Lotsa pax are shutheads and arseholes! We see that all the time.

But consider this: Most airplane seats were designed in the early 1950's when we all, as an average, were an inch shorter and weighed thirty pounds less. Since then, the seats haven't gotten any narrower (still usually six across -- at least Airbus adds about an inch per pax) but they've sure gotten closer together (pitch -- distance between seats -- has been decreased several inches!).

And then add this: these planes were designed to fly full maybe twenty days a year. Typical airline occupancies were 60% or so then, compared to 75-80% today. This means that except for Monday morning and the day before Thanksgiving, those middle seats were empty.

Computer yield management software now sells those last few seats that were our haven of sanity, the empty middle seat. Coach is now usually a torture sideways as well as footwise.

Most of us still keep our cool. Many air rage nuts are in first class, and drank too much. But the reality of torture in coach has certainly been a burden put on passengers -- and when we're delayed for hours or made to listen to multiple squalling infants or had our bodies imposed on by a smelly, inconsiderate seatmate, it's easy to understand why people are, er, less than perfectly polite.

No wonder rich folks and corporate execs are deserting more and more to private semi-charters and part-ownership deals.

Welcome to Air Greyhound. Leave the flying to us.

Just MO.

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"Service" should be a noun, not a verb.