Truthfully, I am relieved that I have not had to withstand airline travel, as of late, to reach dog show judging assignments as I watch the news reporting on in-flight brawls while other passengers record the events like they are watching wrestling matches. I am so glad that I am not up there. Just this morning, CBS This Morning show played a video capturing a brawl involving what appeared to be several women on a Spirits Airline flight. The altercation began, reportedly, over loud music. Certainly these are not everyday occurrences, but neither are they isolated as well. Nevertheless, these events unquestionably add to the torture of airline travel today.
Though, what is even more tortuous, besides being crammed in a plane with one or more strangers who might have a hair trigger temperament, is seat size and the lack of personal space. Personal space that has been shrinking and shrinking.
Nowadays, airline passengers are recommended to research first, before booking a reservation, to discover the dimensions of seat pitch and seat width on the flight they are interested in or a very unpleasant surprise could be forthcoming. Check out SeatGuru.com. If you do not think this is necessary, you are wrong as not all airline seats are alike. But, wait -- before looking at seat width, you need to check the model type of the aircraft for the flight you are interested in and then cross-reference it to Seat Guru's airline chart to assess seat pitch.
Seat pitch is important because it is the distance between the rows of seats at any given time. The more distance or higher the number, the better. CNN recently reported that seat pitch has been reduced over the years from 35 inches in the 1970s to ONLY 31 inches today. As a comparison, standard door openings are 32 inches wide. If you have not flown much, try an experiment by placing a chair in an interior door opening such as the bedroom. Turn the chair so that you are seated facing the doorjamb. Now imagine that the doorjamb is the back of another seat in front of you, and now you get the picture. That is how little room there is for your knees, but also, fellow passengers to climb over you to go to the bathroom!
Even more disturbing, USA Today published that discount flyers such as Spirit and Frontier are flying with seat pitches as small as 28 inches! That is only 28 inches of space between the rows of seats, which more importantly, may be unsafe. Apparently, the FAA has not tested any seats less than 29 inches of pitch in emergency evacuation procedures. If you cannot get out in time -- such as in a fire, your dead.
As for seat comfort, most airline seats measured widths are 17 to 18.5 inches wide. Even just one or two inches can make a HUGE difference. Unfortunately, just a small handful of mostly foreign airliners offer seats that are 19 or 20 inches wide. These widths are the same between short-haul -- less than six hours -- and long-haul economy class flights.
Just the thought of having to perform research on seat comfort and amenities -- if any -- on different airline carriers is enough to make your head hurt. Not to mention allotting the time out of your busy schedule to perform such mind-numbing research. Sure, you can pay extra to have the same economy seat but in a fire exit, an aisle seat or up near the bulkhead. It all comes down to the airlines intent to squeeze blood out of a stone. USA Today reports:
A business model that depends on making customers miserable, then giving them ways to pay their way out of pain, is a greater threat to fiscal health than limits on how much smaller seats can get.
Here is another reality check! A 17-inch wide airline seat is ONLY 1.5 inches wider than my MacBook laptop. The tape measure is set at 17 inches -- can you imagine planting your derriere on that for six hours?
Macbook laptop width of 15.5 inches compared to an airline seat width of 17 inches