distance, you can assume price is more important to you than comfort..
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Your right, but they don't put in smaller seats for these cheaper fares and will happily charge more than $500 on those seats in short notice or during busy times. I've flown commercial more than 20 times in the last 8 months and with all the fees I don't think a single fare was under $200 and I'm pretty sure my seats didn't magically grow an extra inch or two despite having paid upwards of $700 for a one way.
 
srn121 said:
A third party website that guarantees nothing. Good luck getting a refund or having any sort of recourse if United or American shrunk your seat another 2" in the 5 or 6 months that you've purchased your fare and I don't think whining "but...but...but... seatguru said my seat was x big... refund!!" or maybe "noones going anywhere until seatguru fixes this t". Hell there was just in the news a week or two ago about a controversial author getting bumped from the bigger seat she paid for and reserved to a smaller one for no reason and what recourse does a passenger have in that instance when they did everything right?

It's not just the lousy ULCCs pulling this crap. United and American have been eagerly following their cost cutting practices with things like basic economy, not to mention the paying for checked bags which was following spirit and now they can't wait to shrink seat sizes further.
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I'll give you the benefit of the doubt in that maybe you typed this up while I was editing my post... but the seat sizes are spelled out plain as day on the airline's own websites.
 
srn121 said:
Your right, but they don't put in smaller seats for these cheaper fares and will happily charge more than $500 on those seats in short notice or during busy times. I've flown commercial more than 20 times in the last 8 months and with all the fees I don't think a single fare was under $200 and I'm pretty sure my seats didn't magically grow an extra inch or two despite having paid upwards of $700 for a one way.
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Dude, that's literally how it's been since deregulation. Are you proposing airlines just have one fare all the time?

Also, since when was $200 for a plane ticket expensive? Sounds like a good deal to me.
 
Derg said:
I don't know.

But if you're buying a $89 fare a long distance, you can assume price is more important to you than comfort.

If I get a "Hot N Ready" pizza from Little Ceasars for $5, it's an unrealistic expectation that it's going to be as large and as high quality than Grimaldi's.

I don't think the federal government needs to step in and mandate size and quality of either.

That $89 fare is often a "Loss Leader".
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Eh I'm about half in the water with you on this.

Quality no it's not their job, but one could make the argument when corners on safety or such are being cut. Like I'm not saying the Airlines are deliberately skipping steps in implementation, but it's totally within the governments role to at least require they show their work on the math.

It's done with the auto industry every day after all.
 
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JordanD said:
Dude, are we really going to cite Ann Coulter wigging out over nothing?
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I don't care about who it was even if she was the kind of person who deserved it as it's wrong. There have been instances of people getting rudely bumped from first class. Back when the United furor was at it's peak there was a wealthy businessman who was stripped of his first class seat and threatened after being seated and had to fly back from Hawaii in between two people in coach. They hadn't refunded him his money when it first broke the news. If you continue to shrink seat sizes it's eventually going to effect the people who opted for bigger seats and what then?

That said thankfully America has Southwest and it's one more reason I go out of my way to fly on them.
 
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