3 Recent Flights Make Unscheduled Landings, After Disputes Over Knee Room

The AP reports that American airplane passengers, squeezed by increasingly tight seating aboard planes, are lashing out, actually getting into in-flight fights over knee room: Three U.S. flights have made unscheduled landings in the past eight days after passengers got into fights over the ability to recline their seats. Disputes over a tiny bit of personal space might seem petty, but for passengers whose knees are already banging into tray tables, every bit counts. ... Southwest and United both took away 1 inch from each row on certain jets to make room for six more seats. American is increasing the number of seats on its Boeing 737-800s from 150 to 160. Delta installed new, smaller toilets in its 737-900s, enabling it to squeeze in an extra four seats. And to make room for a first-class cabin with lie-flat beds on transcontinental flights, JetBlue cut the distance between coach seats by one inch.

Comments

This happened to me

[DNS-and-BIND]

I was on a transoceanic flight, and the lady behind me kept knocking her knees into my chair. I looked behind me, and she's not only like 6'2", but she has her knees directly in front of her so as to present the greatest obstacle possible. No, can't put your knees in any other position, that would be too easy. We have to recline our seat while preventing the person in front of us from doing the same with his. I repeat: this lady had her knees out in front of her in the most obstructive possible position when she could have chosen to put them any other way. She knew damn well she was hitting the back of my chair.

It's people problem. Inconsiderate assholes who can't put themselves in other peoples' shoes - and get really self-righteous about it.

Bill by weight

[sjbe]

Think of is this way: you can buy a "standard seat" ticket for $350, or an "I don't care how you torture me just give me the cheapest price" ticket for $300.

Or you can be a decent human being and accommodate those customers who are a little bit physically different for no extra money. It's not like there are a huge number of people 2 meters tall. There is a difference between being cheap and not having any reasonable options available at all. If you really want to be a bastard capitalist about it you should weigh every passenger with their luggage before they board and charge by weight because that has a MUCH bigger impact on airline costs than some modest legroom accommodations for unusually tall passengers. Of course that will never happen but it's actually the most reflective means of allocating cost to what the airline's actual cost per passenger is.

Not everything has to be about maximizing short term profit for the airline. The small amount for marginal revenue forgone by an airline making special arrangements for tall passengers would be probably more than made up for by customer loyalty.