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.

 

[Forg]

Yeah I think on one hand there's the issue of "motivation", and on the other there's the issue of "happy side effect".

The discomfort is primarily due to the lack of space, which is due to wedging so many people in. I don't know what modern aircraft seats weigh (I'll bet it's Not Much) but their designs do a pretty good job of allowing knee-room despite them being stacked so close together, imagine how few of your home lounge-room sofas they could into an A350 by comparison.

It's hard to believe it's not all driven by cost; all the costs ... how much each seat costs vs how much fuel each seat costs vs how much passengers will put-up with vs what alternative airlines offer vs what the alternative airlines charge customers, yadda-to-the-power-of-yadda.


Still, in response to:

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?

... is there a LCC that's not really just part of another airline?
I'll bet JetStar has pushed a few people towards Qantas for future flights ...

 

[RooFlyer]

On a tangent, when I was on a team working on airport privatisation, we discovered that it was an actual thing to make airport seats not very comfortable, and in short supply, to get people up and into shops.

 

[Quickstatus]

I think the hypothesis is inadequate.
The more accurate theory is value perception
Most people perceive value using price. Hence the roaring success of Low cost carriers.
It also does not discuss premium economy (and economy seats with extra legroom such as bulkhead seats etc) which is increasingly being deployed across the airlines without the massive uplift in price. for many such offering provide better value.