Quote:
Originally Posted by Low C Sharp
Also, it's not about the amount space the airline has arbitrarily decided we "deserve" -- it's about the amount of space that they offered for sale and that we agreed to purchase. If you want more than what is on offer, pay more. No other consumer product is discounted on the basis of need.* I just don't agree that any customer has the right to fly at the very cheap prices we've gotten used to in the 2000s. 30 years ago, we transacted plenty of business and people got to their mother's deathbeds just fine even though flights were far more expensive. In real dollars, two seats on Southwest today is cheaper than one seat on TWA in 1980. We all got by.
*If you live in a snowy rural area and you need 4WD on your truck, the dealer doesn't give you that upgrade for free because you need it, while it would just be a luxury for city dwellers. Sometimes our needs just cost more, and we can't expect merchants to eat that extra cost for us.
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I believe this issue goes along with my suggestion to use (modified) bench seats instead of bucket seats on planes. Several times in this thread, people have mentioned that we're paying for a seat when we purchase a ticket. However, that's not entirely true.
What we're paying for is transportation from point a to point b. If we were really paying for the space we use, people with larger carry-ons would pay more than people carrying, say, a purse only. People in business/first class aren't paying directly for space either. They're paying for comfort and convenience.
The seating space on the plane happens to be divided by bucket style seats, but there are other ways to arrange the space to provide a greater comfort level for all passengers, small and large.