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No, it is not the norm, it is the exception [...]

Here's a list of airlines that offer Premium Economy/Economy Plus.

Perhaps you should consider using those airlines.

Have a look at KLM, they are fairly priced and offer economy comfort for between 10-150 EUR depending on the flight.. Amsterdam->Los Angeles it was about 100 EUR extra, both ways, for economy comfort and on these flights it's *really* worth it.. Amsterdam->Stockholm it's somewhere around 15-25 EUR extra for a economy comfort.

There are airlines, specially on transatlantic flights, that offer couch+ seats with extra legroom, but the prices are abusive. Pay an extra $250 in an $800 flight (both ways) for an extra 15 centimetres? Hardly an option.

It's so much more you pay for.. It's not only 15 cm of legroom.. Some flights/seats have extra shoulder-room or extra space next to your seat where you can keep your hand luggage with whatever stuff you want.. People traveling here are usually frequent-fliers that wants a quiet flight where they can seep (on the long-hauls)... You get to board earlier so you get your hand luggage stowed before others.. You get to sit further in the front of the plane (more quiet).. You get to disembark before most other people.. This is useful if you have a short stop and don't want to run to the next airplane..

But on the other hand, if you don't want to pay for the extra service you don't get to complain... And you are not entitled to overflow 10% into your neighbors seat / leg-area..

To find the good seats check out:
https://www.seatguru.com/

I wish there was a rule that said "If you are wider than X you need to buy two seats". "If you are longer than X you are required to buy a economy comfort seat.".. And it should be illegal for the airline to not seat those people in anything else than what they purchased. (Ie to not affect other people).

According to seatguru.com (link: http://www.seatguru.com/airlin...), some of Delta's 737-800 fleet has USB power at every seat. The older version does not, but the airline is in the process of converting their 737-800 fleet to the newer configuration. First class and economy comfort seats have AC outlets; economy seats do not.

Again according to seatguru.com, Delta's 737-900ER fleet (link: http://www.seatguru.com/airlin...) does not have USB power anywhere, but has AC power outlets at every seat. Your experience suggests that their information is inaccurate.

According to seatguru.com (link: http://www.seatguru.com/airlin...), some of Delta's 737-800 fleet has USB power at every seat. The older version does not, but the airline is in the process of converting their 737-800 fleet to the newer configuration. First class and economy comfort seats have AC outlets; economy seats do not.

Again according to seatguru.com, Delta's 737-900ER fleet (link: http://www.seatguru.com/airlin...) does not have USB power anywhere, but has AC power outlets at every seat. Your experience suggests that their information is inaccurate.

(Hint: Boeing 737 doesn't even seat 140 people)

http://www.seatguru.com/airlin... 212 > 140

http://www.seatguru.com/

> dimensions of space aren't listed

Always available now at http://www.seatguru.com/

But personally (as a tall wide guy) I think a few "size bumps" for extra fees would be very welcome. For example, an extra $10 for an extra inch of legroom, and another $10 for an additional inch of width. The fact is space is money, and small children and petite woman fit JUST FINE in the smallest seats and should get a price break for it.

If you want more legroom and the bulkhead seating is taken, arrive for your flight early and ask to be moved to an emergency exit row. In the U.S. at least, the airlines are not allowed to assign people to this row until the agent can visually confirm that the person is fit and capable of opening and lifting the emergency exit door (weighs about 35-50 lbs). The seats don't recline, but you'll get tons of legroom as they're spaced far enough apart to make an aisle for people to exit the aircraft through.

It's usually the seats in front of the exit row that don't recline, not the seats in the exit row. Looking at this as an example, row 11 is the exit row and reclines. Row 10 doesn't, as you wouldn't want reclined seats getting in the way of getting out of the plane in an emergency.

(The best seat on those airplanes, IMHO, is 12F...tons of legroom.)

Yah, http://www.seatguru.com/ has more detailed information like seat pitch for each airline and model of plane. The information isn't 100% accurate but it points in the right direction.

As another person that is in the 2 STD deviations height category, I 100% agree with everything you say.

