<p>What is the ACLU’s phone number? This is clearly discrimination against tall people and folks who are overweight or have arthritis. </p>
<p>Will you pay for legroom?
For $15, Northwest passengers can get once-free aisle, exit seats
If you’re willing to stretch your wallet, Northwest Airlines will let you stretch your legs. Today, the carrier will start asking passengers whether they’d pay $15 to secure one of a handful of seats – in an exit row or on an aisle – on most of its domestic flights. </p>
<p><a href=“http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2006603140365[/url]”>http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2006603140365</a></p>
<p>and yet if you are in an exit row, you are supposed to help the crew evacuate the plain, so you would be paying to help@!!</p>
<p>and there aint that much more room in the aisle cause you have to keep your lges out of the aisle for the carts</p>
<p>jeesh, this aint gonna fly, just watch</p>
<p>City, imagine someone who is 6’4". They will have to pay extra just to sit in an aisle seat. They have no control over their height.</p>
<p>I agree, its ludicrus and it won’t last long, jsut watch, it will backfire</p>
<p>As someone who is 5’9" 1/2 herself, I even despise middle seats!</p>
<p>We have lived with this problem for years. My husband is 6’9", and my two teenaged sons are 6’4" and 6’5", respectively. (I am 5’4", I don’t even show up in family pictures. 
) H travels extensively for work. When he can, he gets the inviting company/university to spring for Business Class seats, but often he’s stuck in a regular seat. He always has to tap the shoulder of the person in front of him and inform them that they will not be able to put their seat back, since his legs are already pressing up against the back of their seat. I also found these Knee Defenders online and they seem to help for the boys, but H is just too tall.</p>
<p>H is unlikely to travel on Northwest any time soon, if he will have to pay them more to accommodate his height.</p>
<p>‘A la carte pricing’ in air-travel future? </p>
<p>By HARRY SHATTUCK
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle </p>
<p>Imagine that you’ve made a flight reservation and confirmed the fare, but when you ask to reserve a seat in advance, you’re told it will cost an extra $5. </p>
<p>Unless, of course, you prefer an aisle seat. That’s $10 more. </p>
<p>While no carriers are charging such fees today, a leading airline analyst predicts that “a la carte pricing” will become a major trend during the coming year. </p>
<p>“The biggest news I see for 2006 will be extra charges for things like assigned seats, aisle seats, emergency-row seats, checked luggage, carry-on bags, snacks and soft drinks,” says Minneapolis-based Terry Trippler, a 30-year industry veteran and consumer advocate who now surveys airline developments and trends for Cheapseats.com. </p>
<p><a href=“http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/3565878.html[/url]”>http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/3565878.html</a></p>
<p>I’d be happy to pay $15 for those seats. They will probably find they can get much more.</p>
<p>I’m with you barrons! Listen when I get on a plane nowadays, all I want is an exceptional crew of mechanics. Planes are like buses. I stay with the same airlines to get my frequent flyer miles and that helps a lot sometimes with better seats and the like. It is like paying extra in a way. So that is how I pay. : )</p>
<p>no Shi**
I am 5’3" and I would pay more to have more room- not that I need a wide body seat, but damn- I don’t want anybodies head in my lap either</p>
<p>Well, it might depend on the head…</p>
<p>Hee-hee, barron. You sound like my husband!</p>
<p>I think it’s outrageous, myself, but I’d probably pay the $15, esp. for my husband, who’s 6’ 3". It’s tough enough these days, esp. when flying over the ocean, but this is crazy.</p>
<p>Barrons, </p>
<p>I smirked when I read EK’s post, but I laughed out loud when I read your response…</p>
<p>As a short skinny guy, I may save the $15 on short connectors but would likely shell out for an aisle seat on longer trips.</p>
<p>Also, can we pay $15 to move the wide guy/gal in the middle seat over to the aisle?</p>
<p>Even a semi-conservative can have a sense of humor.</p>
<p>well I don’t fly much- but the last time I did- I don’t even remember what airline it was, but the guy in front of me had his head in my lap-
Thats what it felt like anyway
But seriously- if we can have people paying extra to move to the front of the line for medical care- you can either pay $10 or $100 for a haircut or $7 for dinner to $ the skys the limit- why shouldn’t they charge more , for a more comfortable seat?
If $15 is really that much maybe you should take Greyhound?</p>
<p>Better idea: create rows that ACTUALLY have more usable leg room and charge <em>more</em> than $15 more for them. Aisle seats costing more? That’s dumb. (The attendants always trip over my H’s feet anyway.) Exit row seats are only marginally bigger: give us more space so it’s worth paying more for. (And no, I don’t mean “Business” / “First Class” seats – those have expected services for which you pay more. But create a “roomier coach class” and we might be willing to pay a reasonable premium for them.)</p>
<p>I don’t think this is a civil liberties issue, lol. Nor is it discrimination against a protected class of citizens. No one is FORCING people to take those seats at a higher price. They are making so-called “premium” seats more expensive for those who would like to sit there.</p>
<p>Not to say I don’t think this is a crappy idea.</p>
<p>From a practical standpoint, I think it’s cuckoo for NWA to imply an aisle seat has as much room as, say, an exit row seat. Oh, you can put your leg out in the aisle, but only at risk of having it run over by a luggage cart. I prefer the aisle seat not because I am tall (I’m not) but because I hate that penned-in feeling. But most of the time, when I look around it appears my fellow aisle-sitters and I are as jammed in as everyone else. I’d gladly pay an upcharge to get more room…but I’m not getting much more room in an aisle seat. An exit row seat, oh yeah, that’s an offer I’d look into.</p>
<p>What’s a bummer is that the airline which tried to offer more room (American) apparently didn’t lure enough passengers that way. They’ve been converting all their “more room in coach!” planes back to “tight squeeze” proportions. I’d pay more for more room, but I don’t fly enough to be a good customer. Maybe someone could try that again.</p>
<p>I took my first cross-country train trip last month and was in raptures over it. Too bad it’s not more practical for more trips. It was heaven. It wasn’t just the matter of additional space and room to walk around, but the whole attitude and environment.</p>
<p>I haven’t gone cross country on a train- just south to portland and north to vancouver- but it is great- enough room so I actually could nap if I wanted- and even have a view car to sit and watch the countryside :)</p>
<p>Well, the equivalent of the exit row seats is UAL’s “economy plus” - same econ seat pitch and width, same service, but with considerably more legroom. I believe that NWA doesn’t have such a cabin, so charging more for what amounts to UAL’s econ+ makes sense. If I’m not mistaken, the $15 surcharge is actually less than the upgrade from UAL’s standard econ to e+…so it’s actually still a better deal. Not free, but still…</p>
<p>Virgin has been doing this for a while, 50 GBP for exit row seats. NWA’s pricing seems much more reasonable.</p>
<p>:)</p>