5 ms·

The exit row window seat on my flight yesterday was pretty tight left to right. At some point airlines shrank the buffer space between the window and window sea

The exit row window seat on my flight yesterday was pretty tight left to right. At some point airlines shrank the buffer space between the window and window seat to zero, so there's no longer space for your arm on the window side. Squeezed between a full-sized adult on my right and the wall to my left was no way to spend four hours. tl;dr: Airlines need to stop shrinking the distance between seats on the same row.

magduf 7y ago
They probably shrank the buffer space because everyone was complaining about the seats being too narrow. Do you want buffer space, or a wider seat?
- technofiend 7y ago
  >Do you want buffer space, or a wider seat? Both. I want to go back to reasonable seat sizes even if costs go up because as it stands I'm choosing to fly less and less with the current seat pitch. In fact I did pay $100 out of pocket to upgrade my seat to economy plus and was lucky to snag a business row seat, or so I thought. It was in fact a miserably crowded experience.
  - magduf 7y ago
    The ticket prices back in the days of "reasonable seat sizes" were much more than your economy plus ticket cost. One of the big reasons flying is so affordable now is precisely because they can cram so many people in.
    - technofiend 7y ago
      What a difference an inch makes! Southwest happily competes with United with very similar pricing yet they have 32-33" seat pitches with some jets using 31" vs United running 32-31" pitches with some seats now down to 30". Weirdly it looks like Jet Blue has even larger pitches, peaking at 34". Since Jet Blue and Southwest are considered discount carriers vs United clearly pitch isn't exclusively about price. It's also about profit, particularly when Southwest also has wider seats than United. Seriously I'm glad we had this discussion because despite living in Houston I think I'll by flying Southwest in preference to United from now on. https://www.businessinsider.com/america-airline-legroom-guide-seat-pitch-2017-3#delta-air-lines-2 https://www.businessinsider.com/america-airline-legroom-guid...
      - magduf 7y ago
        I'm not talking about Southwest vs. some other American carrier in 2019, I'm talking about American carriers in general in 2019 vs. American carriers in 1985. They had more room back then, but ticket prices were much more than they are now, after adjusting for inflation.

magduf 7y ago

They probably shrank the buffer space because everyone was complaining about the seats being too narrow. Do you want buffer space, or a wider seat?

technofiend 7y ago
>Do you want buffer space, or a wider seat? Both. I want to go back to reasonable seat sizes even if costs go up because as it stands I'm choosing to fly less and less with the current seat pitch. In fact I did pay $100 out of pocket to upgrade my seat to economy plus and was lucky to snag a business row seat, or so I thought. It was in fact a miserably crowded experience.
- magduf 7y ago
  The ticket prices back in the days of "reasonable seat sizes" were much more than your economy plus ticket cost. One of the big reasons flying is so affordable now is precisely because they can cram so many people in.
  - technofiend 7y ago
    What a difference an inch makes! Southwest happily competes with United with very similar pricing yet they have 32-33" seat pitches with some jets using 31" vs United running 32-31" pitches with some seats now down to 30". Weirdly it looks like Jet Blue has even larger pitches, peaking at 34". Since Jet Blue and Southwest are considered discount carriers vs United clearly pitch isn't exclusively about price. It's also about profit, particularly when Southwest also has wider seats than United. Seriously I'm glad we had this discussion because despite living in Houston I think I'll by flying Southwest in preference to United from now on. https://www.businessinsider.com/america-airline-legroom-guide-seat-pitch-2017-3#delta-air-lines-2 https://www.businessinsider.com/america-airline-legroom-guid...
    - magduf 7y ago
      I'm not talking about Southwest vs. some other American carrier in 2019, I'm talking about American carriers in general in 2019 vs. American carriers in 1985. They had more room back then, but ticket prices were much more than they are now, after adjusting for inflation.