What I have found is that some airlines are much more receptive to helping out tall guys. Mostly the ones that don't use bulkhead and exit row as perks for their frequent flyers. Avoid airlines that think making a small portion of the population happy is more important than good customer service.

Secondly, I gift you

http://www.seatguru.com/charts/shorthaul_economy.php

Every airline except Southwest (and, apparently, US Air?) does this. The implementation varies slightly; United boards "outside-in" so you don't have window-seat passengers climbing over aisle-seat passengers; Delta obfuscates things with "zones" optimized for the particular aircraft's layout.

http://www.seatguru.com/articles/boarding_procedures.php

The problem, in my experience, is that passengers in the USA don't follow directions. Some people rush up as soon as their assignment is called so they can hog the overhead compartments; some people dawdle because they don't want to have to sit in the tiny seat for anther twenty minutes while everyone else boards. And the last thing the boarding agents want is to have to order people around like a field marshall.

The manufacturers don't control the seats - the airlines do. Both Boeing and Airbus try to choose cabin widths which maximize the width of each seat, while not quite providing enough room for the airlines to squeeze in an extra seat. But they can't do anything if an airline chooses to forgo 2-4-2 seating (8 across), shrinks the aisles and seat widths, and makes it 3-3-3 seating (9 across).

The manufacturers don't control the seats - the airlines do. Both Boeing and Airbus try to choose cabin widths which maximize the width of each seat, while not quite providing enough room for the airlines to squeeze in an extra seat. But they can't do anything if an airline chooses to forgo 2-4-2 seating (8 across), shrinks the aisles and seat widths, and makes it 3-3-3 seating (9 across).

In service, Concorde made plenty of profit for British Airways (no idea about Air France)

Concorde as a plane made a profit. As an aircraft model, it did not. The problem was its huge operating cost for a trans-Atlantic flight (somewhere between $1500-$2500 per passenger - if the crash hadn't killed it, the spike in fuel prices in 2007-2008 would have). That meant your clientele were only a thin sliver of the overall market, and most of them were concentrated on a few routes (between major economic centers, or an economic center and major resort destination). On top of that, a few planes completely saturated your market on a route. That's fine if you're the only carrier which flies the plane on one of those golden routes. But if you were hoping to sell hundreds of the planes to recoup the billions of pounds/francs spent developing the aircraft, you're totally screwed.

Yeah if you got one of the $100 HP Touchpads during its closeout sale, it was hugely profitable for you. But the fact that HP never recouped its huge investment in developing the device means it was a financial failure.

and the clientele that flew on it loved it - it had a smooth, quiet ride and engine noise was not an issue for those in the cabin (the engines are set back toward the very end of the cabin and some distance from the fuselage, not to mention underneath a wing).

Concorde seat width was 17.8". Most economy class seats are 17"-18". Seat pitch was 37" which is slightly better than the 31"-34" norm for economy, but not by much. You basically paid first class price for an economy-plus class seat. But the service, speed, and experience were top-notch. I'm sad I never got a chance to fly it, but don't kid yourself - it simply wasn't economically competitive with regular air travel.

I cannot do that, because as United proves "economy plus" means 2 inches more leg room on a plane too old to have any in flight entertainment, worse than average food and flights that never take off on time.

It used to mean 5. I think they made up for it by shrinking the regular seats by 3 inches.

From http://www.seatguru.com/ :

American Airlines: 31" seat pitch is standard
US Airways: 30-32" seat pitch
Virgin Atlantic: 31-32" seat pitch is standard (just to preempt the 'omg non-US airlines are better')
Southwest: 32-33" seat pitch
United: 31" standard, 34-36" for economy+. The vast majority of the mainline fleet is 36" pitch in E+, with the notable exception of the 747 which is 34".

Thus most of the time, you are in fact getting 4-5" extra legroom in Economy Plus, and no the 'Economy Minus' seats are no worse than other legacy (and international) carriers. Yes, if you go Southwest, you can get 1-2" over legacy carriers, but no where near the gain of Economy Plus. (Also note that Southwest ONLY has 17" wide seats -- about 50% of United's fleet is 18" wide seats).

