100% like this change DL is making. It's bad enough in coach how far some seats recline, but earlier this year I was in F on I think a CRJ-900, and when the person in front of me reclined fully their head was pretty much in my lap.
Originally Posted by
hockeyinsider
Dutch men are, on average, the tallest in the world and have no problems with the horrendously uncomfortable intra-Europe seats and legroom. Of course, the Dutch obesity rate is one of the lowest in the West.
US-Transplanted 6'6" Dutch guy here - just because they tolerate the poor seat pitch doesn't mean they don't have physical problems with it. Everyone makes choices based on their needs (where to get to), and what they are willing to spend (who do I use to get there). The challenge in Europe is that there really isn't much choice because many airlines there are at best on par with the base pitch of US legacy carriers (with often no C+ like options on many intra-europe flights - and legacies that do are vastly more expensive to fly, even in a standard seat), and at worst are 27-28" of pitch. Even in some standard pitch DL seats (looking at you MD88), which is supposed to be 31" I cannot physically fit my femur between my seatback and the seat in front of me. To make things worse, the seat bottom of the seat in front is too low for me to stretch my legs under the seat in front of me. The physics of it simply don't work, so then I'm either man-spreading or riding side-saddle which is no fun for me or my neighbors. Once, I got stuck in a 28" seat on a Transavia flight BCN-AMS after a schedule change (I had the exit row originally) - I swore after that I would never fly Transavia again.
My solution: make sure I sit in a) exit row, b) C+, or c) F. With the changes to C+ allocation and my status gradually dropping form PM to FO, I now usually opt for option C.