December 18, 2006--Weighing In
A favorite pastime is exchanging airline stories.
For example, the time I flew from New York to Buffalo and had a ten year old kid who was traveling alone sitting next to me who shortly after takeoff turned to me and said, “Mister, I’m feeling sick.” I ignored him; but when he repeated himself, not willing to get directly involved--I wanted to read my paper in silence--I summoned the flight attendant. But before she could get to him, he told me again how sick he was and demonstrated that he wasn’t exaggerating by throwing up all over me.
My cousin Chuck would respond by telling the story about a flight he once took in Russia. Not only didn’t they assign seats out of an ideological belief that under communism everyone was equal, but they routinely overbooked. Instead of bumping enough passengers so that those who raced onto the plane would have seats, they allowed everyone to clamor on board and those that didn’t make it to a seat were welcome to fly anyway, by standing or lying down in the aisle.
Everyone has these kinds of stories; but a pet peeve of mine, since I have very long legs, is about why airlines pack so many seats on their planes, considering that on any given day a percentage of them remain empty—why not make more room for people and advertise that they are making passenger comfort a priority. I have thought that this would give any airline that did this a competitive advantage.
Jet Blue announced recently that they are doing this. By removing just six seats in the Airbus 320s they will be able to give passengers four more inches of leg room—this may sound like a little but in comfort terms it’s nirvana. (See NY Times article linked below.)
And then, in the spirit that sometimes doing good can also mean doing well, by removed just this few seats they will be able to reduce the number of flight attendants required from four to three. This alone, more or less, will make up for their projected loss in passenger revenue.
But my favorite part of the Jet Blue story is that by having seven fewer people for the plane to have to lift off the ground will also lead to significant fuel saving because these seven, plus their luggage, weigh well over 1,000 pounds!
This brings me to another of my airline peeves—accommodating overweight passengers. If you get stuck with a middle seat and are surrounded by a couple of 250 pounders, your trip turns into a nightmare.
Which brings me to my suggestion—either require over-large people to buy two seats or charge them for every pound over, say, 220. If you bring along too much luggage they charge you for it (typically $50-100 per extra or overweight bag) so why not do the same for passengers—weigh them in and if they are beyond the limit charge them the same per-pound rate that they charge for baggage.
And, of course, pass the savings along to the rest of us.
For example, the time I flew from New York to Buffalo and had a ten year old kid who was traveling alone sitting next to me who shortly after takeoff turned to me and said, “Mister, I’m feeling sick.” I ignored him; but when he repeated himself, not willing to get directly involved--I wanted to read my paper in silence--I summoned the flight attendant. But before she could get to him, he told me again how sick he was and demonstrated that he wasn’t exaggerating by throwing up all over me.
My cousin Chuck would respond by telling the story about a flight he once took in Russia. Not only didn’t they assign seats out of an ideological belief that under communism everyone was equal, but they routinely overbooked. Instead of bumping enough passengers so that those who raced onto the plane would have seats, they allowed everyone to clamor on board and those that didn’t make it to a seat were welcome to fly anyway, by standing or lying down in the aisle.
Everyone has these kinds of stories; but a pet peeve of mine, since I have very long legs, is about why airlines pack so many seats on their planes, considering that on any given day a percentage of them remain empty—why not make more room for people and advertise that they are making passenger comfort a priority. I have thought that this would give any airline that did this a competitive advantage.
Jet Blue announced recently that they are doing this. By removing just six seats in the Airbus 320s they will be able to give passengers four more inches of leg room—this may sound like a little but in comfort terms it’s nirvana. (See NY Times article linked below.)
And then, in the spirit that sometimes doing good can also mean doing well, by removed just this few seats they will be able to reduce the number of flight attendants required from four to three. This alone, more or less, will make up for their projected loss in passenger revenue.
But my favorite part of the Jet Blue story is that by having seven fewer people for the plane to have to lift off the ground will also lead to significant fuel saving because these seven, plus their luggage, weigh well over 1,000 pounds!
This brings me to another of my airline peeves—accommodating overweight passengers. If you get stuck with a middle seat and are surrounded by a couple of 250 pounders, your trip turns into a nightmare.
Which brings me to my suggestion—either require over-large people to buy two seats or charge them for every pound over, say, 220. If you bring along too much luggage they charge you for it (typically $50-100 per extra or overweight bag) so why not do the same for passengers—weigh them in and if they are beyond the limit charge them the same per-pound rate that they charge for baggage.
And, of course, pass the savings along to the rest of us.
posted by Steven Zwerling at
6:44 PM
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