3-5" extra inches of legroom combined with a company who will only pay for coach worldwide, is why this 6'4" traveler is usually on United. (Also note that Delta just announced they are copying this concept fleet-wide)

RIM's "app store" has as its lead product something for getting sports news. Wrong answer.

They should be focusing on being a really good business tool, and having applications for business users. Some examples:

• GetMeThere - a travel application for executives. You want to get somewhere, it figures out how and makes all the arrangements. It knows where you are, it knows your company travel policies, it knows your frequent flyer information, it knows your preferences, it knows about travel delays, and it knows how to talk to all the reservation systems. Including NetJets. The iPhone travel applications have all that data, but are too dumb to put it together.
• ExceptionMonitor This ties in with corporate systems to report exceptions. If something was supposed to ship by Thursday, and it didn't, you get an alert. Monitors key ratios for your business while you're out of town, too.
• BackgroundCheck Check out a company or an individual. Connects to Dun and Bradstreet, Hoovers, corporate registration information, criminal records, etc.

That's what executives need, not Angry Birds.

Not in Economy on any of the international flights I've been on.

A number of airlines actually do have limited in-flight power in economy these days, such as Delta and Continental. A good website for finding out which airlines have this feature on which equipment is SeatGuru.

AA 737-800 shows that certain seats (like the back 3 rows) have reduced hip and shoulder room (though the stock chart does not show the seating width difference). The Emerg Exit seats also seem more crammed. The front seats seem more spacious (both in leg room and width).

There are others at that site as well... but it takes some digging.

Sure... look at the seats.

In the ones near me (as well as ones I've been to in Baltimore), you will find some of the end seats are larger and/or there is a front row or three with larger seating.

In one particular one I've been to, the size difference was almost unnoticeable to the naked eye, but I knew the theater owner and he was talking about some of the issues he had to go through in re-upholstering the seats and pointed them out to me. I'd never noticed before. When I sat in the wide seats and the normal/narrower seats I did notice the difference (when I tried putting my arms and elbows by my side). In the wider seats, I could do so without feeling crammed in them. In the narrower seats, my arms were pressed against the arm rests. In that theater, it seemed the end seats were larger.

In the multiplex up the road from me, the front rows have larger seats (the lowest one in the tiered seating area right behind the rail - as well as the row on the "floor" section in front of the rail. Possibly others, but I did not make a study of it.

Theater seats seem to come in 19" to 26" widths. Presumably many theaters simply choose one size, while others choose multiple sizes depending on layout or willingness to accomodate larger customers.

Interestingly, I worked at a movie theater in the past too (a Lowes), and never noticed it at all until the theater owner in Baltimore pointed it out to me.

For airlines, an example is this link: AA 737-800 shows that certain seats (like the back 3 rows) have reduced hip and shoulder room (though the stock chart does not show the seating width difference).

It's a solved problem. I flew Northwest from Portland to Tokyo, an A330-300, pretty regularly between mid-2005 and mid-2008. 120V, 60 Hz was available in coach class forward of row 21, and throughout business and first. Seat Guru is your friend here. Sadly, after the Delta acquisition they moved the A330 elsewhere and replaced it with a ridden-hard-and-put-up-wet 767. At least I don't have to make the trip any more, I'd probably be bored senseless.

If you fly to Australia (presumably from the U.S. and not from NZ or something) and need your laptop the whole time, invest in an airline power adaptor and check to see if your airline has connectors here. Or you know... buy a different laptop.

According to the site that you linked:

[...]because of the limited amount of power draw per seat, it is possible that your laptop won't get enough power to both operate and charge. Some airlines, like Continental Airlines, specifically state that battery charging is not allowed and ask you to remove your rechargeable battery from your device.

So if you plan to use the laptop on flights, buying a different laptop certainly seems like the way to go, here. Then again, if you plan to use a laptop on an airplane, you probably aren't looking at a 17" model, anyway. ;-)

If you fly to Australia (presumably from the U.S. and not from NZ or something) and need your laptop the whole time, invest in an airline power adaptor and check to see if your airline has connectors here. Or you know... buy a different laptop.

