Join the discussion
Write your take first — we'll ask for email only when you're ready to publish.
- Hacker News
- How about seats that are adjustable to fit small people. I'm sick of sitting in seats with concave lumbar regions. It tears up my back. I know, I know, the seats need to accommodate large, more spherical people. Cant there be an adjustable lumbar support though?by krunck
- Since we are voicing seat related complaints, I want seats that don't recline. I don't want that asshole in front of me ruining my flight again.by neonstatic
- Fun fact: Airbus doesn't choose the seats, the airline does. Airbus only installs them.by spit2wind
- Seats are airline equipment. They depend on the airline and it's suppliers and are optionally assembled by Airbus.by sassbadger
- My wife's short so she's actually quite uncomfortable in a business class seat unless it's reclined-- seat bottom length is an issue for her, sometimes even in economy. On the flipside, I'm of pretty average height, but the flat seat cushions mean I always feel like I'm sitting awkwardly on my tailbone. I wonder why they couldn't just be more like a car seat, with some thigh support. I'm not sure I've ever been in a car seat less comfortable than the _best_ economy airline seat.by rconti
- Whenever a pillow is included on a flight, I always stuff it behind my lower back. I can't remember the last time I actually used a pillow for its intended purpose when not flying in a lie-flat seat.by kelnos
- Any time you say "adjustable" the manufacturer and operator only here "heavier" which translates to "more expensive to operate."by seanosaur
- It's a shame everyone can't fly first class, but I guess this is just life? I've had the opportunity to take an international business class flight and couldn't believe how great I felt after the trip. Huge difference getting that extra legroom to actually lay flat and sleep.
Also, the business class staff are so nice, they make you feel like a million bucks.
To the back of the plane, all you poor people!
by proee - Remember that airlines almost always opt for the more cramped and cheaper variants of interiors, asking "ok but how do we fit even more cattle in here?"by gib444
- But also remember that airline customers also opt for the more cramped and cheaper variants.by wat10000
- The first class seats look like a nightmare if you have kids.
- Good. Children do not belong in first class.by buildsjets
- In what way? So many international first class seats are similar to this already. Either there is a massive barrier between seats or separated.by infecto
- I genuinely cannot tell if this is rage-bait or not. Either way, hat tip. This kind of comment will really unleash the fury on HN.
What is so bad about having your child sit in front or in back of you? To the side might be a bit difficult as you need to reach across the aisle.
- They're a nightmare if someone else has kids, too!by rconti
- Whenever I see kids traveling in first class, it grosses me out a little. When I was a kid, we didn't have the money to fly at all; it was just road trips for us, when we could manage it.
I really think parents putting their kids in first class does them a disservice. And on top of that, if they're at all disruptive, that's incredibly rude to other first class passengers who have paid quite a bit of money for a better experience.
I always think of the early scene in the movie Home Alone when Catherine O'Hara's character asks her husband if they should feel bad about the kids flying coach while they're in business, and he assures her that the kids are fine. That's the right way to do it!
(Before the inevitable "but!"s, yes, I know that won't work super well if you just have one kid traveling with you; it's understandable that you might not feel comfortable with them sitting alone. And of course they need to be of a certain age, or have old enough siblings, to be on their own in that situation. But that's not an excuse to bring your kids up to first or business class. You should be flying with them in economy if they can't sit there on their own.)
by kelnos - Not covered: the inevitable even-smaller lavatory to further insult the dignity of the flying public.
At this point, the designers of narrow-body interiors should be actively shamed for how hostile they have made lavatory designs. In a world in which every major flying population is aging and more overweight, yet every generation of airplane lavatories is even narrower and less accessible for everyone.
by cpgxiii - Introduce a larger one that you have to sign up for digitally to wait in line and be notified when it is available and charge for the privilege. Hell, make it auction based so if you want to jump the line you can if you pay for it.by shostack
- Lavatories are seen as a waste of space because they cannot seat passengers in it. A regulation is required when the incentives are misaligned with the reality.by itopaloglu83
- Because everyone sleeps soundly with bright blue LED lighting blaring in their faces.
I fail to see what's innovative about "we shoved business class seats into a narrow-body aircraft".
An A321 is still an A321.
Flying internationally in a single-aisle aircraft is under any circumstances torture no matter how you sugar coat it: "Come fly in our modern, innovative sardine can."
By the way BA did this years ago with their London City A318 which doesn't exist anymore because it was a failure that merely burned money.
by pudgywalsh - > Because everyone sleeps soundly with bright blue LED lighting blaring in their faces.
Apropos of anything else, and leaving aside intensity, almost all of the research into blue light and sleep points to it having nearly no effect. Maybe less surprising when one of the earlier corporate proponents of this was Luxottica who just saw another opportunity to make money.
by FireBeyond - That flight was an odd bird from the outset. It didn't have the range to make NY in a single go, so it stopped in Shannon Ireland to refuel, where passengers deplaned, went through US Preclearance, and rebounded. IIRC, the US->UK return was non-stop. So one leg was longer than normal. Ultimately, it was dying on it's own when COVID drove the final nail into the coffin.by alistairSH
- I never understood why the airplane size matters so much to an individual passenger. What's the difference to me, as a standard economy passenger, between flying internationally in an A321 or a 787? I have the same tiny seat either way. My knees are crammed into the next seat's back the same on both. I see this sentiment stated frequently and I just don't get it.by wat10000
- For coach, I wish they would just stack people in laying down. Laying down for the flight would be much better than sitting. I don't see why they couldn't get the same amount of people in if they configured the plane correctly.by TheBigSalad
- As much as I'd prefer this, I assume it's for evacuation reasons. Well, that, and people wouldn't like feeling trapped.by ipdashc
- We flew from IAD to DUB on Aer Lingus a month ago. Outbound was an A321neo LR/XLR and it was not bad at all. Legroom was fine (for me at 5'7"), big overhead bins should be required these days, and the entertainment setup was passable. The only complaint was flaky seat-back trays that required a real SLAM to latch. The damn things were constantly dropping down, getting slammed back not quite hard enough, and falling again. Not all of them, but enough it was noticeable.
Return was on their A330, which was noticeable worse in every way EXCEPT it's 2-4-2 seatings, so we had a pair of outside seats to ourselves, where on the A321, it's 3-3, so you have a neighbor in the window seat.
by alistairSH - All these 2-4-2 are 20 year old aircrafts - seats are not slim. so less legroom. Airlines don't retrofit.
- The pressurization system being improved is the only thing of note in this promotional material that is for some reason on HN.by 4fterd4rk
- Is there a term for a product which is really only really for a minority of it's users?
Air travel seems like this as most airlines and manufacturers seem to bend over backwards for their wealthy and high margin passengers and basically treat economy class as "fine I guess we'll throw the rest of you in the back"
Mobile games seem the apotheosis of this as a lot of games are really about finding whales and any enjoyment anyone else has is really an accidental side effect.
by cwmma - K shaped economy.by plantain