Show notes
Recorded 25 April 2020 Written by: Geoff Dahl & Vinod Viswalingam Listen to this experience wherever you download your podcasts - including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn, Google Play, Google Podcasts, and Overcast. • Listen to it on Apple Podcasts. • Stream by clicking here. • Download as an MP3 by right-clicking here and choosing "save as." In this experience we look at seating configuration on aircraft in economy or coach class. These days, with the COVID-19 pandemic, people are wondering about seating and what it might look like in the future. We will still need to pick our seats. Vinod has great stress when he picks a seat – particularly on long-haul flights – checking all angles of what his seat experience will be. Seat comfort has come a long way – increasing seat comfort used to mean adding more padding. Geoff shares his experience sitting in an aircraft seat from a Lockheed Constellation...my how far we've come. Even though airplane manufacturers have a row plan dictating how seats are set out, the actual number of seats, seat pitch and cabin layout is up to the airline. Can low cost carriers add additional rows – Vinod shares a memory of going through this. What is seat pitch? What do you need to research when selecting a seat? Remember that even if the plane type is the same at an airline, it may not be configured the same way. What happens if the airline reduces the amount of premium cabin? Remember that if an airline is charging a premium for a seat selection, it might not be the best seat. We're not telling you what the best seat is, since we all have our own reasons. What's the most stable seat? Where's the galley...the lavatory? How narrow is your seat? Is your airline using festival-style seating? What are some strategies for festival-style seating airlines? What should you watch out for? Vinod shares a story how old-school thick foam padding protected him on a flight to London Heathrow. Vinod shares a story of getting moved a seat that would only recline on the way to AMS. Vinod shares a standby experience when he got a special seat. There is a tip on what to ask about if your flight is oversold or cancelled. Vinod shares another crazy story – this time with festival seating on a 777 from GRU to JFK. But sometimes flights are wide open – Geoff shares an experience from LHR to YYC where he had four seats to himself. News Items: Simple Flying article "IATA Head Says Social Distancing Will End Cheap Travel". Skift article "EasyJet May Ditch Middle Seats When Flights Return". Financial Times article "Ryanair will not return to flying if middle seats must be empty, says chief". Aviointeriors "Glassafe" and "Janus" seat designs. If you have a story about seating configuration on flights, a question, or other experience that you would like to share, please email us at stories(at)seat1a.org or find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Patreon. Show notes are available online at http://podcast.seat1a.org/. SELECTED LINKS FROM THIS EPISODE EXPERIENCE Seat 1A Experience 017 - Vinod's very meticulous RTW seat planning (show notes and audio) New York John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) TWA hotel TWA Connie Cocktail Lounge Douglas DC-3 (airliners.net) Buffalo Airways (J4) Etihad Airways (EY) Etihad (EY) Airbus 380 Residence Cabin McDonnell Douglas DC-10 (airliners.net) Lockheed L-1011 500 TriStar (airliners.net) Boeing 737-800 (airliners.net) WestJet (WS) Seat Pitch (Wikipedia) AirAsia (AK) Sunwing Airlines (WG) Deadheading (Wikipedia) Scoot (TR) Singapore Changi Airport (SIN) Penang International Airport (PEN) SeatGuru seatmaestro SeatExpert Japan Airlines (JL) ANA (NH) British Airways (BA) Lufthansa (LH) Boeing Commercial Airplanes Airbus Commercial Aircraft Airbus A340 (airbus.com) Airbus 330 (airbus.com) Airbus 380 (airbus.com) Boeing 747-400 (airliners.net) Boeing 747-8 (boeing.com) Delta Air Lines (DL) Northwest Airlines (NW - ceased operations 2010) (Wikipedia) Air Canada (AC) Boeing 777-200 LR (airliners.net) Boeing 777-300 ER (airliners.net) Boeing 737 MAX (Boeing) London Heathrow (LHR) London Gatwick Airport (LGW) HM Revenue and Customs (gov.uk) Airplane galley (Wikipedia) Seat 1A Experience 030 - Cleanliness on airlines and the lavatory door (show notes and audio) Seat 1A Experience 025 - Food serving order (show notes and audio) SeatGuru Air Canada 777-300 (row 31) seat map Slide pack picture by bulkhead (9to5travel.com .jpg | February 2011) Bulkhead seating The Advantages and Disadvantages of Bulkhead Seats (seatmaestro.com) Boeing 767-200 (airliners.net) Southwest Airlines (WN) RECARO Aircraft Seating Edmonton International Airport (YEG) 8th IAAF World Championships 03-12 August 2001 (worldathletics.org) Boeing 767-300 (airliners.net) M25 London Orbital Motorway (Wikipedia) Seat 1A Experience 028 - The Aircraft Turnaround (show notes and audio) KLM (KL) Vancouver International Airport (YVR) Amsterdam Airport Schiphol (AMS) Calgary International Airport (YYC) American Airlines (AA) Lima Jorge Chávez International Airport (LIM) Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) Boeing 757 (airliners.net) La-Z-Boy (Wikipedia) VARIG (RG - "old" VARIG ceased operations 2006 and "new" VARIG ceased operations 2009) (Wikipedia) São Paulo–Guarulhos International Airport (GRU) Schedule of charges for air terminals - John F. Kennedy International Airport (The Port Authority of New York & New Jersey PDF | January 2020) United Airlines (UA) Singapore Airlines (SQ) Ryanair (FR) EasyJet (U2, DS, EC) Great Circle Mapper GRU-JFK (gcmap.com) Star Alliance Gold Status Cathay Pacific (CX) Hong Kong International Airport (HKG) Thomas Cook Airlines (UK) (MT – ceased operations 2019) (Wikipedia) IATA (International Air Transport Association) AvTalk Podcast