But they *do*. It's called first class! I know people who *do* pamper themselves when flying to their vacations, and it's a wonderful way to fly - but it's not for everyone, or indeed even a large portion of the traveling public.

I fly long distance (London->Beijing, London->Dallas, about ten hours for either trip) quite frequently, and usually go British Airways. The BA long-haul planes are usually 777s, and carry four classes:

• Economy (a.k.a. cattle car class); three rows of three seats. They're very narrow, but there's a surprising amount of legroom, far more than in short-haul flights. Can be very cheap (£300 return from Heathrow to Dallas!).
• Premium economy (a.k.a. business class lite); 2-4-2 rows. Wider seats, possibly a bit more legroom, and best of all there's actually a bit more space between you and your unwashed neighbour so you don't actually have to make skin contact if you don't want to. This is tailored to business budgets, so it's more expensive than economy but not overly so.
• Club World (a.k.a. pod people class). Lie flat beds in your own little cubicle! I got into one once, via a free upgrade, and they're fantastic. The bed is powered and turns into a comfortable chair. You sit head-to-feet with your neighbour, but there's a privacy screen so you never have to talk to them. Decent food, a menu, real crockery, etc. The price is scary.
• First Class (a.k.a. I don't know anyone that rich class). I don't know what these are like, they don't let people like me into that part of the plane. I assume it's similar to Club World but more so. The price is similar to those long numbers written on the back of your stereo.

Food and alcohol is free in all classes, and in fact these days, even in economy the food is pretty good. Snacks, drinks etc can be had for the asking; they encourage you to go to the galley rather than ring for a steward. Personal TVs all round, laptop power everywhere but economy. What's best, the staff have always been uniformly friendly and polite to me --- although it helps that I've flown enough to know how everything works and so know how to behave so I don't make their lives harder.

BTW, if you're ever travelling long haul, go visit seatguru.com. It'll tell you everything you ever need to know about where the best seats are. (On these 777s, you want the front row premium economy seats. Extra legroom and storage and you can get out without climbing over your neighbour! Pity that these days they send me out economy class...)

But it's not like airlines really advertise amenities. When I search for a flight, I get a list of departure/arrival times and prices. Maybe I'll see what kind of plane I'm flying on so I can go to a third-party site to see which seats are good. United had some of their economy seats spaced out more for better leg room for a while, but I never saw anything about which flights had that and which didn't.

Before you book your international tickets, just checkout:

http://www.seatguru.com/

and select a seat with Power. Most modern planes flying
international routes (777 Airbus) are full of them). Getting a cheap
adapter sure beats lugging along an extra battery if it were
easily replaced (which it actually is).

Looks like Apple made a wise choice for the movers and shakers
comprising the "jet set" ( knowledgeable ones, that is).

Is it really that hard to use a site like SeatGuru to figure out in advance which seats have power, and choose only from those seats?

I know this won't help you in your case, but American Airlines MD-80's (a fairly old aircraft) have power adapters in coach under the seats. When you book your next flight, check out Seat Guru and it will tell you if a particular aircraft has power adapters.

I said the general consensus but I admit it's a lot of conjecture on the part of armchair CEO's:

"Bell said she expects the airline to start charging for "A" boarding passes itself.

I read the article you linked...for her part at least, it sounds like sour grapes at having been caught doing something she shouldn't have been doing.

I flew Southwest out of San Antonio when they were testing the new boarding, and I really liked it.

From what I've heard about it, it sounds like it'll be a Good Thing...good to know that theory and practice are more alike than not.

(I prefer a window seat as far front as possible.)

As long as you're not trying to score an exit-row seat when I'm flying, it's all good. (Seat 11C FTW! :-) )

> 0. Dress properly. Leave the metal and piercings at home; you'll just make your security check worse.

Absolutely. And put keys, etc. in your carry on bag as you're coming up to the front of the security line. But keep your wallet in your pants!

> 1. Travel light. If you're crossing the ocean for two weeks, plan to use a laundry.

