I truly believe that airlines see passengers as cargo or cattle. with less and less competition I guess they need not worry about the ramifications.
http://www.sfgate.com/travel/article/American-Airlines-is-decreasing-legroom-in-11116541.php
Good grief. I’ve given up flying, but worry about my relatives who have to fly for work and are > 6’2" (in one case, 6’5".) The risk of DVT is very real.
They need to fly with the ones who haven’t reduced the legroom (think that’s Delta, SW and Alaska), or those who offer comfort sections with more room. Exit row or first class is nice. When we get stuck in coach, we try to get the mega legroom seat in the exit row on Delta. No seat in front of you. It pays to keep status on a carrier you typically use, and if they’re flying a lot for business, they could probably do that.
I wouldn’t worry about them, if they are frequent business flyers, they know how to take care of themselves.
I used to fly American Airlines all the time. I have well over 1,000,000 miles on AA and have status for life. However, I haven’t flown on them for about 10 years now because they have become so horrid. At this point sadly United appears to have caught up.
Thanks for the pointer to the article. It has reminded me to continue to avoid AA. It is time to retire my AA credit card.
At this point I mostly either drive, or fly Air Canada or Jet Blue (depending upon where I am going).
^^That seems quite a waste. Even if you can’t stand AA, you’re going to have a nice trip in first class, most likely. Why not use those miles for first class tickets? Or there are ways you can sell them.
^I’m guessing he has “earned” over 1,000,000 miles over the years, not that he still has them all to spend. I’ll fly AA if I can get comfort class, still too miserly to book first class. I have permanent gold status from earning over a million miles while working, but am now retired. Still have 16 upgrade coupons which we’ll probably never be able to use.
The good thing about permanent status is that for now, at least, I can check a bag for free.
Mostly we fly Southwest. My new extravagance is signing up for automatic check in for our next trip.
Ah, I understand. I read it that he had over a million miles in his account, not that he’d flown that over the years. I have almost 1.5 million miles on Delta over the years, but sadly, only 50K left in my account. I’m thinking I’ll retire when I get 2 million miles and have gold status for life, though that seems like it should be a minor decision as far as retiring, but it would be nice to have, because we want to travel.
Am I reading that news release correctly - that AA makes this announcement the same day that United’s Munoz is in front of Congress being warned that the airlines need to improve their customer service? Are the airlines really so invulnerable to public perception?
“I’m guessing he has “earned” over 1,000,000 miles over the years, not that he still has them all to spend.”
Correct. However, I do have a couple of hundred thousand still to spend. I suppose that I probably should find a way to use them up for two first-class tickets somewhere (for me and my wife).
https://www.seatguru.com/charts/shorthaul_economy.php can help you compare airline seat pitch.
On one flight (don’t remember the airline), I happened to be in the seat in front of an exit row. I knew it would not recline, but since I rarely do so, that did not bother me. However, I was not aware that it was also visibly smaller knee space than typical (maybe 2?"). The larger male passenger in front of me (who quickly did recline), got up and yelled at me for putting my knees into the back of his seat. I asked “where shall I put them?”, at which point he grumbled and sat back down. 2" can be significant! .
Personally I think we need some regulations about this issue. If I can barely fit as an average sized female I can’t imagine what it’s like for most men.
I wonder if this can be a safety issue. Getting out of a tight seat will require more time…
Seems weird that people are growing in size, yet airline seat space is shrinking. However, people still want cheap tickets and airlines want to fill out the airplanes with more people. I think a compromise is some of these economy comfort sections, where you pay a little extra for more room. However, sometimes when you buy your tickets at the last minute, they aren’t even available.
Well…i had the opposite experience flying Southwest a month ago. I was on a brand spanking new plane. The holder for the reading material,was at the TOP of the seat back in front of me, over the tray table drop down.
This created a noticeable amount of additional leg room! My knees didnt even come close to touching the seat in front of me!
How smart!
I am legitimately scared to fly now. It was already hard, being 6’ tall, but now it can be extremely painful if I don’t move for too long.
Sure, I can get up and move around… maybe… maybe not. Depends.
At least before, I could at least move around a little bit- enough to make it bearable.
I guess I’ll only be able to travel when I can afford upgraded seats 
Yes, economy plus is MUCH better for these longer flights than regular economy. H and I are under 5’ 8", but when we drop things on long flights, we like to be able to retrieve right away. With close seats, impossible!
Does American have a extra legroom seat (for an increased fare) ? Aside from 1st class?
Legroom means nothing to me. I want wiggle room for the hips! They pack us in like cattle. I would take 4 fewer inches of legroom for 4 more inches in seat width.
Often upgraded seats are not that expensive. Sometimes you can get an exit row for $20 or so.