Congress to act on shrinking airline seats

Wife is Jones'in to go spend some time in her house in Switzerland. A bitchen place to hang out but that miserable flight in that miserable seat is what holds me back. First class is the only way to fly there and it ain't cheap. About $30K+ by the time we roll back into our driveway at home.
I'll never bitch about a $100 Disneyland ticket again.


"SEAT Act: Congress set to finally push back against shrinking airline seats

Ethan Wolff-Mann 18 hours ago


"Ann Coulter learns airline seats aren't promised, even if you paid extra

As most people who've flown in an airplane have probably noticed, cabin seats have been shrinking over the past few decades. Since the 1970s, the average economy seat pitch the distance between the seats has shrunk from 35 inches to 31 inches, further pressurizing cabins and passengers tempers.

This has allowed airlines to squeeze more seats in, or to make more room for larger seats they can sell at a premium. Today, travelers need to purchase premium economy seats for the same amount of legroom they used to get with the old economy.

And it's getting worse: In May American Airlines (AAL) said it would be shaving two inches of legroom in economy class, going from 31 to 29. Public blowback led the airline to partially reverse its decision and only cut one inch from most rows.

But passengers knees, legs, and elbows are on track to get a reprieve thanks to the dogged efforts of one member of Congress, Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN).

Cohen is finally looking at a win in his third year waging war against shrinking seats, having steered a version of his Safe Egress in Air Travel (SEAT) Act into the FAA reauthorization bill as an amendment, after failing numerous times. (The FAAs budget and mandate must be authorized regularly.) The amendment would ask the FAA to study evacuations and issue regulations for minimum safe-seat sizes.

The bill is on the Houses agenda for a vote this week."
-Yahoo News

Hilarious.

People vote for the seats they want with ticket prices.
Buy a cheap ass seat- get a miserable flight.
As cattle cars become more and more popular more and more airlines go that way.

Congress can't and should not do shit about this, its all consumer choice.


UD

Uncle Dave said:

Hilarious.

People vote for the seats they want with ticket prices.
Buy a cheap ass seat- get a miserable flight.
As cattle cars become more and more popular more and more airlines go that way.

Congress can't and should not do shit about this, its all consumer choice.


UD

Click to expand...

Not to mention .gov doesn't belong in the pockets of businesses however these businesses should never be begging at the feet of .gov when they place themselves in financial ruination. Eventually these airlines will realize that as they continue to attempt to over full their "cattle cars" people will continue to decline to fly and purchase these seats, and they will be stuck with the choice to again remodel the passenger compartments, to leave room for regular sized people.

My biggest complaint tho is the separate charge for baggage, I'd rather just pay the extra 50$ for the actual seat 💺 then see the charge just for my 💼

02HoWaRd26 said:

Not to mention .gov doesn't belong in the pockets of businesses however these businesses should never be begging at the feet of .gov when they place themselves in financial ruination. Eventually these airlines will realize that as they continue to attempt to over full their "cattle cars" people will continue to decline to fly and purchase these seats, and they will be stuck with the choice to again remodel the passenger compartments, to leave room for regular sized people.

My biggest complaint tho is the separate charge for baggage, I'd rather just pay the extra 50$ for the actual seat  then see the charge just for my 

Click to expand...

Gov has been deep in our pockets since that bolshevik FDR jammed min wage down our throats dictating what I pay for a kid to mop the shop.

I have no problem with baggage charges as a flyer because if I choose to only bring a carry on I only want to pay for that and not subsidize others baggage, but I get the premise of being negatively surprised at check in time.


UD

I'm a big person and already struggle with leg room. Fortunately I rarely fly for business anymore. Airlines to me are their own worst enemies in much of this and I don't think the government should have to force them into making common sense decisions.

Government has no business dictating seat size, this is literally the definition of 'big government'. It is up to the airlines how they can price the seats, and what people are willing to pay for..... Airline tickets have become cheap as hell, you are basically riding public transit unless you want to pony up for the good seats. And to be honest, even regular Southwest, Frontier, Spirit, etc regular seats aren't all that bad for domestic travel.

My seats to New Zealand from a couple months ago, makes the 12 hour flight much more enjoyable



:thumbsup

Southwest actually has the longest seat pitch (distance between the seat in front you and the seat back you sitting in) of any domestic airline. Frontier and Spirit the smallest.

I avoid Frontier and Spirit at all costs since they are down in the 27-28" pitch range. That is just about the length of an average height persons thigh.

American actually backed away from smaller seat pitch when word got out and won't go below 30". The old MD80s are getting phased out and they had the most at between 32-33" pitch in coach.

But Congress has much more important things to do...

I refuse to fly on airlines that have small seating.

The problem with all this shit is if we let them fuck it up themselves, we pay for the bailout.

If we dictate to them some basic rules so they won't fuck themselves up it's gov overreach and they will claim to have to charge more to cover costs...

Never mind the fact that they plead poor but made record profits last year.

Racey said:

Government has no business dictating seat size, this is literally the definition of 'big government'. It is up to the airlines how they can price the seats, and what people are willing to pay for..... Airline tickets have become cheap as hell, you are basically riding public transit unless you want to pony up for the good seats. And to be honest, even regular Southwest, Frontier, Spirit, etc regular seats aren't all that bad for domestic travel.

My seats to New Zealand from a couple months ago, makes the 12 hour flight much more enjoyable

View attachment 575317

:thumbsup

Click to expand...

People bitching about seat size is for me the same as people bitching about losing their manufacturing job or textile job and pounding the table for tariffs while they shop at Walmart and then buy a Trump tie or an Ivanka shoe.......

Uncle Dave said:

Hilarious.

People vote for the seats they want with ticket prices.
Buy a cheap ass seat- get a miserable flight.
As cattle cars become more and more popular more and more airlines go that way.

Congress can't and should not do shit about this, its all consumer choice.


UD

Click to expand...

I will say this. I'm 6'4. I have an in seem of 36 inches. I haven't fit in an airline seat in 8 years. So I don't fly.

I'm sure Congress exempts themselves from traveling in Coach. lol

Sucks to be tall and flying in coach. But I will do it to get somewhere tropical.

530RL said:

People bitching about seat size is for me the same as people bitching about losing their manufacturing job or textile job and pounding the table for tariffs while they shop at Walmart and then buy a Trump tie or an Ivanka shoe.......

Click to expand...

Pretty much Logical consistency is a motherfucker

530RL said:

People bitching about seat size is for me the same as people bitching about losing their manufacturing job or textile job and pounding the table for tariffs while they shop at Walmart and then buy a Trump tie or an Ivanka shoe.......

Click to expand...

530 this where I dont understand you..

you act as if its no big deal... like a fly buzzing by your face... an annoyance...

why not do all you can to keep manufacturing jobs here...

Im against tariffs, but try and make a somewhat business friendly environment here???

Just like Kalifornia , they are even going after the service sector???

so we will just have a bunch of Zuckenbergs inventing internet crap and Starbucks on every corner...

I dont buy that everything is automated crap either...

then you know what set up those automated plants here, it still leaves the income and jobs here in the states...

I believe if we cut enough in alot of the beaurocratis bullshit (spelling off) and with on time delivery,inventory control and service our country can out do others...