Originally Posted by
manintheback
Vanderaj - can you not see the contradiction of your own argument.
You fly lo-cost but want bigger seats and more comfort. How are the economics supposed to work?
I do not contradict myself. I am flying (by my choice) premium economy next week from YMML to LAX. I would fly premium economy or J class on the next leg to IAD if the code share carrier had such seats. 10 years ago the code share carrier would have had at least J class seats on the same exact flight. Unfortunately, it's single class and probably serviced by an old dilapidated plane and over-stressed / overworked flight attendants who will throw us fake peanuts and pour 40-50 mls of fake coke into a plastic cup containing mostly ice.
The modern airline industry is irreversibly changing from flag carriers to low cost airlines, and in the process removing choice from those like myself who can afford to pay for the room they need.
In Australia, despite my heavy patronage (irony, eh?), Qantas (on which I am a Gold FF and dang near Platinum) has withdrawn their two class domestic flights basically everywhere in favor of CityFlyer and Jet*, their loco arm.
So no matter how much I am willing to pay, I and many others simply cannot buy the room we need. I don't need seat pitch much beyond 30" between seats as I'm not that tall, but on some airlines, I don't even get that now. And cos I carry all my weight forward, it's tricky for me to get the tray down or use a laptop. I acknowledge that I'm fat, so I want the extra pitch to be comfortable doing things like everyone else.
10 years from now, folks taller than me will simply always associate airflight with extreme discomfort. I hope to be skinny by then, but the problem remains: humans are changing, and the seats have not. In many cases, things are worse in the name of economical cheap flights. I'm not against cheap flights as businesses deserve to make a reasonable profit, but I am against unreasonable seat sizes for the average human, and the lack of choice of wider / more seat pitch for those like me who are willing to pay that bit more for my comfort and that of other folks.
Andrew