Why am I penalised at 6ft 7ins for extra legroom?

phatbear

This argument has been brought up before.

And I raised a question which curiously never got answered.

Ok assume if you have an automatic right to the emergency seats free because you are tall, so say there are 20 such seats on a flight what happens if there are 30 people on the flight who are over 6 foot 6? Is there a fight to decide who gets the seats or a line up and how would you feel if you were bumped from this seat because you just happened to be on the same flight as a touring basketball team.

You say you didnt choose to be tall but you choose to fly, therefore if you want to fly and be comfortable then alas you need to pay a premium

SwissLe

You could apply this 'choice' argument to everything though. People in a wheelchair choose to go shopping, why should I install a ramp up to my shop? People who are vegetarian choose to fly the airline, why should we provide vegetarian meals? Perhaps those passengers who stop me having peanuts onboard should also be offloaded due to their allergies? It's all about being accommodating to those who through no fault of their own require assistance.

SwissLe

photome wrote: »

I have been paying full fare since my son was 12. is he not still a child?

He is taking a seat just the same as any adult and if he is like most teenagers probably consumes more drinks/food than an adult so, yes, I think the charge should be full.

You could also put the fact that most parents expect sky cots when onboard so these should be charged for, rather than let the infant fly for free. There are even fewer bulkhead sky cots than any other seat onboard!

Moonchild

Being 6ft6 and with a lot of long haul flying every year, mostly in economy, I don't see it as a tax, I see reduced legroom as subsiding the very cheap fares I pay. If it was super crucial and I couldn't fly otherwise, i'd fly less, and pay for emergency exit seats or fly WT+, or as Malkie has said numerous times utilise the massive opportunities to collect miles and upgrade.

However, as I fly multiple routes (normally to Asia) these are the steps I take and I never normally have an issue. However, I appreciate that not everyone can do this.

- Fly on quiet days, on quiet periods, on quiet flights. This maximises the possibility of getting an emergency exit seat, or 4 seats to myself, to create an 'economy class bed'. If you don't know when this might be, ask.
- I avoid airlines that charge for an emergency exit seat (Virgin, Singapore Airlines & BA I believe) to maximise the chance of getting it for free.
- I fly on airlines that have best economy class legroom anyway (Malaysian & Thai are both 34inches, and most Emirates flights are, but they have skinnier seats as they fit 1 more in width wise than most carriers. Use Airline Quality (.com) to check with each carriers.
- I get to the airports before anyone else. I'm the first one at check-in. Not only does this reduce my travelling stress (it's getting to the airport that causes most problems for me!), but increases my chance of getting emergency exit.
- I call the airline in advance. I annotate the booking. I make sure they know i'm 6ft6 in advance.
- As a result of the above 2, I also get upgraded from time to time.
- If the above is too risky, I'll fly a middle-eastern airline to break up my journey and stretch my legs. They are normally better and cheaper anyway (my personal order of preference: Etihad, Qatar, Emirates, Oman Air) - they normally cover most destinations.
- If i'm going to the US, i'll accept I have no chance, so after take off, spend a lot of time out of the seat chatting to the lovely people who work to serve us (except for American airlines, for which talking to them seems to be considered a hostile act).

Alias_Omega

The average height for a man in the uk is - 5ft 7ins.

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Average_height_for_a_man_in_the_uk


Your quite lucky, trying flying on a VC10, not only do you fly facing backwards, your also very limited to leg room too. Far less than on the modern day A330, A300 series, B757's etc.

malkie76

Moonchild raises some excellent points.

It used to be easier to get an exit row seat years ago - before the days of online check-in. I believe airlines couldn't release the exit-rows until the day of travel where they had to physically see you before allocating the seat to you. Hence if you turned up mega early you could always bag an exit-row.

[my personal experience - I travelled London-USA frequently for two years as a fresh graduate and always had exit-row or bulk head]

However, now they allow exit-row selection at time of booking, or online seat selection (where permitted), and often charge for it. Furthermore, with fewer companies paying for business class the economy cabin is filling up with status-holding customers who get the best pick of the seats before everyone else.

Ultimately you don't have to fly, so the airlines don't need to accomodate your height. Airlines do have to accomodate disabilities due to legislation, but I'm confident they'd rather not as it costs a lot of money which they aren't allowed to pass onto the disabled passenger. (Besides, if someone wheel-chair bound wants to travel I think we should be responsible for supporting them).

I used to hate economy travel, and vowed I'd never do it as soon as I didn't have to. Luckily a combination of business work travel, Tesco and Amex makes sure I don't need to.

To anyone with height issues - I genuinely do recommend investigating the options available to you to enjoy premium cabin flying. Often sale prices of economy plus tickets aren't that much more than economy, and many airlines offer simply methods to upgrade to business for not much effort (if you are flexible and willing to play the game).

Gloomendoom

Alias_Omega wrote: »

The average height for a man in the uk is - 5ft 7ins.

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Average_height_for_a_man_in_the_uk


Your quite lucky, trying flying on a VC10, not only do you fly facing backwards, your also very limited to leg room too. Far less than on the modern day A330, A300 series, B757's etc.

I've flown on a VC10... and I was definitely facing forwards. The only reverse seating I've seen is in RAF transports.

terryya

SwissLe wrote: »

You could apply this 'choice' argument to everything though. People in a wheelchair choose to go shopping, why should I install a ramp up to my shop? People who are vegetarian choose to fly the airline, why should we provide vegetarian meals? Perhaps those passengers who stop me having peanuts onboard should also be offloaded due to their allergies? It's all about being accommodating to those who through no fault of their own require assistance.

Are you serious - people who are diabled choose to go shopping? So you'd class flying as an essential along side buying food?

malkie76

Gloomendoom wrote: »

The only reverse seating I've seen is in RAF transports.

Certain carriers have rear-facing seats in business class - BA is a prime example (in a sort of gemini ying-yang formation). Certain other carriers use 'train-like' seating where two couples face each other with a table in the middle (again in their business cabin).

Of course, cabin crew tend to fly backwards too (at least for take off and landing!)

SwissLe

That's good, you take that I am denying disabled people food now?! I am all for disabled access but people shouldn't discriminate on different disabilities and make judgements on what is classed as a luxury/essential.

There is a suggestion that people who are unable to physically fit into the airline chair should pay for the extra room/fly a premium class, surely that is the same as charging for wheelchair assistance in the airport, something Ryanair was slated for.