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Extreme Reservations
Power Trip · November 3, 2003

A seat assignment in economy class is about as desirable as a protracted stopover in a smoke-filled airport terminal or consuming airline food that gives you heartburn, to hear travelers talk about it.

In fact, experienced fliers will go to great lengths to avoid the back of the plane. They plead for upgrades to business class (yes, I’ve seen them get on their knees and beg). They hover around the gate and argue with the overworked airline employees. They even wait until the next flight if there’s a chance they can score an upgrade.

Not all tourist-class sections are created equal, of course. Carriers such as Midwest Airlines, American Airlines and JetBlue Airways occasionally offer more legroom, better in-flight entertainment or more palatable meals to customers sitting in the sardine seats.

You probably already know about these steerage sections with class — either from one of the surveys published by Travel + Leisure, The Official Airline Guide, or our good friends at J.D. Power & Associates, or from one of the many travel articles that have praised these standout airlines.

It's nice to be positive, and I've even written columns mentioning the various cattle-car sections that don't violate our human rights. I think it's important to mention the good airlines.

But what about the worst offenders? These are the carriers that pack us in, treat us worse than livestock, and then deposit us at an airport terminal, where we vow never to fly on a commercial airline again.

Don't look to the surveys for help here. Instead, I recently turned to you to tag the five worst offenders among the domestic airlines. (For information on legroom, I consulted a useful Web site called Skytrax.)

Here's what you told me:

Delta Air Lines. "Delta has by far the most uncomfortable coach class," says Stan Szymanski, a safety consultant from Addison, Texas. "The MIR space station was probably an upgrade over Delta's economy class," adds Mark Moore, an executive from Flower Mound, Texas. How come? It's the narrow seats, claims consultant Dan Wise of Benicia, Calif. "Plus, they like to put three big guys in the same row." Now in the interests of fairness, let me explain that a humane amount of so-called seat "pitch" is considered to be at least 34 inches. The distance between Delta's seats in economy class — about 32 inches — is the industry average, so it's not as if Delta is trying to torture us any more than its competitors.

According to those of you who contacted me, it's more a combination of poor service and cramped flying conditions that puts Delta over the top. (Coincidentally, Delta recently admitted that its service had slipped and promised to do better; so hopefully this carrier will work its way off this list.)

My opinion: Delta's economy class is as bad as its business class and first class are good, which may in itself make an interesting case study in a college Marxism class. When I leave the plane after sitting in cattle class, my back is sore and my ego bruised from the unkind treatment at the hand of the flight attendants. Things can only get better.

Northwest Airlines. Critics call this airline "North-worst," in large part because of its dreadful economy-class sections. Sonia Vining, a music teacher from Plymouth, Mich., recently flew to Honolulu on the carrier, and she says — this is a direct quote, folks — "Northwest sucked the big one." She says the service was so awful that she was hard-pressed to get a second can of Diet Coke on a seven-hour flight. "When people tell me Northwest isn't really 'North-worst,' I have a hard time believing it," she adds. The same goes for Linda Urban, a retired nurse who recently flew from Cincinnati to Maui on Northwest. "It was the most uncomfortable flight I have ever had," she recalls. "I had bruises on my knees by the time I got to my final destinations." Hmm, maybe that's because Northwest's economy-class seats have only 31 inches of space between seats?

My opinion: I've had some rough flights on Northwest, too, but things are looking up. Its new Airbus A330 jets are reportedly roomier and even offer personalized video programming in coach class.

United Airlines. I don't like to kick an airline when it's down, but readers didn't seem to have a problem pummeling this ailing carrier. "After United reconfigured its cabins to accommodate the 'Economy Plus,' those of us who generally fly in the economy section started suffering from leg cramps, numbness from having the circulation in our legs cut off, extreme heat, and lack of oxygen," says Sharon Miller, a traveler from Gardner, Mass. Among her gripes: hostile employees, lack of service and inadequate space. "If animals were treated the way human beings are on United Airlines flights, every animal rights organization in the world would be initiating court actions against it," she adds. The numbers don't lie: United's space between seats is about one inch less than the standard, so it's a real squeeze.

My opinion: OK, so Economy Plus — which basically created another class of service — was a terrible idea. And I've also suffered in the steerage section of United Airlines' garden-variety economy class. But it looks as if the carrier is trying to buy a clue. Its new low-fare spinoff is said to be imitating traveler favorites such as Southwest and JetBlue with more generous one-class seating configurations.

US Airways. Again, I don't like to beat up on an airline that's already suffering so much. But that's not a problem for Dick Esposito, a convention coordinator from San Diego. US Airways "has the worst legroom," he says (actually, it offers 33 inches, but for many travelers, including me, that's hardly enough). He also doesn't like the service. When he wanted to buy one of the $7 meals on a recent flight, he had to press the flight-attendant "call" button in order to get served — no one came by his seat to offer him a meal. When he asked for a drink, a crew member poured a beverage into a plastic cup but kept the remainder of the drink.

Esposito is right about the customer service. In the last several years, but especially lately as the airline underwent Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection (it emerged from Chapter 11 in March 2003), I've received a lot of complaints about its product, both in the air and on the ground. Clearly, US Airways has a Delta-size challenge when it comes to its customer service. But I'm sure it already knew that.

My opinion: Although I've endured many an uncomfortable flight in US Airways' economy class, I can't bring myself to agreeing that its problems are insurmountable. For every incompetent employee I've met, there's an equally able person who loves the airline and wants it to succeed. It's these people who will rescue the airline from mediocrity and ensure US Airways never shows up on this list again.

Continental Airlines. This was a close call, as there were many other domestic carriers vying for a place on this list. But in the end, the words of one of its own employees put the airline over the top. This veteran airline worker recently traveled on his own airline with his handicapped daughter, and had this to say about the experience: "I am appalled at the way my fellow employees treat our customers. We were treated like we were the biggest inconvenience that ever faced the earth. I see on a daily basis the way people treat each other at Continental, and it is terrible."

The airline worker blames the problem on poor staffing and lack of support by management. But does dreadful employee morale translate into one of the worst economy-class sections in the skies? When you're only offering 31 inches of space between seats, it does. Congratulations, Continental.

My opinion: Six years ago I wouldn't have hesitated to put Continental at the top of this list. The fact that it is scraping the bottom now — or should I say, the top? — is proof that it's trying to turn things around. Spacing the seats out and addressing some employee issues might make it vanish from this list the next time I update it. I think it can.

Of course, it's possible that we expect too much out of economy class to begin with. During the course of researching this column, I spoke with some travelers, such as Michael McNeil, a health-education coordinator for a university in Philadelphia, who argued that our demands are unreasonable. "I see commercial airlines as companies that I pay to transport me from one place to another," McNeil says. "They are not there to feed me, pamper me, or cater to my every whim. They provide me with safe transport from point 'A' to point 'B' — and I thank them for it."

Christopher Elliott is a travel commentator based in Key Largo, Fla. All e-mailed questions may be edited, condensed or republished at the site's discretion.

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