Originally Posted by
canopus27
Having publicly declared that I have not (knowingly) experienced a delayedd seat ... this confuses me.
I'm sure you're correct... I just don't understand.
If the experience is so subtle that I can't even tell if I have a deflated seat, then how bad can it be? There are folks here reporting that they had tremendous pain after experiencing a seat deflation event (SDE?) ... so I'm more than a little confused to learn that the experience can also be so slight that I wouldn't even notice it.
If I have one of these subtle seat deflation events (SSDE), would I still get the full compensation from AC?
(Serious question here; given previous confusion l thought I should clarify that no sarcasm is intended in this question. I honestly don't get it.)
I only realized I did in fact experience a few deflated seats AFTER I had my official confirmed deflategate. It was on a TPAC flight when I woke up to a bad hip pain, and I checked the cushion, it felt like there was nothing between the cover and the bare frame underneath it. So I alerted a crew member, still not knowing if that's the way it was supposed to be. (On a few other previous TPAC flights, I checked the seat cushions mid-flight and they felt the same way, so I thought they were normal.) When the crew member came over to check it out, he said "oh it's deflated". That's when I knew they were not normal.
As to how bad the pain was? It really depends on the person. Like I mentioned, I had trained my body over the years to be able to sleep through any condition and on very rough surfaces. To me, I'd have no trouble sleeping on airport benches, although I do occasionally feel a bit of soreness in my hip bones afterwards. The deflated seat felt a bit like that, and the only reason I felt the hip pain on that TPAC flight was that my hip was on the only portion that deflated and had no support. All of the previous deflated seats gave me the same soreness sensation as sleeping on airport benches, and because I was used to it, I didn't even think to report them to the crew members and instead thought there were nothing wrong with the seats, just me.
Someone who's always slept on comfortable surfaces may suffer much more if they sat in a deflated seat and will likely notice immediately, so YMMV. To me, it was mostly just uncomfortable, but I'm still ticked that AC has known about the widespread issue and hasn't shown much initiative to get the problem resolved.
And to those who wonder - since my officially confirmed deflated seat, I have not stepped on an AC flight since. I'm not about to put myself through that until AC has replaced the broken seats. Even though it was just uncomfortable for me personally, I have the right to choose to spend my money where I see value. For now, that value doesn't exist with AC J, whether paid or eUpgrade. And yes, I did receive the standard eCoupon compensation, but I still have lots of time to use it so I'm not in any rush to play Russian Roulette.