<p>That is the root of the problem. If they are making seats so close that a little recline can cause pain and injury, that’s terrible. I’ve never seen someone that close on the airlines that I frequent, but I’m definitely going to take a look at the person behind me from now on.</p>
<p>There are some charts of seat pitch on different airlines that you can find on-line. Economy seats are generally 31 inches–pretty darn small. But some are as little as 29 or 30 inches apart. And maybe there’s variation in how much seats recline, and exactly how they intrude into the space behind as well.</p>
<p>I have a family member that worked for a company that manufactures airline seats. There is a difference between pitch in different airlines. There was info about that in the link I posted several posts ago.</p>
<p>Spirit Air uses a 28" pitch on many of their planes.</p>
<p>They make up for a little by having the thinnest, hardest seats I’ve seen on a plane, and they don’t recline. They fly non-stop to smaller airports that aren’t directly serviced by the big airlines (unless you live in a hub city), and they are relatively cheap, and that trumps comfort to a large degree.</p>
<p>Would you pay an extra 10-15% to get an extra 3-4 inches of leg room? People like me who are in the 90+ %ile in height might, but I suspect most other people would rather have the cheaper seats.</p>
<p>The long-legged posters have convinced me to reduce my recline from two to one inches in this my-back-vs-your-knees dilemma. I think it’s a reasonable compromise.</p>
<p>I’m thinking I’ll size up the situation behind me first. No reason to go to great lengths for a small person, but definitely for a large one. I just had a flight on a commuter airline, and even the exit row was cramped. Huge guys sitting there had no knee room, but still sticking things in the seat back anyways, giving themselves less room. Stupid.</p>
<p>How do you share the armrest with the persons sitting next to you?</p>
<p>I think the middle seat person deserves both armrests.
I just sat next to a guy who was 6’5" on a transcon flight, he was in the middle seat. I offered my window seat to him but he declined. I felt very bad for him. When I opened my tray table, it hit his knees.</p>
<p>^^^Interesting. When I get stuck in a middle seat between two guys, invariably, they each take two armrests and I am left with nothing. I am getting to the point where I am going to become much more vocal/physical about my discomfort with people putting seats on recline for an entire flight and people hogging the armrests.</p>
<p>From an interesting article on cell phones on planes:</p>
<p>
[Cell</a> phones on planes may be heading for the US, but will anyone use them? - Computerworld](<a href=“http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9244753/Cell_phones_on_planes_may_be_heading_for_the_US_but_will_anyone_use_them_]Cell”>http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9244753/Cell_phones_on_planes_may_be_heading_for_the_US_but_will_anyone_use_them_)</p>
<p>At $20,000 per gigabyte, just imagine the screaming that will happen when some clueless person decides to watch a move on their phone during a flight…</p>
<p>IIRC the old phone-in-the-back-of-the seat cost around $6-8/minute; $2.50/minute is not a huge improvement. There won’t be many calls made at these prices.</p>
<p>^^^ Well, that’s what I tried to say a number of pages ago and I linked an article. No one wanted to pay attention since it was more fun to get all worked up about something that probably won’t be a problem anyway!</p>
<p>^^Hey, everyone is just fearful about the mere thought of some obnoxious loudmouth talking the entire flight. It’s bad enough being trapped in such a small space for so long anyways, and the possibility of being stuck next to that…awful! Most people just seem to talk so loudly when they’re on a cellphone.</p>
<p>You’re probably right, though. If it was very expensive, not many people would do it.</p>
<p>It’s not clear what the rationale is for the cell companies to decide that being in a plane equals international roaming, other than the obvious greed factor. That guy is right that it will be difficult to explain, because it is completely nonsensical.</p>
<p>I would imagine that in a few years this will go away, just like domestic roaming charges did (does anyone pay those anymore?).</p>
<p>The data prices will be a huge issue… at $20/megabyte, even reading your email and doing lightweight things like posting on CC will run into big money. And if your phone automagically connects to the plane’s picocell, you could rack up a few hundred bucks of data charges without ever taking the phone out of your pocket.</p>
<p>Well, as I said, the big three (AT&T, Verizon and T-mobile), are salivating at yet another opportunity to line their pockets with these ridiculous data charges.</p>
<p>A rant - I really wish GoGo could figure out that flights between Seattle and Silicon Valley need extra capacity because every single passenger has at least a couple of wifi devices…</p>
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<p>Thank you!</p>
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<p>I use the passive aggressive approach for armrests. When I’m stuck in between two armrest hoggers, I watch them like a hawk. As soon as one bends down for his carryon or moves his elbow for any reason, I swoop in and firmly plant my arm. When he tries to return his arm, we bump. There’s always this moment of hesitation and I feel like he’s maybe thinking, “Grr, she took my space. Oh wait, I have another one over here and she doesn’t.” No one has ever forced the issue, but I’d be perfectly OK with pointing out that he has all this extra space on the other side. Anyway, I’ve never lost the battle.</p>
<p>I just usually let people have the armrest, it’s fine. But some of these hogs want to take over your seat space too. That annoys me, unless the person us very large and very nice, then it’s okay. This one large lady was trying so hard to stay in her seat, she was hugging herself… I had to tell her it was fine to be comfortable and I didn’t mind at all.</p>
<p>I don’t fly very often. What is the armrest etiquette? Does everybody get left arm rest, with bonus right armrest for window seat?</p>
<p>I am happy to give up armrests, but men who spread their feet into my floor space will be spoken to or stomped on</p>
<p>Colorado_mom, I think the etiquette is whoever first occupies the territory gets it, until they give it up, even momentarily. In my experience men are MUCH more apt to claim a shared armrest than women are. YMMV</p>
<p>^^Yes they are, the guys grab it right away. I immediately give up my claim to the armrest because I don’t care, nor need it. So annoyed with these guys that still try to stick their elbows halfway into your seat. I want to whack them with my newspaper!</p>