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Ditch First Class
The Travel Critic · September 14, 1998

Go ahead, get rid of first class. That was the overwhelming response in the unscientific poll from last week's column about airline seating arrangements.

A majority of readers - 78 percent - agreed with my proposal to strip all the first class seats from planes to make a little more room in coach.

Meanwhile, in an accompanying chat, the discussions evolved into passionate arguments about haves vs. have-nots, capitalism vs. communism, the left vs. the right.

Yours truly was accused of being both a communist and a Democrat. (The latter charge coming from none other than Minneapolis airline guru Terry Trippler.)

I'm sorry to say that I am neither.

Others just didn't like the idea of eliminating the last of the good airline seats. They apparently were unmoved by my stipulation that carriers would have to be more generous in an enhanced single-class configuration.

"Getting rid of the plush seats doesn't necessarily mean the rest of the cabin gets more room," observed one reader. "It just means more sardines in the can."

Politics and promises aside, a fair amount of readers thought my modest seating proposal was plain wrong.

C. Whitney Mandel, a Washington-based management consultant, said the idea didn't take into account the economics of first class. "It is simple business," he noted. "Supply and demand in an industry that is intensely competitive."

Phil Oliver, an Indianapolis programmer, shared his concerns. "I would not elevate a natural desire to have one of the [first class] seats over a slightly more crowded 'common seat' into a vicious egalitarian principle that nobody should have them simply because everybody cannot," he writes. "The airplanes belong to the airlines and they must be free to arrange their planes and their seating in any way amenable to their business' profitability."

Agreed another reader, "Your whining about first class is simply jealousy."

One response that best captures how I and millions of other disgruntled passengers feel appeared on the chat session. It was posted by a reader named Julie.

She tells the story of a time when she was sitting in first class while other passengers were boarding. As they filed past her, "a little boy-about 3-said to his mother, who was holding an infant, 'Mommy, let's sit in these seats. They look more comfortable.' Of course, they headed on back."

"Somehow," Julie concludes, "it just does not feel right."

And I couldn't say it any better myself. The system, as it is right now, just does not feel right.

In more ways than morally, to hear many readers describe it; we're talking physical pain.

Erik Olson, an associate professor at the Norwegian School of Management in Oslo, details the agony of economy. "Believe me, you haven't lived until you have flown across the Pacific in economy-13 hours of sheer pain if you are 6''1' and broad-shouldered like me. The Atlantic seems like a small pond after that."

Chemist Margaret Frey of Jericho, Vt., wants airlines to ditch the oversized seats, but thinks it will never happen. "For semifrequent travelers, first class can be like the lottery," she says. "There's always the hope that you might get bumped into one of those seats. And for me it seems to really happen about once a year! More legroom every day would be great-but then what would we dream about?"

I can think of a couple of things.

Christopher Elliott is a travel commentator and author of A Bridge to Nowhere: A Year in the Florida Keys. All e-mailed questions may be edited, condensed or republished at the site's discretion.