If you're on a flight -- especially a long one -- a coach class seat can be a chair of torture.
It doesn't take much these days to ruin a perfectly good airplane ride, CNN.com readers have made clear. It's a real buzzkill to try to walk down the aisle "with a bag on your shoulder, hitting everyone as you pass by," suggests user "Cajuncatdude." Commenter "Rosemeow" writes, "It's bad enough that about a quarter of the time, I have an obese person sitting next to me (sometimes on both sides) who doesn't fit into their own seat, crushing me."
And "MrsColumbo" complains about "people who don't even try to stand up without grabbing on to the seat in front and pulling themselves up. What is with that?"
Scoring a good airline seatFor something as seemingly simple as stuffing rear ends between two armrests inside a flying metal tube, it kind of feels like there's some anger up there.
nd things could get even more heated. Changes are happening now, as major U.S. carriers look for new ways to pump up profits by either adding to or reducing the number of coach seats, increasing legroom or cutting the distance between rows.
You might call it a game of aeronautical chairs that will directly affect passenger comfort, convenience and cost.
Two experts with inside knowledge of the airline seat industry-- a vice president at a seat manufacturer and a nationally recognized expert in the study of body measurements -- recently talked frankly about some of the reasons behind the anger and discomfort.
Are the seats getting smaller? Closer together? Are passengers getting bigger? Are we getting angrier?
Well, no. Yes. Yes. And it's unclear.
It doesn't take much these days to ruin a perfectly good airplane ride, CNN.com readers have made clear. It's a real buzzkill to try to walk down the aisle "with a bag on your shoulder, hitting everyone as you pass by," suggests user "Cajuncatdude." Commenter "Rosemeow" writes, "It's bad enough that about a quarter of the time, I have an obese person sitting next to me (sometimes on both sides) who doesn't fit into their own seat, crushing me."
And "MrsColumbo" complains about "people who don't even try to stand up without grabbing on to the seat in front and pulling themselves up. What is with that?"
Scoring a good airline seatFor something as seemingly simple as stuffing rear ends between two armrests inside a flying metal tube, it kind of feels like there's some anger up there.
nd things could get even more heated. Changes are happening now, as major U.S. carriers look for new ways to pump up profits by either adding to or reducing the number of coach seats, increasing legroom or cutting the distance between rows.
You might call it a game of aeronautical chairs that will directly affect passenger comfort, convenience and cost.
Two experts with inside knowledge of the airline seat industry-- a vice president at a seat manufacturer and a nationally recognized expert in the study of body measurements -- recently talked frankly about some of the reasons behind the anger and discomfort.
Are the seats getting smaller? Closer together? Are passengers getting bigger? Are we getting angrier?
Well, no. Yes. Yes. And it's unclear.