Shortly before Deb Knapp flew from Fort Lauderdale to Johannesburg on Delta Air Lines, she made a troubling discovery: The “comfort” coach seats for which she’d paid an extra $358 had been changed. On the transatlantic flight, the airline re-seated her two rows away from her husband, James. It was his birthday.
Read more “Hey airlines, enough with the musical chairs!”
Tag: SEAT
Is it time for minimum airline seat standards?
It’s not your imagination. Airline seats are shrinking.
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We gave up our seat on Spirit but they gave us nothing
Question: My husband, two-year-old son and I recently flew from Chicago to Phoenix on Spirit Airways. Before we took off, a flight attendant approached our seat to tell us that there was a problem with one of the seats, and that another passenger couldn’t use his seat. We were offered a refund of our son’s ticket and a free round trip voucher if we would hold our son on our lap in order to free a seat for the gentleman whose seat was not usable.
We agreed to this, and the flight attendant and gate agent (who had boarded the plane to help resolve the situation) told us that we should talk with the gate agents when we landed in Phoenix to claim our refund and free voucher.
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No “comfort” seat on TAM — and no refund
Question: I recently flew from Sao Paolo to New York on TAM with my son. We had purchased “comfort seats” for this flight, for $75 each, and were assigned seats 27C and 27A. When we boarded the flight, we found that these seats had been double booked, and other passengers were already in those seats, with valid tickets.
There were no other comfort seats available, although both business and first class were mostly empty.
Following very long discussions with a flight attendant, we were informed that we were to accept “regular” coach seats far back in the plane, and that we would receive a refund for the $150 we paid for the comfort seats.
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What to do when your lie-flat seat doesn’t lie flat
OK, I’ll admit that I poke fun at the “entitleds” behind the curtain as much as the next guy wedged into one of those sardine-class airline seats.
Oh, those elites whining about the temperature of their Chardonnay or the service that isn’t sufficiently obsequious. To have their problems!
And honestly, I wouldn’t even mention the following case unless the airline in question had started making so much noise about its superior comfort and friendliness, especially in the front of the cabin.
No need to sit through the entire video. Take it from me: It’s slick, it’s inspiring and there’s absolutely no way they filmed that in actual economy class seats.
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Kicked off the plane for having a few pre-flight G&Ts
And why wouldn’t he? The drinks in the lounge are included in your membership, and it’s almost a six-hour flight. Nothing like a G&T or two to make you fall asleep, right?
That’s exactly what happened to Murray, who’d given up 40,000 miles and $1,200 for his upgrade to first class. It wasn’t the only thing he would give up that day.
After Murray fell asleep shortly before takeoff, he felt a tap on his shoulder.
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Looking for a better airline seat? There’s a site for that
Vicki Morwitz does. Hers involves a long-haul plane trip, a minuscule economy-class enclosure and a circuitous routing that deposited her at her destination feeling exhausted and irritated.
So when a friend invited her to test a new online booking site that evaluates airline seats for their comfort, she had to try it. “I care about fares,” says Morwitz, a business professor who lives in New York. “But I also care a lot about the travel experience.”
Read more “Looking for a better airline seat? There’s a site for that”