Yes I can pay more for one of the Econo-plus seats ... but I should not have to. 6'4" is not average, yes, I realize, but so what---it's a genetic tax then? If I want to fly I have to pay more? If I were too "wide" you might say (though you shouldn't), my fault, I should lose weight. But what am I supposed to do? Saw my ankles off?
If I were the worlds tallest person, sure, you could claim exceptional circumstances. But 6'4" is not that exceptional, I submit to you.
PS I'm not criticizing you of course... only making the point that for many of us, this has become an exceptionally frustrating (and costly) experience.
As someone who is 5 foot 5 inches tall, I receive many benefits, like being able to buy my suits from children's clothing section. But if I was given the opportunity to trade my height for yours, I would pay more for my air travel every day.
Then there's the not really fitting in half the cars out there. Or amusement park rides. Or bowling shoes. Or safety equipment. Or saddles for horses.
You might complain that you can't reach things on the top shelf, try having to bend over for everything. Even to use countertops or bathrooms.
How about furniture always being short and forcing your knees to be elevated above your hips when you sit all of the time.
And beds... always too short. Want to stretch out? Only if it's a king and you lay diagonally.
Being tall is perpetual discomfort because this world is made for people of average height.
(J. K., I've never actually done that...)
Clothing options are limited and much more expensive, particularly if you're of above average height and weight. More often then not my clothing purchases are at full retail price because otherwise you have no choice. Sales are for stock items and, because of the limited supply, most big and tall items rarely last long enough to go on sale.
Height doesn't come for free, it requires additional mass and volume. That equates to higher stresses. Shoes and clothes wear out faster. I have to purchase a couple pairs of jeans a year because the knees are constantly tearing out when I kneel or squat which I have to do a lot because I'm tall and our world wasn't designed for tall people.
Medically speaking our bodies are under higher stress which results in more injuries and joint problems. We require higher dosages of medicine. Any special medical prosthesis will cost more. Anesthesia is charged by amount used. Etc...
Lets talk about cars. Immediately discount any econo class car because they don't fit. So regardless of what I want to spend or can afford, my minimum price is set higher.
I'm not sure an extra $800 a year covers all that.
I used to call myself a size 13, but after I started running, either my feet shrank or I became more aware of the fit of my shoes, and I happened to find a size 12.5, which fit so much better.
Then I discovered that most shoes don't come in a 12.5 - they usually only do half sizes up to 12. And when a shoe is made in a 12.5, most stores don't carry it. So now I get to spend a lot of time trying to decide between a 12 that sometimes pinches (whee numb toes) or a 13 that sometimes is too loose (whee blisters) or looking for shoes that run big or small that might not be the style I want/need.
And most stores at least have size 12 and 13 I can try on; I can imagine the hell of finding not just size 16 but size 16 that fit right.
This generally includes leaning slightly at a bar, or sitting in / leaning on a stool while people are standing, or spreading my legs a bit while standing, or standing further back. I also still end up with a bit of a slouch on rare occasion - something that was hard to shake from my teenage years.
These things are all pretty habitual for me now, where I don't even realize I'm doing them.
As someone who has actually run the numbers for an online dating service, I can assure you it's not "largely an American thing".
Probably not hitting low doors/beams.
Probably not breaking one's back each time one does the dishes or anything like that (or cleaning or picking low garden stuff), and the result of that after years and decades.
Probably not having one's knees already fucked at 40 (or before).
Probably not falling from higher.
Probably not being embarrassed with where to put one's long members. Probably not being uncomfortable in most means of transport. (Probably not offering a larger wind surface when cycling either.)
And probably not being nicked by the cops each time they have no idea whom to chose amongst 20 people, but they don't want to return empty handed :-D
The average height of US presidents is 5'11". The shortest president, James Madison, was 5'4' and that was in the early 19th century. Since the beginning of the 20th century average height is 6' even. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heights_of_presidents_and_pr...
In short, tall = rich and powerful.
Honestly, apart from air planes, being tall absolutely and utterly rocks.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/16/short-men-live-long...
I mean, maybe? The simple truth is that if you want to fly someone needs to pay more, because you weigh more and occupy more space in the vehicle. Is air travel something that should be subsidized in some way or not? I'm not sure that I see a clear answer here.
Alternatively: There are many financial inequalities that stem from genetics or circumstance. Is this the one we want to be fighting for?
Oh, and I'm not suggesting this because I'm 6' 5" but fit and weigh less than most chunky medium height people I know... not at all.
How so? Taller people are also often heavier, simply due to the fact that they're bigger. And if the past they tended to be slimmer relative to their height, that's no longer true for male Americans: http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/87/2/445.full
So taller people would still pay more than shorter, on average.
Someone's gender is genetic and men would pay more under your scheme as would taller people.
You may not weigh more than a very muscular or overweight person but by being longer you by definition take up more linear space.
Life has tradeoffs, you can't start correcting to make everything "fair". It's an impossible task, and not really worth anything in the end.
