Confessions of a Would-be Gourmand and Jetsetter

I love to fly. It’s not really any question; when I’m working at a job that doesn’t keep me traveling, I do so on my own. This gives me a lot of options – I pick the destinations and the things I want to do while traveling. There is one troubling aspect about flying, though, that I don’t really have much control over: the aircraft.

My nemesis (nemeses, perhaps) are Embraer regional jets – specifically the ERJ-135, 140, and 145s that American Eagle flies. It’s not that they are bad jets, really – it’s just that more than any other plane other than the DC-9s that Northwest still flies, their cabin configuration is just horrid. With a 2+1 seating arrangement and so little space between the seats that my knees are firmly set in the back of the chair in front of me before I even finish sitting, it’s no wonder that these little jets are the bane of my existence.

The fact is, though, that I’ve rarely been on a full flight. I think once I saw one at 75% capacity when I flew to Lexington from Dallas, but usually they’re half full – or less! Earlier this year I flew from Chicago to Ottowa, and there were three whole passengers on the flight. Sadly, I know exactly why American doesn’t reconfigure the planes: there’s no way it would be cost effective.

Of course I have no way of knowing what the cost would be to reconfigure the planes, exactly, but I can guess that there would be the cabin redesign, with figuring out how many seats to remove and how to reset them, the time and materials for doing it, the storage for the excess seats, and then the service rotation for the planes while the cabin is changed over. Even for one plane, that’s a chunk of change. After that, they’d need to configure the planes back for the end of lease cycle or for sale.

All of this, the logical knowledge of why something has not and likely will not be done really does not help my knees, though. I’m sure that with the time I spend in the air, and the raw, unadulterated affinity for capitalism shown by airlines, even the ones that I love to fly, there will be a solution.

I’m betting it comes in the form of $6 for a couple of extra-strength Tylenol served as an optional part of the beverage service.