Looks like a cool site, and I haven't seen it before. Thanks for passing it along (although it seems to be geared toward the non-business traveler).

> 2. Avoid connections. If at all possible, drive to a hub airport.

I don't know about this. Starting your trip at a hub airport means dealing with big airport security and long treks to your gate. It also means expensive long-term parking which is probably off-site. All this to avoid a connection?

> 3. Planeside check on your outward trip. This ensures the baggage
> monkeys don't lose your luggage.

Agree, agree, agree! They will lose your baggage if you fly frequently at all. It is a near certainty!

> 4. Check your heavy baggage on the return trip. Barcode scanners
> track everything in a database in Atlanta. Airlines don't
> actually lose your luggage, they just misroute it. On the way home
> that's a benefit: You don't have to carry your bags to your car!
> They'll deliver to your home, eventually.

Well, if they don't lose your bags, then you have to wait 30+ minutes to get your bags. And if you drove to a hub airport, you're gonna have a long ride after that. I don't know about you, but after traveling I just want to get home. I'd rather just carry on and go straight to my car.

> 5. Eat a good breakfast. You're not getting fed on the plane unless
> you're crossing an ocean.

This really isn't true. Pick your airline right and have a flight of sufficient length (> 2 hrs or so) during a meal time, and you will get at least a cold meal in coach and a hot meal in first. Specifically, I fly CO twice a week and this is exactly what you get.

>6. Bring your own entertainment -- a book, videogame, etc. Unless
> you're crossing the ocean on one of those new 767s with the cool
> Linux personal entertainment system, you're going to be on your
> own. On most flights, even if they're showing a movie, you won't be
> able to see it.

Again, this really isn't true. This totally depends on what equipment you are on. If you care about this, pick your flight carefully so that you are on one of the higher 73x's or any of the 757's on a decent airline.

> 7. Noise-suppression headphones really do work.

Or earplugs. I carry musicians earplugs every time I fly. I don't care about the engine noise (as long as it's a jet -- I do get stuck on prop planes for shorter hops occasionally), but the first time you get stuck on a plane with a crying baby or a barking dog, you will understand.

> 8. Book early, book online, and select an exit-row seat. Legroom
> and laptop space will be adequate for a change.

In general this is good advice. However, it is not a hard fast rule. On a CRJ (Delta Connection, some Continental Connection, Northwest Airlink, etc.), the exit row is the worst seat on the plane. No additional legroom and less padding on the seat. On the mainliners with two consecutive exit rows (eg, 73x's), the first exit row does not recline due to the exit row behind it. Also, most airlines will NOT allow you to select the exit row seat at the time of ticketing (unless, perhaps, if you have elite status). You will have to wait until check-in, so that means you want to check-in online as soon as you can, which is usually 24 hrs in advance of your flight.

Often you are better off with the bulkhead seats (for example, the first coach row). Even this, though, is not a hard fast rule. Seatguru is your friend: http://www.seatguru.com/

Maybe you should try a bit harder to pick your flights & airlines. American Airlines has seat power on all of its airplanes.

This should help:
http://www.seatguru.com/

Google knows everything.

Coach seat pitch and width by airline and airplane model:
http://www.seatguru.com/charts/domestic_economy.ph p
http://www.seatguru.com/charts/intl_economy.php

And several airlines also offer "Premium Economy" where for an extra cost you can sit where the seats are a few inches further apart:
http://www.seatguru.com/charts/premium_economy.php

Google knows everything.

Coach seat pitch and width by airline and airplane model:
http://www.seatguru.com/charts/domestic_economy.ph p
http://www.seatguru.com/charts/intl_economy.php

And several airlines also offer "Premium Economy" where for an extra cost you can sit where the seats are a few inches further apart:
http://www.seatguru.com/charts/premium_economy.php

Google knows everything.

