Feeling squeezed in your airplane's economy seating?

More than ever, air travelers are complaining about feeling squeezed in economy class cabins, especially those who are six feet or taller. Compared to flying just a few years ago, most US domestic economy class passengers have a right to complain, as seats have shrunk along with their legroom.
Much of the problem is due to a reduction in seat pitch. Seat pitch is the distance from one seat to the same point on the seat in front or behind it. It’s not exactly equivalent to legroom, but it’s close.
Seat pitch is being reduced in airplanes by airlines eager to beef up profits by adding extra rows of seats into their planes.
About three years ago, Southwest Airlines began increasing the number of seats in its Boeing 737–700’s from 137 to 143 seats, which has reduced seat pitch in the planes to 31 inches. They also changed their seats to thinner cushions to ameliorate the smaller space, but for taller fliers, the thinner seats don’t make up for the seat pitch loss.
Last year, American Airlines began increasing the number of seats on its Boeing 737–800’s from 150–160, reducing seat pitch. Earlier, United began reducing seat pitch on numerous planes to add an extra row in economy. Delta Air Lines also added seats to its 737-800s, raising its capacity to 160. Delta even reduced the size of its lavatories by using smaller toilets on its 737–900’s to increase the number of seats on its planes. Starting next year, Jet Blue is expected to increase the seating capacity of their Airbus 320’s from 150 to 165 seats, dropping seat pitch by as much as 2 inches.
Now that many US domestic airlines have generally reduced their economy cabin seat pitch to 31 inches, all but very short flights have become uncomfortable for tall passengers and are even making flights unpleasant for shorter passengers.
Even some international flights aren’t being spared a capacity increase/seating makeover. Today, American Airlines flies Boeing 777–200’s with 247 seats, an uneconomical design of 16 first, 37 business and 194 economy class seats. The new seating eliminates first class, keeps the 37 business class seats, and increases economy seating to 252, including 48 economy extra seats, which totals a 17 percent increase in passenger capacity.
Typically, as the airlines add more rows, they are also moving to “slim-line” seats, which have thinner seat back cushions. The thinner seats allow the airlines to add seats and reduce the weight per seat, so they’re more economical to fly.
I’ve flown in “slim-line” seats and find them less comfortable than traditional economy seating, which were never particularly comfortable. Apparently, I’m not alone.
In a survey of 1,391 air travelers by TripAdvisor, while almost half the travelers weren’t sure if they were sitting in the new “slim-line” seats, of those whom were sure, 8 percent said they were more comfortable, 9 percent said there was no difference, and a whopping 83 percent agreed the “slim-line” seats were less comfortable than traditional economy seating.
If the increase in economy class seating capacity, leading to smaller seat pitch, decreasing legroom and passenger comfort aren’t enough of a problem for air travelers, now legroom is under assault by new entertainment systems.
American Airlines, for example, is installing in-flight entertainment systems in their narrow body Boeing and Airbus aircraft. The system equipment boxes are about 3.25 inches wide and they’re being installed underneath aisle seats. That’s about 20 percent of the space under American’s Boeing 737 seats. It’s not quite that bad on their Airbus planes, but on them the boxes are being installed under both window and middle seats.
The problem with the reduced space is twofold. Some legitimately sized carry-ons and personal items won’t fit under the seats with the entertainment system boxes, plus the boxes significantly reduce legroom even when nothing is stowed there.
American clearly thinks the benefits of the new systems — with more than 250 movies and TV shows — will outweigh their disadvantages, but for anyone taller than about 5 feet, 9 inches, I doubt it.
American is looking to reduce the problem of their big entertainment boxes, but apparently some will remain.
There’s another problem with the entertainment boxes. Right now, when you make your reservation and choose your seat, you’ll have no idea if you’ll be sitting behind a seat with the box underneath it. Delta, United and American don’t show the box locations on their seat maps, apparently because their locations from plane to plane are inconsistent. Even venerable SeatGuru.com doesn’t have the information at this time.
The entertainment equipment boxes are a major problem that needs to be eliminated. I don’t understand why the airlines aren’t looking to streaming systems which wouldn’t require more than a media server and Wi-Fi-based streaming system.
Based on my experience with the new seating, I believe airline economy seating is now at a tipping point. The TripAdvisor poll is indicative of this. The “thin-line” seating leaves a lot to be desired, and the reduced seat pitch is horrible. Any further reduction in economy seating quality will bring out the worst in passengers.