SOURCE: Microsoft bCentral http://www.bcentral.com/articles/elliott/155.asp Sardine seats: 5 worst economy-class sections Power Trip / Christopher Elliott For many experienced travelers, sitting in an economy-class section is=20 about as desirable as eating nothing but peanut-butter crackers for 12=20 hours. Many travel pros will go to great lengths to avoid the back of the=20 plane. They'll plead for upgrades to business class. They'll hover=20 around the gate and argue with the overworked airline employees. They'll=20 even wait until the next flight if there's a chance they can score an=20 upgrade. Not all tourist-class sections are created equal, of course. Carriers=20 such as Midwest Airlines, American Airlines and JetBlue Airways=20 occasionally offer more legroom, better in-flight entertainment or more=20 palatable meals to customers sitting in the sardine seats. You probably already know about these steerage sections with class =97=20 either from one of the surveys published by Travel + Leisure, The=20 Official Airline Guide, or our good friends at J.D. Power & Associates,=20 or from one of the many travel articles that have praised these standout=20 airlines. It's nice to be positive, and I've even written columns mentioning the=20 various cattle-car sections that don't violate our human rights. I think=20 it's important to mention the good airlines. But what about the worst offenders? These are the carriers that pack us=20 in, treat us worse than livestock, and then deposit us at an airport=20 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=20 you to tag the five worst offenders among the domestic airlines. (For=20 information on legroom, I consulted a useful Web site called Skytrax.) Here's what you told me: 1. Delta Air Lines. "Delta has by far the most uncomfortable coach=20 class," says Stan Szymanski, a safety consultant from Addison, Texas.=20 "The MIR space station was probably an upgrade over Delta's economy=20 class," adds Mark Moore, an executive from Flower Mound, Texas. How=20 come? It's the narrow seats, claims consultant Dan Wise of Benicia,=20 Calif. "Plus, they like to put three big guys in the same row." Now in=20 the interests of fairness, let me explain that a humane amount of=20 so-called seat "pitch" is considered to be at least 34 inches. The=20 distance between Delta's seats in economy class =97 about 32 inches =97 i= s=20 the industry average, so it's not as if Delta is trying to torture us=20 any more than its competitors. According to those of you who contacted me, it's more a=20 combination of poor service and cramped flying conditions that puts=20 Delta over the top. (Coincidentally, Delta recently admitted that its=20 service had slipped and promised to do better; so hopefully this carrier=20 will work its way off this list.) My opinion: Delta's economy class is as bad as its business class=20 and first class are good, which may in itself make an interesting case=20 study in a college Marxism class. When I leave the plane after sitting=20 in cattle class, my back is sore and my ego bruised from the unkind=20 treatment at the hand of the flight attendants. Things can only get bette= r. 2. Northwest Airlines. Critics call this airline "North-worst," in=20 large part because of its dreadful economy-class sections. Sonia Vining,=20 a music teacher from Plymouth, Mich., recently flew to Honolulu on the=20 carrier, and she says =97 this is a direct quote, folks =97 "Northwest=20 sucked the big one." She says the service was so awful that she was=20 hard-pressed to get a second can of Diet Coke on a seven-hour flight.=20 "When people tell me Northwest isn't really 'North-worst,' I have a hard=20 time believing it," she adds. The same goes for Linda Urban, a retired=20 nurse who recently flew from Cincinnati to Maui on Northwest. "It was=20 the most uncomfortable flight I have ever had," she recalls. "I had=20 bruises on my knees by the time I got to my final destinations." Hmm,=20 maybe that's because Northwest's economy-class seats have only 31 inches=20 of space between seats? My opinion: I've had some rough flights on Northwest, too, but=20 things are looking up. Its new Airbus A330 jets are reportedly roomier=20 and even offer personalized video programming in coach class. 3. United Airlines. I don't like to kick an airline when it's down,=20 but readers didn't seem to have a problem pummeling this ailing carrier.