Think Legroom on Planes Is Bad Now? It’s Going to Get Worse | Hacker News Reader

Think Legroom on Planes Is Bad Now? It’s Going to Get Worse

bloomberg.com

19 pointsjaoued16 comments

Weird title- the story isn’t really about reduction in leg room (seat pitch) it’s reduction in seat width.

Cebu Pacific is getting A330 aircraft with a 3-3-3 configuration in economy, instead of the 2-4-2 configuration that most airlines use for that aircraft. The result is seats that are only 16.5” wide. I already find the 17.5” wide seats on the 787 to be very uncomfortable for long-haul flights, so I can’t imagine squeezing into 16.5” seats.

Which could work quite well since Asians have a smaller frame on average.

Is that really true? Smaller than whom?

I have large and small relatives on both sides of my family. And while my mother is quite small, her kids, nieces and nephews, none of whom spent their childhood in the middle of a war as she did, appear anecdotally to cluster around the global mean.

This shows height by country. I’m assuming the rest of the body is also proportional.

Canada and Philippines has a 10cm difference for males. That’s about 6%.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_average_human_height_w...

30in is the smallest seat pitch I can sit in, anything less is anatomically impossible for me. Removing bathrooms from planes is even more insane, what do passengers do, crap in the aisles? Open the door? I still imagine a future where people are stuffed into tubes at the top and dropped out the bottom.

Height is a two-edged sword.

Tall people have some advantages over short people. Short people have a few advantages, too. Plane legroom is one of them.

Only if you fly the absolute most budget carriers, though. Which fortunately I haven't done yet! (Unless EasyJet counts; does it?)

> Unless EasyJet counts

it does.

They didn't have all the extra bullshit fees that Ryannair does, at least. I got no hassle about my carry-on luggage and I could check in whenever. So I'd argue there's still a tier that's worse than EasyJet, which includes the Ryanairs of the world.

Though the overbooking experience I had with EasyJet was definitely pretty terrible and reeked of budget airline; I almost did not make it on the flight I bought a ticket for because it was overbooked. Other people definitely didn't make it.

Whats the status of all the grounded max planes?

Not surprising at all that Ryan Air is being mentioned, only had bad experiences with them. Also is legroom really one word?

It's kind of amusing to read this sort of headline in the current context. Feels like it's ten or twenty years out of date.

Flying is a colossal use of resources that in almost all cases is pure luxury.

Less legroom is a good thing.

I am much taller than average, way above the 99th percentile.

In some airlines I simply cannot seat, as my legs don’t fit. Sometimes flying is physically painful.

I don’t see why making passengers extremely uncomfortable should be a good thing.

If you think flying is bad maybe you should find some other ways of disincentivizing it, rather than making people that might be flying for legitimate reasons extremely uncomfortable!

Sure. I think we should tax the shit out of it.

Airlines aren't going to stop offering additional legroom options any time soon.

> In some airlines I simply cannot seat, as my legs don’t fit.

I have to ask, what happens when you get on such a plane, given that you’re required to sit down for certain portions of a flight? Are you asked to leave?

You can pre-board on Southwest if you are over 6’3”. I used to do it a lot, but they changed it so you can’t sit in an exit row. Though the bulkhead seats are better anyway, and I can usually get those.

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