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Comment by luxuryballs | Hacker News Reader

“As long as you can make it cheaper and able to fit more total passengers than the boring regular seat then we have a deal.” - Mr. Airline

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I think the bottom line is that people aren't, on average, actually willing to pay higher prices for flying with more room. So you could just as easily replace "- Mr Airline" with "- Everyone Involved"

That's an easy conclusion to take, but I would observe it's pretty difficult to shop seat size, and the plane can be swapped for a different one at any time without warning. I understand seat upgrades like economy plus can also be revoked at boarding time.

I upgraded to premium economy for $80 and the two friends I was traveling with gave me shit about it at both ends of the flight. All three of us were highly paid at the time. "That's over 10%!" exclaimed one (flights were ~$700). Uh, ok? I'm gonna physically and mentally torture myself for five ours over $80?

I'm sure there's a fascinating behavioral evolution story behind this and I'd love to know what it is. It feels similar to the way lots of people will spend more time and money driving to a cheaper gas station, than they save on the cheaper gas.

Which route has premium economy for only 10% more?

This was something they offered at the last minute, either at checkin or maybe the gate. It was MTJ->EWR, United.

*Oh yeah and they ended up in row 35 or something like that.

That's the stand-up seat.[1]

[1] https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/standing-up-airplane-seat...

The real grift is that despite the claims in that article, we all know what will really happen to the prices: standing seats will cost what economy seats used to, and every other tier bumps up.

The cost of flying has gone down significantly over time so I would not be so sure about that.

The price per square inch of human space has probably stayed the same after inflation adjustment. People on average are just more likely to buy cheaper seats than more room, so by natural selection we get smaller seats.

Fares have come down in absolute dollar terms (let alone inflation adjusted) over the last twenty years, while economy seat sizes have barely changed.

What has changed is yield management — airlines have got much better at flying with as few empty seats as possible. So the main thing that has gone down to allow prices to decrease in real terms is your chance of getting an empty seat next to you.

Economy seat sizes haven't changed? Do you have a source for that? I'm including leg room when I say size has decreased. I honestly don't know but would be surprised, common wisdom is that leg room is much less over last 30 years.

I've had my knees touching the front seat for as long as I can remember, it was already this way in the 90's. Maybe it's airline dependent.

They definitely have. I recently got an old plane for a low volume flight, and the difference was night and day.

> "I hope that someone would consider this kind of opportunity -- this is something new. You do not have background for this, you cannot base judgment on previous experiences. We are exploring a new world."

The man says desperately trying to convince anyone that this is a good idea. Also he's talking about 'short-haul' flights then mentions 3 hours which is not exactly a short time to be stand-squat-sitting on a bike seat...

In the UK there are several 2-3 hour train routes that are routinely standing room only. It's not a big deal.

Do people stand for that entire time? That’s some third-world country shit.

Huh? I stood for 2 hours on the Shinkansen in Japan. The non reserved car was quite full.

I'd go for a bunk-bed cabin myself. I wouldn't mind lying on my back all flight with limited headroom if I could read a book and my knees weren't being jammed by the seat in front of me.

Yes! I can’t understand why we can’t have this, like a sleeper bus.

If I were to guess it’s probably because of aircraft evacuation and/or safety standards.

Or maybe it’s just not straightforward to make bunk beds fit with potential need for more aisles, or dealing with the cylindrical shape of the aircraft.

My guess is some combination of tradition / not having enough people able-bodied to climb into the top bunk / evacuation speed. Pure speculation, though.

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