Well, that will eliminate at least 30-40% of Americans as potential passengers.

I always though that if that was your condition and flying coach two seats should be required. There has to be a "sweet spot" in coach that these carriers have not gotten to- meaning a little more width and length.

Seems reasonable to me. They spend a lot of money to make the plane safer for its passengers, and you wind up having some people so large (or so small) that the new safety features will not work.

I wish more airlines would limit the size of passengers. Spending 18 hours on a flight being squeezed by obese people that are too big for the standard seats is unfair punishment to normal-sized people.

People too large (or fat) to fit in normal seats should find a different mode of transportation.

BH63

Back in the 80's I was flying from Miami to Eleuthera. The plane was a twin engine Cessna. A fat guy tries to buy the last seat. The counter guy won't sell him the seat because he would put the plane overweight. Lots of yelling, but we flew with an empty seat.

Dave

142 cm, that's only 56 inches! Half of America wouldn't be able to fly.

The airlines drive the seat size not the aircraft manufacturers. They are always trying to find new ways to squeeze a few more into an airplane.

A few years back they asked the manufacturers if they could reduce the width of the sidewalls so they could fit one more seat into each row.

Airlines call each passenger carrying trip a "revenue flight" for a very good reason.

quote:

Originally posted by BuffHunter63:
Seems reasonable to me. They spend a lot of money to make the plane safer for its passengers, and you wind up having some people so large (or so small) that the new safety features will not work.

I wish more airlines would limit the size of passengers. Spending 18 hours on a flight being squeezed by obese people that are too big for the standard seats is unfair punishment to normal-sized people.

People too large (or fat) to fit in normal seats should find a different mode of transportation.

BH63

Or you could man up and buy a business class ticket.

Cougarz- What I poorly articulated is that with the growing sophistication of the traveling public it would seem the consumer would drive the evolution of the product. That demand for the "sardine" seating would drop and a carrier that hit that sweet spot would be in demand. We may be starting to see that with mini upgrades in space. Comfort Plus, etc.

quote:

Originally posted by crane:
Cougarz- What I poorly articulated is that with the growing sophistication of the traveling public it would seem the consumer would drive the evolution of the product. That demand for the "sardine" seating would drop and a carrier that hit that sweet spot would be in demand. We may be starting to see that with mini upgrades in space. Comfort Plus, etc.

The traveling public has in fact driven the evolution of the product. When you get on Kayak or Priceline ETC and choose the cheapest ticket you can find you are defining the customer experience that you are willing to pay for. And that is why the cheap seats are crammed into a fuselage sardine style. Cheap seats means airlines have to cram more of them into the available space to make money.


Emirates has the highest density seating in the entire airline industry on certain routes. They have over 400 seats (420 I belive it is) crammed into their 777’s on the India routes for instance. That is because they sell extremly cheap seats to and from India so that they can import and export cheap labor. Cheap fares equal lots of crappy seats.

Same goes for every other airline in the world. Not one single airline in the US is immune. The only airlines that can afford not to slam max density Econ seating into their aircraft are not for profit state run airlines. And those are getting to be rare.

I rode in Econ plus in a high density 777 from SFO to DEN the other day. It SUCKED, and that was in an aircraft with 360 seats, I can’t imagine what the 420 version would like to ride in for any time much less 6 to 10 hours.

The answer is, pay up and buy a good seat or suffer in Econ. That is truely what it’s come to. Airline travel sucks...And we’ve done it to ourselves.

quote:

Originally posted by crane:
Cougarz- What I poorly articulated is that with the growing sophistication of the traveling public it would seem the consumer would drive the evolution of the product. That demand for the "sardine" seating would drop and a carrier that hit that sweet spot would be in demand. We may be starting to see that with mini upgrades in space. Comfort Plus, etc.

Nice sentiment but surestrike pretty much nailed it.

Fact is everyone does want to fly as cheaply as possible so cattle class seating at least for now is here to stay.

Realistically airlines have very steep operating costs with fairly slim profit margins. Plus they operate in an environment that's constantly changing. If they guess wrong, they're gone. This isn't to say that the way they treat they're customers shouldn't improve.

Some of you guys are missing the point of the linked post. These seats for smaller people are all expensive business class seats.

No I get it. It’s not the seats it’s the airbag seat belts. Thai are a bunch of idiots for installing those before checking on the limited belt length. And as is typical of management of most large companies today their ready fire aim approach to managing is shining through.

quote:

Originally posted by Fjold:
142 cm, that's only 56 inches! Half of America wouldn't be able to fly.

I hope that is not true. I am old and fat, but my waist is 42 inches. I cant imagine too many guys over 50 inches.

Thai airlines has fallen in quality alot in the last 5 years, but still better than any USA carrier. My current choice is Korean Air or Cathay Pacific
These are not any larger seats, but service is good. Also, they dont have ugly old bad attitude hags for srewardesses like USA carriers. They are young, single and want to help you enjoy the flight.

In reality the seats in back that are jammed close together are not the big money maker for airlines.

In a three class, wide body jet about 60% of the passenger profit comes from the 60-100 Premium seats and about 40% comes from 250 or so economy seats.

