Originally Posted by
Xyzzy
My guess is that it's to prevent pax from flying too far forward in the event of a crash. Pax in other rows will hit the seat in front of them while those in the bulklhead have more room. Either that or it's because the wall in front of row 1 is harder than the seats in front of the other rows. I've never found those belts to be more or less uncomfortable than any
thers.
The seatbelt airbag is used to for Head Injury Criteria (HIC) compliance, where there is potential for passengers to hit their head on hard surfaces like a bulkhead or business class sear surround during an incident. The alternate means of compliance is shoulder belts.