As many of you know, my pet peeve is the declining comfort and services on U.S. airlines. From endless charges to new “bench seating”, U.S. airlines have shown open contempt for passengers who are treated as virtual cattle. Moreover, despite a long history of going to Congress for favors and subsidies, the airlines have a consistent record of ripping off passengers, including refusing to pass along huge savings from fuel prices in ticket prices. Now an interesting display shows the difference of leg room (another pet peeve) on airlines. The winner for the best treatment of passengers is Jet Blue which offers 34 inches to coach passengers. The worst is not surprisingly Spirit, whose CEO has previously admitted that he virtually prides himself of lousy service and comfort. The airline competing with Spirit as a virtual menace for passengers in terms of leg room is United at 30 inches. So below is the ignoble list of airlines and their ever diminishing space.
First, let’s be clear: the airlines have had a record year of profits. They simply refuse to lower ticket prices or more importantly improve passenger comfort. These airlines constantly excuse adding fees for things like bags due to fuel costs but then keep the charges when fuel costs fall. It is called gouging. At the same time, because people are now piling bags on airlines to avoid obscene charges, airlines routinely tell people who are paying to check bags not to use the upper bins for their briefcases or coats. So you are forced to stuff your belongings under your feet so that airlines can continue to pay this baggage fee scheme with passengers.
Jet Blue is interesting in the best positions for legroom on economy seats among the major U.S. airlines since it moved previously to reduce space.
The airlines, particularly United, appear to be working off the premise that by torturing passengers they can get passengers to paid extra for slightly better seats in coach plus. United is particularly aggressive in selling different seats in coach depending on the level of cramping and inconvenience. It is a perverse incentive since the sale of higher priced economy seating depends on how miserable you can make those passengers unwilling to pay more. At this rate, United will be introducing an “Iron Maiden” seat for those insisting on paying the simple economy fair.
Delta and American and US Air are little better of course at 31 inches. My problem is that a 6 foot, I get kneecapped on many flights and I can no longer work in economy because there is no room to open a simple laptop. First class has become what coach once was and coach has become what baggage holds once were on U.S. airlines. This does not even include the terrible food (if you can get it) and aging aircraft. I have found major foreign airlines like Air France to be generally better in terms of comfort.
Here is the space differences:
JetBlue 34
Virgin/Southwest 32
Delta/America/US Air 31
United 30
Spirit 28
The measurements are for the smallest configuration in economy seating offered on two common, comparable single-aisle aircraft: the Airbus A320 and Boeing 737.
The closest airport to travel with any large commercial airlines is almost 200 miles from my house the next one is over 275 miles. Both are located in other states than California, which is where I live.
I haven’t had the need to fly anywhere cross country since I retired from my broker dealer and business. Most locations that I want to go to (to see family or for vacation) are generally only 400 to 500 miles or so away…..Once I’ve driven 200 miles to the airport, I might as well just drive the rest of the way. That way, I can stop and rest when I want. Eat something decent at a restaurant. Exercise my legs. Go the bathroom. Stay in a nice hotel/motel. Don’t have to put up with a bunch of other people crowding my space and coughing in my ears. Breath the fresh air and not the germs from everyone else packed like sardines in a flying tin can.
PLUS…when I get to my location. I have my luggage that no one pawed through and have my vehicle so I can go where I want when I get there.
Out West. No one thinks much about driving long distances. It is a 180 mile round trip when I go to the larger town nearby once a month for supplies and BIG grocery shopping. Shoot…..we often take a Sunday drive that is over that distance just for fun.
If you want comfort, pay for it. Ever hear of first class / business class?
david, This is NOT only about comfort since the first class and business class pax are only the FIRST to die in a crash. They all die along with the peons in back. It is significant that I saw that back in 1820 or so the government had to pass a law regulating steerage passengers accommodations since they knew back then that unregulated businesses were a BAD idea. I guess our founders were socialists from the beginning, or that they had common sense and knew history. Your choice.