=20 "After United reconfigured its cabins to accommodate the 'Economy Plus,'=20 those of us who generally fly in the economy section started suffering=20 from leg cramps, numbness from having the circulation in our legs cut=20 off, extreme heat, and lack of oxygen," says Sharon Miller, a traveler=20 from Gardner, Mass. Among her gripes: hostile employees, lack of service=20 and inadequate space. "If animals were treated the way human beings are=20 on United Airlines flights, every animal rights organization in the=20 world would be initiating court actions against it," she adds. The=20 numbers don't lie: United's space between seats is about one inch less=20 than the standard, so it's a real squeeze. My opinion: OK, so Economy Plus =97 which basically created anothe= r=20 class of service =97 was a terrible idea. And I've also suffered in the=20 steerage section of United Airlines' garden-variety economy class. But=20 it looks as if the carrier is trying to buy a clue. Its new low-fare=20 spinoff is said to be imitating traveler favorites such as Southwest and=20 JetBlue with more generous one-class seating configurations. 4. US Airways. Again, I don't like to beat up on an airline that's=20 already suffering so much. But that's not a problem for Dick Esposito, a=20 convention coordinator from San Diego. US Airways "has the worst=20 legroom," he says (actually, it offers 33 inches, but for many=20 travelers, including me, that's hardly enough). He also doesn't like the=20 service. When he wanted to buy one of the $7 meals on a recent flight,=20 he had to press the flight-attendant "call" button in order to get=20 served =97 no one came by his seat to offer him a meal. When he asked for= =20 a drink, a crew member poured a beverage into a plastic cup but kept the=20 remainder of the drink. Esposito is right about the customer service. In the last several=20 years, but especially lately as the airline underwent Chapter 11=20 bankruptcy protection (it emerged from Chapter 11 in March 2003), I've=20 received a lot of complaints about its product, both in the air and on=20 the ground. Clearly, US Airways has a Delta-size challenge when it comes=20 to its customer service. But I'm sure it already knew that. My opinion: Although I've endured many an uncomfortable flight in=20 US Airways' economy class, I can't bring myself to agreeing that its=20 problems are insurmountable. For every incompetent employee I've met,=20 there's an equally able person who loves the airline and wants it to=20 succeed. It's these people who will rescue the airline from mediocrity=20 and ensure US Airways never shows up on this list again. 5. Continental Airlines. This was a close call, as there were many=20 other domestic carriers vying for a place on this list. But in the end,=20 the words of one of its own employees put the airline over the top. This=20 veteran airline worker recently traveled on his own airline with his=20 handicapped daughter, and had this to say about the experience: "I am=20 appalled at the way my fellow employees treat our customers. We were=20 treated like we were the biggest inconvenience that ever faced the=20 earth. I see on a daily basis the way people treat each other at=20 Continental, and it is terrible." The airline worker blames the problem on poor staffing and lack=20 of support by management. But does dreadful employee morale translate=20 into one of the worst economy-class sections in the skies? When you're=20 only offering 31 inches of space between seats, it does.=20 Congratulations, Continental. My opinion: Six years ago I wouldn't have hesitated to put=20 Continental at the top of this list. The fact that it is scraping the=20 bottom now =97 or should I say, the top? =97 is proof that it's trying to= =20 turn things around. Spacing the seats out and addressing some employee=20 issues might make it vanish from this list the next time I update it. I=20 think it can. Of course, it's possible that we expect too much out of economy class to=20 begin with. During the course of researching this column, I spoke with=20 some travelers, such as Michael McNeil, a health-education coordinator=20 for a university in Philadelphia, who argued that our demands are=20 unreasonable. "I see commercial airlines as companies that I pay to=20 transport me from one place to another," McNeil says. "They are not=20 there to feed me, pamper me, or cater to my every whim. They provide me=20 with safe transport from point 'A' to point 'B' =97 and I thank them for = it." Christopher Elliott is the editor of Elliott's E-mail, a free weekly=20 newsletter for travelers, and the publisher of Triprights.com, a site=20 about travel rights. You can e-mail him or visit his Web site. --=20 David Mueller / MRY dmueller7@xxxxxxxxx http://www.quanterium.com