Flightradar24 Aviointeriors Janus (Wikipedia) Marge Simpson (Wikipedia) NEWS ITEMS simpleflying.com | IATA Head Says Social Distancing Will End Cheap Travel (22 April 2020) https://simpleflying.com/iata-social-distancing-cheap/ "...The Director General of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), Alexandre de Juniac, believes that social distancing will end cheap travel. This is according to statements made at a briefing on April 21st. His rationale is that, with fewer seats available, it means that airlines will have to increase prices to turn a profit..." IATA (International Air Transport Association) skift.com | EasyJet May Ditch Middle Seats When Flights Return (16 April 2020) https://skift.com/2020/04/16/easyjet-may-ditch-middle-seats-when-flights-return/ "...EasyJet may keep middle seats empty to follow physical distancing rules once coronavirus travel restrictions are lifted, its chief executive has said..." EasyJet (U2, DS, EC) Financial Times | Ryanair will not return to flying if middle seats must be empty, says chief (22 April 2020) https://www.ft.com/content/ddb067bd-c54d-49cd-be1c-bda77f8b8527 "...Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary warned the low-cost airline would not return to flying if governments insist planes leave their middle seats empty when travel restrictions are lifted following the coronavirus pandemic..." Ryanair (FR) Aviointeriors | "Glassafe" and "Janus" seat designs (20 April 2020)http://aviointeriors.it/2020/press/glassafe/ "...A kit-level solution that can be installed on existing seats to make close proximity safer among passengers sharing the same seat..."http://aviointeriors.it/2020/press/janus-seat/ "...Like two-faced Janus, the god of Ancient Rome, this proposal is distinguished by the reverse position of the center seat of the triple to ensure the maximum isolation between passengers seated next to each other..." Aviointeriors PODCAST CORRECTIONS, CLARIFICATIONS, CONFIRMATIONS Responsibility for the protection of the UK's borders passed from HM Revenue and Customs to the UK Border Agency within the Home Office on 1 April 2008 and then to Border Force on 1 March 2012. Home Secretary's statement on border security (gov.uk | 20 February 2012) Seat Guru was founded in October 2001. PEOPLE MENTIONED Alexandre de Juniac (iata.org) Michael O'Leary (Wikipedia) SHOW NOTES What's in this experience? [00:00:59] Current state of events. [00:01:18] Seating has always been a factor at airlines. [00:02:02] Vinod has great stress with picking the seat. [00:03:24] Until recently, seat comfort meant more foam padding. [00:04:54] Geoff's experience in a Lockheed Constellation at TWA hotel at JFK. [00:05:53] In this experience we are going to focus on economy class seating. [00:06:55] Economy Class / Coach / Cattle Class. [00:07:20] Aircraft manufacturers have a row plan dictating how seats are set out. [00:07:42] Number of seats, distance between seats and what cabin looks like is all the airline's decision. [00:08:11] Low cost carriers wonder if they can fit another row of seats. [00:08:37] Adding rows to aircraft happened to Vinod at WestJet. [00:08:49] Key term - seat pitch. What is it? [00:09:22] What to do when you are selecting a seat. [00:11:22] Research what aircraft you're booked on. [00:11:32] When an airline has an aircraft type, not all of them are identical. [00:12:10] Airlines will use versions or regional variants. [00:12:52] If seats are eliminated from premium classes, how does that affect service and galley numbers for economy seating? [00:13:20] Planes flying in 2020 might be smaller than what flew earlier on the same route. [00:14:39] You don't need to be a full-on avgeek to figure out these sites. [00:14:52] If an airline is charging a premium for the seat it isn't always a better seat. [00:16:12] We're not telling you what is the best seat, since we have our own reasons. [00:16:41] The most stable seats. [00:17:05] Where's the galley in relation to your seat.. [00:18:46] ...And the lavatory. [00:19:27] Vinod revisits his lav rant from Experience 030. [00:20:03] Who gets served first? [00:20:22] Vinod looks at AC example on SeatGuru. [00:20:41] How narrow is your seat? [00:20:50] Some airlines use festival-style seating. [00:26:17] Strategies for boarding European low-cost carriers. [00:27:25] Watch out what row you pick for the emergency exit seats. [00:28:06] Recline as something to consider [00:28:49] The evolution of seat foam technology. [00:29:57] Airplane seat manufacturer RECARO. [00:30:29] Thick foam seating protected Vinod on a flight to LHR. [00:31:02] What happens when the plane touched down? [00:34:20] Very large passenger sitting beside Vinod on flight to Amsterdam. [00:36:56] Vinod was transferred to a seat with broken recline. [00:39:09] Vinod had a special seat experience from Lima to Dallas. [00:41:04] Tip from Vinod - test your seat recline if you're one of the first passengers on. [00:43:39] Tip to ask about on oversold or cancelled flights, "Are you using the crew seats today?" [00:44:52] Vinod's GRU-JFK crazy festival seating experience on Varig. [00:45:25] The evolution of the 777 seating. [00:51:30] Sometimes flights are wide open. [00:52:44] Sometimes Vinod has held his ground about switching his seat. [00:55:21] News Stories [00:56:06] Simple Flying article "IATA Head Says Social Distancing Will End Cheap Travel." [00:56:09] Skift article "EasyJet May Ditch Middle Seats When Flights Return." [00:56:39] Financial Times article "Ryanair will not return to flying if middle seats must be empty, says chief" [00:57:37] Aviointeriors: Glassafe - new seat design for close proximity safety. [00:58:51] Aviointeriors: Janus - new two-seat design for close proximity safety. [01:00:38] Learning points from this experience. [01:02:09] Wrap-up. [01:02:32]