Swiss_flyer

Hi everybody,

I had an interesting question about upgrade for tall people. I had frequent experiences with this problem in the last months. As I am only 17 years old and still studying, I always travel in eco. The problem is that I am very tall (about 2.03m, 6'8'') and I feel, as you can imagine, always cramped in any Y class seat of any airline. Though, last Sunday I came back from holiday in Greece. My journey was SKG-MUC-GVA. The first leg between Thessaloniki and Munich was operated by Aegean Airlines for Lufthansa. As the inbound flight had been operated by a brand new A320 in which I had fitted pretty well, I didn't ''fear'' this flight^^. But as I arrived in front of my aircraft I discovered a very old 734. I entered it and discovered my seat. I of course coundn't manage to get an emergency exit seat so I had to deal with 28C or something like that. And, believe it or not, I simply didn't fit in the seat. I asked an F/A who was by the way very nice an who got my a seat in C. Well, my question is: what would have happened if they had refused to upgrade me and if nobody at the emergency exit would have accepted to change seats? Do they HAVE to upgrade me in that case?

SmilingBoy

Lufthansa does not have any 737-400 aircraft in service.

I don't believe it. You did not fit into a seat comfortably, but had to squeeze in, with the legs slightly sideways. Like I had to squeeze in in the old Routemaster buses in London.

You were very lucky, and I am not really happy about FAs taking op-up decisions like this. But how does this help in the first place? Business and economy seats are the same! (Actually, I think the seats in front of the emergency exit have somewhat more legroom, so it might have actually helped since you were so far in the back.)

No. You can probably decide not to fly, and get back the taxes and fees.

For the future, just make sure you get an exit row, or at least a seat forward of the emergency exit.

SmilingBoy.

f0zzyNUE

nope. similar stories circulate about "too well proportioned" passengers who need to buy a second seat if they don't fit into one single seat :-) (afair one time such a guy bought two seats but he got assigned two aisle seats ...)

i think he mentioned that this leg in question was operated by aegean.

SmilingBoy

I guess you are right. I though he referred to the second leg, MUC-GVA. This might also explain why you got the op-up: You were travelling on A3, and not on LH. I doubt LH FAs would have op-upped you.

SmilingBoy.

Swiss_flyer

=> Please Read: ''operated by Aegean Airlines''

I can assure you that I know exactly all the ''squeezing in'' procedures by heart as I have a little of experience with it (I even managed to stay 9h in TP's Y long haul product which is an achievement for a guy like me). But this time it was really really to narrow.

Well I think she took this decision when she saw me destroying the seat in front of me when I tried to take my seat. There was definitely more legroom in the first row of C.

This is in my opinion a total lack of consideration. But well, it's the dwarf's revenge...

SmilingBoy

A3 must be pretty bad then. Never flown them so far, though.

Others would call it a lack of planning on your part. I don't think you can expect to pay economy class and get business class.

I'll ask the moderators to move this thread to the Other European Airlines forum, since A3 is not a M&M airline.

SmilingBoy.

Swiss_flyer

You are absolutely right though I never said that I planned to get a business class seat. What I expect from the airline in this case is to negociate with passagers at the emergency exits and to ask them to kindly change seats.

As you wish, but as this flight was booked through LH and as it was also operated for LH, I assume they have some responsibilitie too.

SmilingBoy

-----

Swiss_flyer

Sorry about that one

oliver2002

[mod hat on]
Calm down everyone, please.

I would request the posters above to rephrase their offensive posts.

Regards Oliver2002
Mod M&M forum


[mod hat off]

The rules for most airlines are simple: if the passenger cannot fit in the allocated seat with both armrests down and no other alternative seating can be found, the pax has to pay for an additional seat in Y or pay for an upgrade. In this case the FA found a suitable seat in his/her discretion.

As for LH, I've seen pursers look for a suitable seat when pax could not be seated properly. tommy777 reported that he got an onboard upgrade to C on LH when he couldn't be seated in a sold out Y cabin as his seat neighbour was a person of size.

Swiss_flyer

So if I cannot afford C and that I don't fit in Y, can I travel anymore?

oliver2002

All airlines have 'customer of size' policies to accomodate pax who are not the average size the seat was originally designed for. Under these policies your will be able to purchase an additional seat or request special seating at the time of booking.

Search for 'passenger of* size' and you will find threads like this:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=731865

SleepOverGreenland

You can not blame the airline for your size. A very short person in Y may have other disadvantages (feets do not reach the bottom, so blood circulation in legs can get partially interrupted) and is not entitled for a better seat aka BIZ seat with footrests then.

Without beeing offense, but I do not understand your expectation with getting better seats for free, just because you are tall. That is just ridiculous.

Swiss_flyer

I think I can expect from an airline to try to get me a seat with a bit more legroom, may it be emergency exit or bulkhead (and there I must say LH and LX are great as they always try and it often works out). Though you are completely right if you mean that I can't expect a business class seat if I haven't paid for it.

alex0683de

"Customer of size" was developed for people who are too wide for an airline seat, not for people who are too tall. If your legs are simply too long to fit them between two economy seats, a second economy seat next to you is not going to help matters very much.

But I agree that you should never expect an airline to upgrade you because of this - what can help is to call the reservations number, tell the agent about the problem and have them put a note in your reservation that you are very tall and that you would like to have a seat with some extra legroom if at all possible.