Why your Economy class seat is torturing you – possibly on purpose

[Flyerwin]

Interesting article I just came across:


Source: Why your Economy class seat is torturing you – possibly on purpose

This bit of the article is telling:

However, in the complex world of airline economics, companies are keen on pushing as many customers as possible out of those Economy seats into Business Class, where they can make more per seat.

Though no one in the industry has said it out loud, this produces a lot of incentive to make people buy those more expensive tickets. Free drinks and peanuts may not be enough, though, so some like the travel journalist Arthur Frommer have voiced the suspicion that some of the discomfort might not be all a trade-off but rather a deliberate attempt to boost Business Class sales by making Economy just uncomfortable enough to make people want an upgrade rather than suffer the tortures of the damned.

Thoughts?

 

[Human]

It's easy to test this hypothesis.

Are the economy seats of airlines which don't have Business class (and which therefore don't have any incentive to make you want to fly Business) more comfortable than those of airlines which do have Business class?

If the answer is "yes", then there might be something to be said for this theory. If the answer is "no", that's not necessarily conclusive but a fairly strong argument against the hypothesis.

Of course, we all know what the answer is.