Which is exactly what I believe regulation should be for and why it's needed. Their role should be "is it going to get people hurt or killed? If not, not our problem."
FAA must reconsider regulating airline seat size as spacing continues to shrink
- Thread starter Oxman
- Start date
Except if you'd read one of the numerous articles on the incident you'd see she was making a huge deal and misrepresenting the situation. There's two sides to every story, and when it comes to anything involving the airlines, I'm usually not taking the side of the person that's outraged immediately without doing some research.
His whole point that since it was a cheap fare it's ok that the seats can be garbage. I suppose I'd agree if they were offering such fares all the time, but those shrinking seats end up getting charged for quite a bit.
At the end of the day she's a huge bitch, but she also paid for a bigger seat and got moved to a smaller one by Delta who are usually better than this. I think the FAA will inevitably get involved. Look no further at the bedlam the knee defender was causing.
I didn't realize you were editing your posts, but thank you for sharing that as I was looking for it. That said I searched seat size in both American and Delta and it didn't return what your shared. I also went to buy fares at both airlines and it listed nothing specific about seat sizes. Also if they're shrinking the seat size in the future it's still hard for an informed consumer to be sure of what they're getting into when they buy the fare 5 to 6 months if not further in advance.
To be honest though, there's almost always an unknown in booking a flight that far in advance. A smaller seat would probably be pretty minor on the list of inconveniences that could happen in that situation (aircraft change, hell, even route being dropped, etc)
You know that better than I do and much better than the average person on the street does. I've long been hoping for some laws to come into effect to provide a bare minimum on the product the airlines can sell as there seems to be little stopping this race to the bottom. I know you guys deal with nightmare customers and probably get pretty numb to the travel experience, but the same higher ups that have been fighting to pay their pilots as little as possible seem to have no problems inventing new ways to nickel, dime and cheat their customers after having begged the US government to let them become the #1, #2 and #3 largest airlines in the world by revenue. Hopefully people know flying with Spirit or Allegiant is a gamble, but what can you do when a major follows suit and there's few to no alternatives at your airport? Also seeing how poorly some of the airlines treat their economy fares is that any guarantee that you won't end up getting thrown in steerage and treated with contempt even if you paid for a better fare?
Romulus
Well-Known Member
I'd like to see the airlines regulate passenger size. I'm tired of buying a seat only to have a blob plop down next to me and take over 15% of my seat. We could make something like the old operation board game. You can't get through the machine without touching the sides and setting off the buzzer you buy two seats.
deadstick
Well-Known Member
From the way some of these seating issues have been written up in the press, I could see an airline trying to stick a DH crew member in that seat or "randomly" selecting that person with 2 seats to get "reaccomdated."
Lawman
Well-Known Member
Hey now!
I don't need to remind you all Govt purchase gets priority for that seat.
If they could find a way for me to ride in cargo for 30 cents in savings SATO travel would go for it.
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NovemberEcho
Dergs favorite member
And some of y'all wonder why people hate the airlines. Sure I'll buy a low fare if I have to and accept the fact that I'm going to be treated only slightly better than cattle, but that doesn't mean I'm going to be happy about it. Add in all the other difficulties that can arise with flying and then pack people in like sardines and no wonder tempers flare.
Even Greyhound has 39" seat pitch and 23" width compared to 33" and 18.5" at the most generous airlines.
And before anyone chimes in with "well take Greyhound then" if it's less than a 12 hour drive I drive 99% of the time. Hell even coming back to NJ from Florida once a year I preferred to drive the 20 hours each way burning leave than be stuck in a CRj700 and MD88.
Even Greyhound has 39" seat pitch and 23" width compared to 33" and 18.5" at the most generous airlines.
And before anyone chimes in with "well take Greyhound then" if it's less than a 12 hour drive I drive 99% of the time. Hell even coming back to NJ from Florida once a year I preferred to drive the 20 hours each way burning leave than be stuck in a CRj700 and MD88.
Hiboglossi
The Most Depressing Person
Intercity buses usually provide wi-fi too. I've only used CoachUSA between southern Wisconsin and Chicago but it was not a bad product. This is why I suspect most short regional routes will be replaced with bus service next time oil gets expensive.
United already does this to a certain extent with an ABE-EWR bus that goes from the Allentown terminal right to gate 71 in EWR. Of course this won't be practical for long routes.
milleR
Well-Known Member
When my ex-wife and I were dating she lived in NY and I was in Baltimore. We regularly took the bus back and forth to meet on the weekends. Three and a half hours, 20 bucks and wifi made it a no-brainer.
And compared to the typical passenger demographic on Spirit or Allegiant the bus riding population seems downright normal these days.
And compared to the typical passenger demographic on Spirit or Allegiant the bus riding population seems downright normal these days.
Cptnchia
Dissatisfied Customer
Good Lord! Talk about misrepresenting. She was not moved to a smaller seat. She was moved from the emergency exit row aisle seat to the emergency exit row window seat. Literally, 3 seats to the right, IN THE SAME ROW! Nothing changed in the seat pitch. Both seats cost exactly the same.
If you're going to go on a quest, at least tilt with facts, not fake news, Don Quixote.
Hiboglossi
The Most Depressing Person
Probably not much slower either, with the ground delays you often get going into the New York City area. Amtrak is on option on that route as well, again nicer, bigger seats than Coach class onan airline.
Actually it amazes me so many people travel by airline between Boston, NYC and Washington DC when Amtrak offers a much nicer product that probably isn't any slower once you factor in security lines. Recently United had ads bragging about how close EWR is to Manhattan but Penn Station is right in Manhattan.
I feel bad for the passengers I occasionally bring from IAD to EWR. In the afternoon theres almost always a Ground Delay and trains and intercity buses usually have much better "packs" than the Dash 8.
milleR
Well-Known Member
Yeah, Amtrak is a good option, but at the time spending over $100 each way wasn't an option for a lowly flight instructor.
And this is pretty much the problem that people have nobody but themselves to blame for. Don't vow to keep buying Big Macs because you're hungry when there's a steakhouse across the street. You know what your money is getting.
I'm fully ok with the consumer being able to freely choose between product and price point.
Or fully re-regulate.
If the federal government dictates that every seat needs 35" of pitch, we need to be prepared to subsidize some routes that will no longer be profitable and accept higher air fares and even more ridiculous levels of value added fees because the margins are very low even with reduced seat pitch. The money will be made up somewhere and I don't think anyone is willing to go to work for free in order to get Skylar, his wife and their four kids to Orlando for super cheap.
Airlines don't go into business to provide transportation to the world. Airlines go into business to make money.
And besides, our generations is far more "fluffy" today than when that 737 tube was designed.
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deadstick
Well-Known Member
Another example of 1) government waste and 2) the left hbd not knowing what the right hand is doing. You got a cold weather issue from CIF, right?
We're talking shrinking seats beyond what they were when American Airlines has reported some pretty damned good profitability in 2016 and so far for 2017. The margins you're complaining about were 13.2% last year and over 10%, Any regulation I'd suggest would be to keep American and the mainlines from further following the business model of the ULCCs as they were just proposing 29" seat pitches and settled on 30" seat pitches which is still a reduction over what they've had previously when making enormous profits. The ULCCs need it the most as their will be more fights and violence in the future as Fort Lauderdale was only a sign of whats coming. It doesn't mean their pax don't share the blame, but it's going to start pushing pax too far.
http://financials.morningstar.com/ratios/r.html?t=AAL