We're packed like sardines. And we're blaming the other sardines.
Every year the row gets tighter and the seat gets thinner. Then someone reclines, and the fight is with them, not with the airline that sold off the inches.
Contents: 1 adult per 17 inches of seat and 31 inches of row, down from 18.5 and 35.5 No legal minimum. Congress asked for one in 2018.8
Pull the ring to open the tin.
How the fight starts
The space gets cut in a boardroom. The fight happens in row 14.
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United, Newark to Denver. One passenger locks the seat in front with a $21.95 “Knee Defender”. The argument turns physical, and the plane lands in Chicago to put both of them off.1
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American, Miami to Paris. A passenger erupts when the seat in front reclines, and the flight diverts to Boston.2
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Delta, LaGuardia to West Palm Beach. The same argument, diverted to Jacksonville. That's three diversions in about two weeks.3
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A video of a man punching the reclined seat in front of him goes viral. The internet argues about whether she should have reclined. Nobody asks who decided how much room either of them got.4
Who took the inches
Not the person in front of you. Drawn to the same scale:
- Since 2017: United rebuilds its 777s from 9 seats a row to 10, adding about 20 seats per plane.67
- 2018: Congress orders the FAA to set minimum seat sizes.8
- 2022: The FAA asks the public about seat sizes and gets more than 26,000 comments.9
- 2023: The FAA says minimum sizes aren't needed for safety and turns down a petition for them.10
- Today: There's still no minimum.
The person in 14C isn't your enemy. The seat map is.
Point the anger where the inches went. See your own seat drawn to scale, then tell the people who can change it.
On the shelf
- ComfortAir Airline seats, drawn to your size. Open now.
- Overhead binsComing next
- Stadium seatsComing next
- Sun loungersComing next
More tins as we find more squeezes.