But Cargo makes the biggest profit by far. That's why airlines are charging more for baggage, the fewer passenger bags on board the more high profit cargo they can carry.

quote:

Originally posted by buckeyeshooter:
Thai airlines has fallen in quality alot in the last 5 years, but still better than any USA carrier. My current choice is Korean Air or Cathay Pacific
These are not any larger seats, but service is good. Also, they dont have ugly old bad attitude hags for srewardesses like USA carriers. They are young, single and want to help you enjoy the flight.

KAL? Dude you have noticed that they have the highest accident rate in the world right? To be fair they have seemed to improve since Boeing threatened to stop selling them airplanes if they didn’t figure out how to stop crashing and killing people. Asian countries tend to produce the worlds most dangerous pilots. It has to do with a deep seated cultural overly respectful obedience to authority figures.

Some of the crap Singapore airlines has pulled recently is mind boggling!

I think one of the reasons economy flying has become so uncomfortable is so that more people will go ahead and pay the way overpriced business class fares.

The prices of business class have become insane.

A round trip fare from Denver to Bangkok might cost $1500.00 for economy and $7000.00 for business class.

The more miserable economy becomes, the more people who will bite the bullet and cough up the dough.

BH63

quote:

Originally posted by BuffHunter63:
I think one of the reasons economy flying has become so uncomfortable is so that more people will go ahead and pay the way overpriced business class fares.

The prices of business class have become insane.

A round trip fare from Denver to Bangkok might cost $1500.00 for economy and $7000.00 for business class.

The more miserable economy becomes, the more people who will bite the bullet and cough up the dough.

BH63

Not sure if it’s intentional or not. But it’s definitely a real world consequence of the cheap and miserable seats in the back.

How many of you want to be seated next to someone with a 56 inch waist? I wish that they would do this on all economy seats for all airlines.

Seems like every time I am stuck in a middle seat in economy, which is pretty often now days, I've got a sumo wrestler on either side of me!

quote:

Originally posted by surestrike:

quote:

Originally posted by buckeyeshooter:
Thai airlines has fallen in quality alot in the last 5 years, but still better than any USA carrier. My current choice is Korean Air or Cathay Pacific
These are not any larger seats, but service is good. Also, they dont have ugly old bad attitude hags for srewardesses like USA carriers. They are young, single and want to help you enjoy the flight.

KAL? Dude you have noticed that they have the highest accident rate in the world right? To be fair they have seemed to improve since Boeing threatened to stop selling them airplanes if they didn’t figure out how to stop crashing and killing people. Asian countries tend to produce the worlds most dangerous pilots. It has to do with a deep seated cultural overly respectful obedience to authority figures.

Some of the crap Singapore airlines has pulled recently is mind boggling!

I had no idea of the safety record. I looked at highest customer ratings and they were in the top 5 when I looked. I flew Qatar Air last flight to the USA and was very unimpressed they could not get my kosher meal request correct on even 1 leg of a 6 leg roundtrip with 3 months notice and a reminder call to customer service after each screwup along the way. I wont be flying them again.

quote:

Originally posted by buckeyeshooter:

quote:

Originally posted by surestrike:

quote:

Originally posted by buckeyeshooter:
Thai airlines has fallen in quality alot in the last 5 years, but still better than any USA carrier. My current choice is Korean Air or Cathay Pacific
These are not any larger seats, but service is good. Also, they dont have ugly old bad attitude hags for srewardesses like USA carriers. They are young, single and want to help you enjoy the flight.

KAL? Dude you have noticed that they have the highest accident rate in the world right? To be fair they have seemed to improve since Boeing threatened to stop selling them airplanes if they didn’t figure out how to stop crashing and killing people. Asian countries tend to produce the worlds most dangerous pilots. It has to do with a deep seated cultural overly respectful obedience to authority figures.

Some of the crap Singapore airlines has pulled recently is mind boggling!

I had no idea of the safety record. I looked at highest customer ratings and they were in the top 5 when I looked. I flew Qatar Air last flight to the USA and was very unimpressed they could not get my kosher meal request correct on even 1 leg of a 6 leg roundtrip with 3 months notice and a reminder call to customer service after each screwup along the way. I wont be flying them again.

Now that is shocking! An Arab run airline that can’t get a Kosher meal done correctly who’d a thunk it?

You reckon El Al serves halal meals? Just curious....

Well, if a religion has food restrictions, you would think out of respect an airline from a country that is mostly a religion that has those restrictions would understand its importance to the customer. I guess they figured USA passport, non Muslim... we get to screw 2 for 1, it's our lucky day. Like I said, wont be flying them again.

I wonder if you can special order pork ribs with freedom fries?

My guess is that would be a no.

quote:

Originally posted by buckeyeshooter:
Well, if a religion has food restrictions, you would think out of respect an airline from a country that is mostly a religion that has those restrictions would understand its importance to the customer. I guess they figured USA passport, non Muslim... we get to screw 2 for 1, it's our lucky day. Like I said, wont be flying them again.

With all due respect buckeye,

You are reading way to much into your assesment of why your meal wasn’t prepared correctly. It’s not personal, you just got caught up in the general incompetence of the organization. And I can just about guarantee you that not many Gulf State Islamic run airlines give two shits about preparing your Kosher meal correctly.

There are still countries in that region that will not let you enter if you have an old Israel issued security stamp in your passport. I’d go so far as to say that you are setting off some alarm bells by requesting a kosher meal on an Gulf State airline.