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If I’ve seen Melinda Ashton’s complaint once, I’ve seen it a hundred times.
“I’m a 6′ woman with long legs,” she says. “Even with the seat in front of me in an upright position, my knees are wedged. When the passenger in front of me reclines, the femurs on the ends of my legs are crushed into my hip sockets, causing considerable pain that continues after the flight ends.”
Read more “Why the government thinks shrinking airline seats are just fine”
The Federal Aviation Administration funding bill is out this morning, and while everyone else is focused on privatizing air traffic control, there are a few noteworthy proposals that will directly affect you.
Read more “What’s in the FAA funding bill for passengers?”
From bankruptcies to terrorist attacks, air travelers have seen it all in the last decade or so. But I can’t think of a week that’s been jam-packed with so much bad news for airline passengers since 2001. Maybe you can, but stick with me for a moment while I review the list.
It isn’t just the sequestration problems that are causing unforeseen slowdowns — it’s a confluence of other events, some related to the mandatory cuts, but many not.
Read more “Is this the worst week for air travelers since 9/11?”
The Halloween weekend stranding of more than 1,000 airline passengers at Bradley International Airport in Hartford, Conn., brought the tarmac delay activists out in full force again, pushing for new laws that they claim would prevent lengthy ground delays.
The circumstances were admittedly dreadful. On Oct. 29, air traffic controllers diverted 28 flights to Hartford after a freak snowstorm hammered the region. Many planes were grounded for hours in the blizzard, unable to reach the terminal. Supplies of food and water dwindled. Toilets became clogged. Tempers flared.
Read more “Hartford tarmac stranding doesn’t justify new laws”
Katie Anderson’s son, Brooks, is 6′ 7″. The average economy class seat “pitch” on a Spirit Airlines Airbus A321 — the distance between seats on an aircraft — is between 30 and 31 inches, hardly enough room for a big guy.
When he flew between Chicago and Fort Myers, Fla., before Christmas, he squeezed his XL frame into one of Spirit’s tiny seats for takeoff, but was asked to stand for more than two hours, according to his mother.
Says Anderson,
They would not give him a bulkhead or exit row seat. He does not fit in a regular seat. His height prohibits this.
He is not overweight. It wouldn’t help to have two seats like an overweight person. This is more like a handicap. He can’t lose height.
Asking a passenger to stand for the whole flight is highly unusual, but not illegal.
Read more “Spirit Airlines tells passenger who can’t fit into seat to stand”