Alternatively, the airline could reserve them for tall people, but that risks leaving with them empty, which increases the costs for everyone.
What exactly is causing you this great discomfort? Personally the act of sitting down for so long is far more painful than anything my height causes.
I'm 1.97 (I think 6'6" according to some random website) and long-haul flights are torturous to me, I always end up with knee and leg pain, and definitely don't feel identified with "the act of sitting down for so long is far more painful than anything my height causes". It's more comfortable for me to sit on a train (good legroom) for 4X hours than on a plane for X hours (whether I can afford the extra time is another story).
i would propose except paying for seat apparently paying for weight, your already have to pay for heavier baggage anyway, why not pay more for weight, you can at least influence that unlike height
My bigger concern is the issue for traveling for work, which I do quite frequently. It does seem unfair that in order to not be in miserable pain for hours, taller people must shell out of pocket for doing something that is just part of their job. In fact, I wish airlines actually forced taller people to upgrade. That would make it so that my employer and people inviting me to give talks would be forced to pay for the upgrade to economy plus or business class.
But people want cheaper tickets and companies have their rules. I'm not sure there are good solutions other than negotiate something with your company or shell out the extra cash.
Yes, it is a genetic penalty in the sense that tons of things in life are genetic penalties / rewards. Happy with your IQ? Sad about your attractiveness? Have to spend money on acne cream? Have to buy feminine hygiene products? Not seen as attractive by the opposite gender? Sad about your lack of ability to be a professional baseball pitcher?
It's life, get over it.
Not to mention, I'm going to guess that you wouldn't trade your position with someone who's 5'4", even though you'd save a few bucks on flights.
But I have a problem with the 18" and smaller widths, and not due to abdominal or hip fat. My shoulders are just too wide -- on some planes, an aisle seat is the only thing that's comfortable unless the person next to me is small or someone I can occasionally take some space from without seeming like a jerk.
Now that I'm in my late-30s and often have occasional stiff shoulders or neck for other reasons, I've started to pay this "genetic tax" of premium seats more and more often.
Those are averages, you have no clue what the poster's salary is.
When you're broke and have to decide whether to shell out an extra 100 bucks for a cross-country flight for a funeral, or sit in pain, I don't think statistics will make you feel better.
I don't see how that would help your femur-length problem.
they should really have cabin with different layouts and assign seats according height, taller person would get more space, shorter less, but both would have same level of comfort and there would be same capacity of seats, current layout with all seats and gaps between them same is very archaic.
they should really charge people per kg, there can be short and heavy person while tall and skinny, and as i pointed above you can have same level of comfort for passengers without losing capacity assigning seats depending on size, your can do nothing about weight, this will cost airline always more so heavier people should pay more because it's directly related to fuel expenses. we already do it with baggage so why not with bodies?
As I said though, mostly useless now due to non-exit rows.
If you go from an Economy Basic seat to a Economy Plus seat I'll pay 125% more. Meaning a $39 seat now costs $90. Does it cost over 100% more to fly an over six foot person than a five foot eight person? No...
currently i pay same price as my 36cm shorter wife, so she has luxurious leg space and i suffer. it could be easily resolved if her seat would moved closer to seat in front of her and they could seat someone tall behind her. now i would be fine paying more becausei am heavier than she and there is nothing we can do about it but that would be at least rational, pay for each kg same as with luggage, but current system giving short people lot of space while they pay same as me and i suffer is not fair and i am subsidizing them with my leg space, while they get extra inches they don't need because airlines are not flexible
Do I get special accomomodations in society for being short? Where's my dating rights lawsuit?
Yes I do expect them to care about tens of millions of passengers being able to fit.
Netherlands: Kinda Tall: 94.6 Percentile
Kinda Tall is probably not something you'd call necessarily rare.
And if you check 6' 2'' (which is my height),
US: Kinda Tall: 94.6 Percentile
Netherlands: Above Average: 82.2 Percentile
So i think my point stands :)
Perhaps airlines can squeeze more passengers on and reduce fares enough that it covers the cost of having to upgrade your ticket.
Operating a "discriminatory business" is absolutely a human right, because I dont owe you any more than what I agreed to before payment. All businesses are by nature in some was discriminatory, because of the laws of physics at the very least.
And yes, amusement park rides are discriminatory, but sometimes no reasonable accommodations are possible. The design constraints mean the passenger dimensions have to fall within a certain range, or the physics math doesn't work out. It would certainly be possible to have multiple types of passenger vehicles and restraints, but it also complicates the operations, because you then have to sort passengers by size before seating them. The scope of reasonableness is subjective.
In the case of airline seating, the reasonable accommodation for ranges in height would be to reserve some seats with more legroom for tall people, and some seats with less legroom and lower seat height for short people. Height is normally distributed, so the tradeoff would tend to work out on average. But that would interfere with airlines' fare categories and gratuitous seat upgrade fees.
"Modern" regular airline seats are a nightmare for people over 6' tall.