Obese on airplanes

[Jolly]

Folks, let's solve the problem. Even for small folk, seats gave shrunk.

https://maphappy.org/this-is-how-small-airplane-seats-have-shrunk-over-the-years/

If the government can mandate how much room a dog gets, they should be able to regulate seat sizes. At some point, it's a safety issue.

[Mik]

Let's say you have a 120 coach seat airplane. You charge $300 a seat, raking in $36K. If you made them all two seat rows and sold them at $400 you'd net $32K, but you'd be saving a LOT of fuel, and you could take on more cargo. At $450 a seat you'd be breaking even. I don't think anyone would balk at another $100 to be comfortable.

[Horace]

If you wedge someone in tightly enough, it's like a de facto seat belt, so it's actually very safe. Similar to japanese joinery that uses no nails or glue.

[Axtremus]

@Horace said in Obese on airplanes:

If you wedge someone in tightly enough, it's like a de facto seat belt, so it's actually very safe. Similar to japanese joinery that uses no nails or glue.

The same principle applies to legroom too. Make the legroom small enough and you wedge the legs tightly between two rows of seats, securing the passengers to their seats like de facto seat belts.

[jon-nyc]

I’ve really welcomed the decade long trend to have extra legroom in coach for a fee. Same with premium economy on long haul flights. Really makes a difference for me.

[taiwan_girl]

Most of my miles are on United, and one thing that they did a few years ago was to go to a thinner cushion on the economy chairs. The inch or two width they saved on the cushion allowed them to add another row (or maybe two) of seats, even though they are now pretty uncomfortable.

[Axtremus]

Yes, better material science and better industrial design allow thinner chairs/cushions without sacrificing comfort while allowing more seats to be added to an aircraft. Personally I like the new, thinner chairs/cushions better than the thicker ones from, say, 20 years ago.

[taiwan_girl]

@Axtremus said in Obese on airplanes:

Yes, better material science and better industrial design allow thinner chairs/cushions without sacrificing comfort while allowing more seats to be added to an aircraft. Personally I like the new, thinner chairs/cushions better than the thicker ones from, say, 20 years ago.

I dont. For US domestic flight more than ~ 2 hours, I notice a difference (but maybe it is only me) in a bad way.

[Mik]

I don’t either. They are thinner up in front too.

[Copper]

@Copper said in Obese on airplanes:

If those are the upgraded seats, I wouldn't want to be in plain old coach.

I just received a refund from American Airlines.
The only explanation was:

Refund for: Preferred Seat
Refund amount: 28.76 USD

My guess is that they changed equipment and I got a seat that wasn't preferred. That might explain the not so great legroom.