Interesting topic.


I haven't been able to fall asleep. It's now 6am and this thread has made me a bit cranky. This is probably the longest and crankiest post I have ever written on GC so if you can't handle it, too bad. :p


Ok, so my father worked for the airline industry for 32 years.....


1) Yes, airlines are mostly about the $$$. They are NOT going to make seats bigger just because there is a slight chance that *maybe* 1 person out of 300 passengers on a flight will be too big for the seat.


2) Bench seats are a silly and unsafe idea. Sorry. During turbulance or an air emergency, the seat is meant to help keep passengers secure. Bench seating does not offer the same back and side stability a regular seat has. Besides, how does the airline calculate precisely how many people to put on the bench? How do they calculate where to place the seatbelts and trays? Do they get armrests too? I mean, how do they listen to the music stations? Let's see, if we take a seat, add seatbelts, a tray table and armrests....viola! You now have a regular passenger seat.


3) There is a "middle class" section on some aircraft, it's called the "business section".


4) Adding bigger coach seats? Eh??? As someone pointed out before, do you all realize how big of an undertaking it would be to retrofit ALL aircraft currently in service by ALL airlines WORLDWIDE???


5) Bigger coach seats - part two: Why would an airline want to add one or two rows of slightly larger coach class seats? I mean, wouldn't they have to charge more for those seats? If so, what would distinguish those seats from first class? After all, part of the attraction of premium first class seats is the bigger chair and more leg room. If you want more space, you're supposed to purchase a first or business class ticket.


6) Bigger coach seats - part three: Say the airline did make an "oversized" row or two on the aircraft and reserved them for overweight passengers. Do you think that perhaps they might start to be know as the "fat rows" thereby humiliating the passengers occupying those seats? Do you think that overweight people will want to be segregated that way?


7) Wheelchairs on aircraft. There is no "wheelchair space" on an aircraft. Passengers using wheelchairs are assisted into a specially built wheelchair by airline staff and their regular wheelchair is checked as baggage. This special-built wheelchair is called a "stair chair" and is built to be narrow enough to fit down the aisle of the aircraft. It also has handles on the bottom enabling two employees to carry the whole contraption up and down stairs should boarding not be conducted via the jetway (hence the name). The passenger is then assisted from the stair chair into his or her seat on the aircraft. The process is reversed at the destination.


8) While it's a nice concept, giving a passenger a reduced fare for double occupancy based on whether or not their weight is a result of overeating or medical causes would open up a huge can of worms. With people already having to check in way early for extra security screenings, provide IDs and such, do you really now want the ticket and gate agents to have to take the extra time to review medical documents for overweight passengers? As an overweight passenger, would *you* want to have to discuss your medical history with an airline employee? No? Then how is the airline supposed to determine the cause of a passenger's obesity? Simply telling the airline isn't good enough. Why? Because then, all of a sudden, allllllll of the overweight people claim that they have a bona fide medical problem. Who is going to admit that they overate if it means that their double-occupancy rate will not be discounted? Plus, won't you have the overeaters trying to claim that their eating too much is a result of a food addiction which they'd argue is a medical disorder?


8) Muscular men with wide shoulders??? What, shoulders sooooo wide that they sprawl out into the space of the passengers on either side? Get real, James. Sometimes you bring an interesting argument into the mix....but not today. "lol"


9) The idea of possibly offering the second seat at a 25% discount sounds like the only reasonable idea offered thus far. However, a round trip coach ticket from Los Angeles to New York-JFK costs $637. With that rate, to get two seats with the 2nd at 25% off, the total is $1,115. A business class ticket on the same flight costs $1,037. On a slightly different itinerary from Los Angeles to New York-JFK with first class service on all connecting flights, the ticket is $1,042. Anyone see the problem here?


10) This bears repeating......on each flight, how many overweight passengers truly requiring two seats do you all think there will be?? Thankfully, this is not a super common experience. Some overweight people can fit into the seat and only need a seatbelt extender. Every once and a while you get that one who really should purchase two seats. That one passenger out of some 1,000+ is hardly a call for an airline making their seats bigger, adding an oversize row or creating "bench seating". That one passenger out of 1,000+ can purchase two seats or upgrade to business or first.


Again, I acknowledge that my post has been a bit cranky. I was cranky which I first read this thread two days ago and it's still making me cranky. It doesn't help that I've been awake all night. I don't see what the big deal is asking passgeners to purchase a second seat or upgrade if they cannot reasonably and *safely* fit into a regular one.


.....Kelly :)