Posted on 08/31/2014 4:51:34 AM PDT by Kaslin
On Aug. 24, United Airlines diverted a Newark-to-Denver flight to Chicago's O'Hare International Airport after two passengers got into an argument. It started when a 47-year-old man used a device called the Knee Defender to prevent the 48-year-old woman in front of him from reclining her seat.
According to The Associated Press, a flight attendant told the male passenger that United does not allow the bracketlike gadget. He refused to remove it. The female passenger then threw water at the male passenger, which probably didn't thrill the passengers seated next to him. (He was in the middle seat.) The airliner's crew decided to arrive in Denver with two fewer passengers.
The story made national news because it hit home for so many travelers.
Airlines are flying fuller. Seat space has shrunk. The more crowded planes are the crankier passengers have become. Neither passenger is likely to be praised for his or her tact in dealing with others. As for the man in Row 12, he didn't need to use his people skills -- not when he had the $22 knee-protecting device, a tool custom-made for the passive-aggressive traveler.
Oddly, The Washington Post's Justin Moyer reports, the knee-jerk device was invented by a former aide to Pete Wilson, a Republican former California governor and U.S. senator. According to Bloomberg, the 6-foot-3-inch Ira H. Goldman got the idea in 1998, when he was flying a lot -- and his knees weren't enjoying the experience. On one flight, Goldman discovered that by laying an umbrella across his tray table, he could prevent the seat in front of him from reclining. He later tooled plastic clips that, if placed on a tray table, could keep the seat in front of a passenger in the upright position.
Goldman also invented a card to go along with his device. "Please do not recline your seat," it says. "I have provided you with this card because I have long legs and if you recline your seat you will bang into my knees. I realize that it can be nice to recline one's seat, but I hope you would agree with me that it should not be done at the expense of crushing someone else's knees -- especially if this risk is known from the outset." After some more whining, the card suggests that if inconvenienced, the fellow traveler should "please complain to the airline so that they might be inspired to provide a solution."
There's an ultra-phony close to the note: "Thank you. Have a nice flight."
The thing is that the airlines have a solution for too little legroom. It's called pricing.
United offers Economy Plus -- which, I was surprised to learn, is where the two evicted United Flight 1462 passengers were seated. Economy Plus gives customers an extra 4 inches of legroom. That extra room still wasn't enough.
I tried to get in touch with Goldman, but his website does not include an email address. I tried to send a message on the tortured "contact us" page but have no idea whether it got through. Do I detect a pattern? I believe that I do. The Knee Defender started as one man's way of not looking another person in the eye and figuring out how they could both get to their destination amicably.
I am a journalist. I can grouse with the gusto of a paid professional. And I appreciate a hearty "don't tread on me" spirit. But Goldman's approach is a recipe for air rage, and he knows it. His website instructs customers not to use the device if flight attendants tell them not to. And though I think it is not a hardship to fly in the upright position from Newark to Denver, there are people with back issues who might disagree.
As a onetime Republican aide, Goldman should know better than to blame the airlines. The American public wants cheap airfares. Airlines have given the public what it wants by selling full flights that offer less legroom and smaller seats. Those fares are the reason I can afford to fly cross-country for a weekend. Some people complain that airlines treat passengers like cattle; if so, that's because the public doesn't want to pay to be pampered. In the days when airlines pampered passengers, a smaller percentage of the public flew.
Goldman is engaging in magical thinking if he truly believes that his little cards will do anything to change how airlines operate. After all, jumbo jets may defy the laws of gravity, but the airline industry cannot beat the laws of economics.
because airlines are so poor in service, and the groping TSAs, I, too, refuse to fly. I drive - even if I want to go to Canada or Alaska from Texas. So far, I refuse to even consider going where I have to cross a body of water, say like the Pacific. Supply and demand - airlines think they have the ability to charge more and serve less. I simply decline and drive. Take a greyhound bus? No thank you. Take a greyhound plane? No thank you.
If you want to recline your seat to the limit like you're sitting in a Lazy-Boy in your living room, then fly freakin' first class.
Uh...WTF?
Plan ahead. Book early. Choose an escape door aisle. Legroom!
If you want to recline your seat, then be prepared for a bumpy ride because every time I shift my 6’3” frame — something I do often when someone reclines into my space — my knees are going to bang and wack the the back your seat. Also, since your head is now inches from my face, there is a really good chance that my newspaper will flop over the top of your seat and mess with your hair. Like elections, reclining your seat has consequences.
Economy Class Seating On A Pan Am 747 In The Late 1960's
So the product is unfit for the purpose sold?
Oh Jez, “the polite thing to do”? Polite is one of the many things cattlecar airline passengers were never taught or never learned.
Having flown a LOT, the problem is the ticket price. Money is a very effective cultural filter. The airlines could make profit with higher pricing on fewer passengers in less cramped spaces. Never understood why they decided to go the cattlecar way with all the associated headaches.
As most of my flying was on technical consulting business, my solution was to either use miles to upgrade or tell the Travel Office “if you can’t afford Business Class, you similarly can not afford me conducting your business”.
That picture’s gotta be staged.
Where are are the people in shorts, a t-shirt and a backpack containing all their worldly possessions?
Oh wait, your caption says late 1960’s. That explains it.
We were certainly different back then, weren’t we?
And where are the young people. That picture looks like a Medicare convention :)
bfl
“The more crowded planes are the crankier passengers have become.”
You know, I understand the business flyer issue, but really, why do people still patronize an industry that is in bed with so much regulation, intrusive conditions to fly domestically AND internationally, with all these “cranky” people in the first place???
If you want to vacation somewhere, why fly...Isn’t the vacation about the journey, and not so much the intended destination...Why go somewhere where you feel it is better to fly, than to drive???
There are SO many places to go right in and around your area, within a days drive you could not run out of places to go almost...
And your travel budgets are already strained to the maximum that it kinda takes away from the time, and amount you can enjoy your vacations in the first place...
I’m sure I’ll get the usual Airline employees here that feel they would lose their jobs of people started to really NOT utilize this business for their recreational usage...
Just my opinion...
I would say this situation dictates bringing a change of clothes and a towel to dry off with...
We always drove and camped out when I was a kid. Never had a plane ride till I had to for my job. Now, I just take vacation at home or in my State and rarely contiguous states.
I have no desire to fly anywhere these days.
These says, people go through such lengths to avoid a little inconvenience. Like those idiots that park diagonal in two parking spaces at the mall because they don't want somebody to ding their precious Lexus. We really are spoiled brats.
Hey, I think I see Don Draper and Peggy Olson back there.
When someone in front of me reclines more than an inch or two, I swivel the airflow nozzle to blow on their head.
It may be a mockup... and nobody is smoking. WTF sorta outfit were those bozos runnin’? No wonder they went outta business.
I used to be 5’7 but have shrunk down to 5’6 and I can feel that when I try to reach high shelves.
See courtesy goes along way if everyone uses it
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.