The airlines have thought about it.
https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/standing-up-airplane-seat-testing/index.html
ultra-basic economy. Sign me up! I’ll spend the money saved at my destination.
These always make me laugh. Sure, it’s technically certifiable as a concept, but I think there really is a floor below which passengers simply won’t go. Three hours like this seems terrible, but 30 minutes might be fine. The planes doing 30 minute flights don’t have the headroom for this, typically. There’s also no possibility of installing a child seat, or even allowing a “lap child” which discourages a very large part of the market of people looking for affordable prices (families).
The various bunk styles have other significant issues, especially with regards to emergency evacuation.
Nevermind that eventually, when you add more people, you have to add more other things to the plane like more emergency equipment but also more DOORS which aren’t a trivial retrofit.
Anyways, I hope there’s a floor because there’s no way I’d pay to sit on one of those!
I’ve yet to get brave enough to put my kid on a plane. He hates crowds and noise even more than I do. I think he’d go straight for the emergency exit!
Only recently has flying itself become unacceptably bad. I’ve always disliked the process of flying due to a lack of control over the schedule, and that, being single, airports are not a place I can relax in, not having the option of conversing with someone, or immersing myself in a book or device and letting the other person listen for announcements.
But baggage charges make people carry as much into the cabin as they can, resulting in a very cramped overhead compartment. And fees for selecting your seat mean that I usually wind up with a middle seat. The few times I’ve felt like splurging for a window seat they’ve all been taken.
I don’t actually care too much about being cramped length-wise even though I am 6’1". Even on a long flight, I have learned how to sleep sitting up, and that’s the only time I really miss the option of reclining your seat to sleep. I do dislike width-wise crampedness but that is only occasionally an issue. I wouldn’t pay for more space, though, except on the longer flights.
Next up: evacuation fee. No pay, you stay.
It’s not like my head is touching it; there’s no way I can sleep resting against plastic and metal. Hence my neck pillow. I also wear these:
It’s like a combination of a pillow and earmuffs in one. I pledged to their Kickstarter and have a pair as a reward. Combine with a sleep mask and I’m pretty comfy.
The sleep mask is also from Kickstarter:
ETA: I can wear a neck pillow below the sleep muffs, they stack on top of each other. The sleep muffs go around your head not your neck.
I avoid air travel whenever possible, mostly because of how needlessly horrible they’ve made it.
I’d rather spend a day driving. I drove to a conference six hours away and it was quicker than an Uber to a bus to O’Hare or driving then parking and waiting for that shuttle bus to checking bags to security to waiting to get on the plane and waiting again…
But, it’s tough to drive across an ocean, so I’m about to head out on my third set of long flights in a year… grr.
Anyhow, I’m cheap, so I don’t do first class. I’d rather save a few bucks and arrive stiff and groggy. I’ll unkink and wake up when I get there.
“I’ve saved all year and finally have $2,000 I can spend on a vacation but don’t want to spend it all on plane tickets.”
Said by a friendly airline flight attendant
I of course know this is all sarcasm.
I haven’t run the math, but say they remove two or three rows, give everyone a bit more room. Charge everyone an extra $20-$30 a seat and make people close to comfortable?
No doubt the airlines have run the numbers. And that plan seems to have failed for MidWest. I liked flying with them.
I wonder how the numbers fall out about people that must fly NOW, and those that have been planning a vacation ahead of time.
The average airline profit per passenger is $5.44. That doesn’t leave a lot of wiggle room… We mostly fly biz class, but even there we’re fare sensitive.
The last 100 posts or so have been the strongest argument in favor of regulation I’ve ever seen on this board.
First class is so expensive that for most people, if they can take the time off, it would be less expensive to lose a day’s worth of pay and spend money for an extra night in a hotel room to recover from a flight than to pay the first class fare.
Despite this, I am sometimes tempted to splurge on business class for long flights just to see if it is worth it. Those tend to be fairly close, but still more expensive than, a day’s pay + hotel stay, and then I’d avoid the unpleasantness of a steerage class flight.
Back when I was living in Chicago I used to fly Southwest Airlines to Las Vegas once a year. Watching the changing landscape was fascinating, especially as we were crossing the desert areas.
Regarding the cost: As I recall, when I started flying between Raleigh-Durham and Chicago several times a year the difference between Coach and First6 Class was enough that I never seriously considered it. Lately, however, as I’ve said before not only has convenience and comfort become more of a factor, but I’ve been able to upgrade my flight for less than $100. This is well withing my means.
Read an article years ago that said the best deal is to use your frequent flyer points for an upgrade to first class.
At the time I thought "Pfft! That’s for wusses. I’ll save up and get a free flight (in steerage, of course).
Nowadays, in my 70s, I think “Hmmm, an upgrade might make sense…”
I’m old enough to remember flying pre-deregulation. It was much better back then.
I agree.
Pre-deregulation and pre-9/11.
I did some random pricing, so of course, costs may vary, but first class isn’t like $100 more, it’s like 5-10 TIMES the coach price. Domestic business class was the same price as first.
And as for couples who pick the aisle and window seat, frankly I hate you. You’re the reason I have to sit middle. But hey, “I got mine!”
It varies wildly. We just flew BZN-SNA in Alaska biz class and it was twice economy. But, that was an ERJ. We’re flying to Fiji in November in a spanking new Airbus A350 and that is NOT cheap. And given the aforementioned $5.44 profit per passenger it’s likely ALL the profit for a lot of flights comes from business class.