Chuck, Sounds like a great sequel, Snakes and Cockroaches on a Plane.
You sound like a socialist. Sounds like you want the government to run the airlines. We bought a motorhome, a great way to travel.
Randy,
Back in the early 1990s, the C-337 got considerable hail damage and a cracked windshield. I flew it over to one of the big repair shops at Mena, AR for repairs. There was an MD-80 parked on the ramp in the livery of a Southeast Asia airline. It had been bought by some corporation for their corporate jet, and was in for a complete refurbishing.
The work crew had removed the floor panels and all the inspection plates and were in the process of cleaning out what they found under there with ShopVacs. They dumped the ShopVac contents into wheelbarrows for removal from the plane. At the time I was there, they had already removed two or three wheelbarrows full of cockroaches, and several dead snakes. The foreman said they still had a ways to go.
I made sure the Skymaster was parked some distance from it, and I did not go near the thing.
Fly that airline? Not on your life!
In 1819 Congress passed the Steerage Act, which regulated the amount of space and food that ships were required to provide for passengers. 200 years later we need such a law for airlines.
As to pricing, where I live gas prices have declined 40% in the past year and airline tickets have increased 40%.
Back in the late 80s and 90s, I worked as a mechanic for United and we were proud of having the best maintenance and airline in the business. I tried to get into the cockpit crew, but I was considered not qualified for them despite my having an ATP, a couple of thousands of hours, and a jet type rating. Yet our junior flight instructor who was female, and had none of my qualifications was hired by United. This was the slide that started United on its way to now being one of the worst airlines. When I was flying on the United side of our airline, I was ashamed to admit I was flying for them. That is a big difference in how successful any business can be. At Southwest, they put the emphasis on how happy their employees are as the first order of the day.
United used to do all maintenance in house, from generator, APUs, actuators, painting, etc….Now most of this is done by outside low cost and low paid contractors, many outside the USA. This is a major safety concern since the low paid employees cannot in most cases speak or read or write English which is the language of the manuals. The airlines used the idea that having employees doing the work is a good safety idea since that meant those employees, their families and friends would be riding on the aircraft that they worked on. If you KNOW you are going to be on board the plane you worked on, it tends to increase ones desire to do the job right. Now with the outsourcing, those workers have no incentive to do a good job since they will NEVER be flying on the planes since they cannot afford to do so. Those same workers will never know any person who rides on their aircraft either. So why care?
When I was turning wrenches at United, we had one guy who was fired for being a bad worker. So guess where he ended up? He went to a contractor for United, and he was the ONLY licensed mechanic in the shop who signed off the work the less skilled workers had done!
In short, while the old CAB was not great, and was too overpowering, we never should have thrown out the baby with the bath water. The CAB needs to come back to save the public since total deregulation has failed miserably. I hope that Prof Turley will use his connections in DC to promote this, otherwise, we are going to see more dead bodies and aircraft in the future.
randyjet – Southwest employees all have a piece of the airline. It is in their best interest for things to go well.
Steve H.
I agree with Jim22. Don’t like Spirit? Don’t fly with them. Don’t like the airlines? Drive, take Greyhound, or a train. Think you have a better idea? Start an airline yourself. Got a job that requires a lot of airline travel? Get a better job.
Stop being The Victim.
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Did you kick a cat and take candy from a baby after that?
Jet Blue had 34 inch spans just late last year, cutting to 32 inches last November. I read a piece recently that they are considering going to 31 inches. of course, the problem is competition. Large corporations detest competition and have the lobby dollars to allow mergers and acquisitions that lessen competition. More competition is the answer.
As a frequent flier, weekly or more, pre-retirement, I can support this post on the main title alone. It is sheer luck I can avoid most of it today by less flying…and I try to keep my flights to no more than 4 hours, which means frequent stops, to avoid gong homicidal in the newest “cattle cars.” What’s next, orange crates and a rope drawn across the aisles?
