NYT,pg1: One Day, That Economy Ticket May Buy You a Place to Stand

[DeepModem Mom]

One Day, That Economy Ticket May Buy You a Place to Stand
By CHRISTOPHER ELLIOTT
Published: April 25, 2006

(See story and illustration, lower left on page-one, NYT.)



The airlines have come up with a new answer to an old question: How many passengers can be squeezed into economy class?

A lot more, it turns out, especially if an idea still in the early stage should catch on: standing-room-only "seats."

Airbus has been quietly pitching the standing-room-only option to Asian carriers, though none have agreed to it yet. Passengers in the standing section would be propped against a padded backboard, held in place with a harness, according to experts who have seen a proposal.

But even short of that option, carriers have been slipping another row or two of seats into coach by exploiting stronger, lighter materials developed by seat manufacturers that allow for slimmer seatbacks. The thinner seats theoretically could be used to give passengers more legroom but, in practice, the airlines have been keeping the amount of space between rows the same, to accommodate additional rows.

The result is an additional 6 seats on a typical Boeing 737, for a total of 156, and as many as 12 new seats on a Boeing 757, for a total of 200....

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/25/business/25seats.html

[mdmc]

1. people locked in cattle cars

DK lyric

[HereSince1628]

2. That's what we want to be herded into a plane like cattle

suppose there will be a recovery team at the terminal to deal with the "downers"?

[JaneGat]

3. Like Monfort swinging meat, they will claim travelers arrive at

their destinations fresher.

[EST]

4. Brought to you,

discourtesy of the Reagan Deregulation revolution and other make believe, movie plot economic schemes.

[sharp_stick]

5. God, I hate flying

We're already being treated like cattle they may as well make it official.

I used to love to travel for pleasure or business. I'd get to the airport early to watch the people and relax before my flight, get on the plane (almost always in coach) and even though it wasn't really comfortable I could still make it work.

Now, I detest the entire process, I hate sitting at the airport, I hate getting on the plane where the seat is still warm from the last poor bugger that just got off. The seats are getting closer and closer to my knees and I'm only 5' 9 1/2". If the person in front has the gall to recline I can't even get a book open on my knees anymore.

I'm finding more and more delays as airlines reduce the number of planes in a fleet and airports increase capacity without increasing the infrastructure. You get herded onto the street if some TSA guy lets someone through and then realizes they didn't check a bag well enough.

I'd be happy if I never had to fly again, I've cut back my business travel to a minimum and I really don't care about the damned points anymore.

[grasswire]

6. I'll never fly again.

Never. It's too much like torture now.