Coach seat pitch and width by airline and airplane model:
http://www.seatguru.com/charts/domestic_economy.ph p
http://www.seatguru.com/charts/intl_economy.php

And several airlines also offer "Premium Economy" where for an extra cost you can sit where the seats are a few inches further apart:
http://www.seatguru.com/charts/premium_economy.php

American Airlines has power adapters (9v cig type) on almost all of their aircraft. I've personally used them on 767, 757, 737, and MD80 aircraft. They tend to be in only every 3rd row in coach, so you need to be aware of your seat assignment ahead of time. Websites like seatguru.com can help with that. Business and First have them in every seat.

You can find out what each airline offers at http://seatguru.com/articles/in-seat_laptop_power. php

The aircraft power supply is usually restricted to 75 watts which is a problem for MacBook Pro and many powerful 17" PC laptops which need more than that.

It wasn't terribly fast, but once I read that it'd be available, I charged up a few extra batteries for my flight from Chicago to Copenhagen (SAS Airlines).

Also keep in mind that most airlines have power outlets in their higher-class seats. Some even have them in every seat. Check out http://www.seatguru.com/ to see the ammenities in various airlines' planes.

I even used a softphone (Cisco IP Communicator) and made a phone call from the flight! Sure, there was about a second of lag, but people around me were pretty amazed (even an SAS pilot sitting next to me - he had never seen such a thing..).

I paid the $30 for 8 hours of service and would gladly do it again.

If I couldn't get a exit row there I always ask again at the gate counter as they often hold them back. The odds I'll enjoy that extra foot or so of space are much higher than the odds I'll need to operate the escape hatch...

"None of the seats are super comfortable and none are worse than others"

Not quite: http://www.seatguru.com/airlines/Northwest_Airline s/Northwest_Airlines_Boeing_757-200_A.php

SeatGuru indicates that many airline planes do have power outlets of some form for some seats. The site even shows you which seats are the ones with power outlets, and what kind of outlet it is.

If you need to know, check Seatguru.com They list the planes by carrier, and your itinerary should note the plane type. Some offer 12DC and others have 120AC, while some have none at all.

Seems to me, that at least 4 years ago Lufthansa was rather at the top in terms of leg room...

A lot has happened in 4 years, and most of it has been various flavors of European airlines going downhill under intense price pressure from the LCCs. I don't think LH has any planes with 34" seat pitch anymore. You're lucky if you get 32". Check SeatGuru for up-to-date info.

If you really care check out seatguru for maps of the seating on a number of major airlines, including the locations of power ports.

Note that they are generally DC ports like the ones in a car so you'll most likely need a car adapter or a seperate inverter to use them.

http://www.seatguru.com/ will hook you up with that info. You just need to know what type of plane you're taking.

I travel alot for work, and have a Dell C840 as my main PC at work. Here's some of my essentials:

1) Stickers all over the lid! (From thinkgeek, of course). This makes it more recognizable from all the other "dudes who got a Dell" at airport security. I imagine it also deters thiefs since it doesn't look as attractive

2) A good backpack/case. Targus makes some nice ones. Make sure it has good padding and sensible pockets. If you can run with it comfortably (Chicago terminals!), all the better.

3) Bunches of power adaptors! I have one on my dock at work, one on my dock at home, one in my bag for travel at a moments' notice and a Targus airline multi-adaptor. Use SeatGuru to determine which seats have power on your flight.

4) AV port cable. Has S-Video and RCAs

5) Headphone splitter. It's nice to share your DVDs with a travel partner or whomever may be sitting next to you on a flight

6) Crossover cable (short), Patch cable (long! for hotel rooms with crappy desks), wireless ethernet card.

7) USB keychain. Go big or go home.

8) At least 2 batteries, but that does make it heavy. I need 2 for transcon flights.

9) USB PDA Charger and sync cable. Power your PDA thru the USB slot! Brando has some cheap ones.

10) Media wallet with backups of essential software and essential personal backups. In the event of catastrophic failure on the road, could you buy a new HDD and rebuild your PC in time for that technology demo the next day? It's happened...

11) Notepad and pens. For when you have to go analog.

12) Travel mouse. They're great on flights, even though I prefer the keyboard

13) Small gamepad for playing MAME. Always a great conversation piece too!