My destinations today are usually to small towns, so “first class” or even “business class” pricing resembles direct flights “First Class” to Europe or Asian capitals. What’s up with that?
Pardon me whilst I bandage my backside…I do get it … I am a captive for the time I spend on airlines today.
I agree with Jim22. Don’t like Spirit? Don’t fly with them. Don’t like the airlines? Drive, take Greyhound, or a train. Think you have a better idea? Start an airline yourself. Got a job that requires a lot of airline travel? Get a better job.
Stop being The Victim.
JT, It’s still a free country right? If you don’t like it, you have multiple choices. Only fly with who you like, don;t fly at all or start an airline that provides the services you feel people are entitled too.
Running an airline is a license to print money AND delight customers. Sadly, in the talent-starved executive suites of US airlines, no one has the ability or decency to pursue both goals at once. Root cause of all airline problems: inability to attract executives with brains and character. In that regard, airlines are on a par with the driveway repaying industry.
I worked on the Hill 40 years ago for a prominent House Committee chairman. From time to time he would say that Congress regulates when companies don’t listen to their customers. It was not something he liked to do.
Back in the day when airline travel was taking hold, he was complementary of the airlines for their responsiveness in listening to their customers. They built their business on safety, routes and customer service. I don’t think he would have imagined the current status nor the influence of money and greed in industry as well as the Congress.
Maybe the flying public needs some influential allies and supporters. I never thought I would say this, but, perhaps it might help the situation if the incentives were removed for travelers and companies in this country that ferry executives and clients on so-called “business aircraft” (sorry, National Business Aviation Association) and fractional ownership & charter companies. Where are government agencies that are responsible for taxpayer/citizen safety in the skies? Should there be a stiff tax on airlines that do not provide minimum space to passengers? Where is Boeing and other manufacturers on this issue? It might also help there was a flat-out prohibition on deploying corporate and government aircraft to ferry politicians and government officials except in extreme circumstances.
It is high time to bring some high-flying and cavalier folks down to the altitude of consumers who foot the bills whether through fares and fees or taxes.
Being retired, we take the train or drive. Longer yes but more comfortable and less aggravating! If at all possible that is the way to go and boycott the airlines. The only problem we found with the train was on a trip to Florida; sleeper cars have only 6′ beds and my hubby is 6’3”.
Tsk, tsk JT! A US corporation’s sole goal should be to increase shareholder value. Employees, contractors, customers/passengers, etc……..no longer matter in our new economy.
But fear not, believe I heard on Bloomberg the other day that Jeblue will be adding baggage fees and decreasing seat size. Seems in the US, the race is always to the bottom.
The problem is the corporate accounting structure and the stock market, and the perverse incentives it has for prioritizing profit about all else. The CEOs have every incentive to maximize profit or get sued. There is no incentive to provide customer service.
Part of this can be blamed on laws that limit CEO salary, pushing them toward stock options. A bigger blame lays with institutional investors. They fly private planes; what do they know or care about commercial flight except for the bottom line?
We need to limit institutional holdings. The SEC needs to find a way to quantify corporate citizenship (they’re people right?) to give companies a way to show effective management besides just another year of profit increase that meets our beats an arbitrary profit target.
The airlines have us because there is no alternative and they are allowed to operating in an effective oligopoly. We have no rail in the US. The government used to regulate the airlines which was overbearing and led to higher prices, but forced airlines to compete on service. ‘Merica
I am not sure were Allegiant is on this list, but that is the only airlines I have flown for the last several years. No frills.
You should have the TSA hold your luggage, on a connecting flight, after it’s ALREADY been through security!! (Google TSA steals) The head of the TSA then lied to me on phone & dismissed the incident.
Or have TSA stop you from taking a Starbucks coffee cup through security.
We need to get RID if the TSA and turn over security to the airlines like they did before.