sailman

I was reminded of one of my pet peeves by the thread concerning not pulling on the backrest of the seat in front when exiting to the aisle.

Mine has to do with the design of the seat backs. It seems that there is virtually no lumbar support built into the seats. In the past this was partially corrected by placing a pillow behind me. However, as most airlines have eliminated pillows this is no longer an option.

I believe the solution would be for the airlines, when ordering new equipment, to require, in the purchase agreement, the seat designer to sit in the seat for a minimum of 8 hours. If he/she has no problem with it than I suppose I can tolerate it.

Flying by its nature is a fatiguing experience due to several factors - white noise (drone of engines), dehydration (low air humidity), and slouching in one's seat. Currently we can control dehydration (drink water often, minimize alcohol), the engine noise is reassuring so I wouldn't eliminate it, but the airlines have control over the design of the seat backs.

Just some thoughts

WWGuy

There's no way they can design a lumbar support that adjustable to everyone's preference and/or body shape and still keep the desired seat pitch etc. Regarding non-adjustable support: What's comfortable for you might be uncomfortable to others. I can't count how many rental car models I've had that have too much non-adjustable lumbar support.

Too much lumbar support can't be remedied by pax, but too little support can. I suggest you take ownership over your own comfort. This approach has much higher probability of success, at much lower cost, than expecting airlines to accommodate by changing seat design or offering complimentary pillows in all coach flights (at incremental cost to be paid by the pax who are content with seat design as it is.)

There are many affordable self-inflating adjustable travel cushions available for this purpose. Here are a few:
http://shop.eaglecreek.com/back-buddy/d/1135
http://www.travelsmith.com/self-infl...cushion/679688
http://www.rei.com/product/845302/rei-sit-pad

Personally I travel with the REI Sit Pad. It's lightweight, compact when stowed, and works for either lumbar support or extra seat cushion (especially handy for exit row seats.) These cushions also work great for airport terminal seating and hotel room work chairs too.

rumbataz

I can't remember the airline (but it was a European airline - possibly LH) that has/had seats designed by Recaro? This was a long time ago. They felt very comfortable.

lhrsfo

Although most of the new airline seats seem very uncomfortable (as hard as park benches), I do feel that they seem to have better lumbar support.

State of Trance

A lot of US-based airlines (UA/AA/AS/etc) are now installing slimline Recaros now too, and they've been less than well received.

chgoeditor

If you don't want to travel with a pillow, a rolled up jacket or sweater, even a rolled t-shirt or the inflight magazine can all be used to provide lumbar support.

sailman

Thank you all for your responses. It sounds as if I am not alone in trying to remedy the "fit" of a seat. With respect to WWGuy's comments thank you for the lead on possible sources of inflatable devices.

For the record I was involved in the design of seats for the marine industry, and we were able to include lumber support adjustment, amongst others. It wasn't "rocket science" nor was this one adjustment costly. And certainly an adjustable seat would increase the number of passengers that would be more comfortable over the present situation. Thus the number of uncomfortable passengers would be less. It is more than likely that a generic adjustable seat would probably not be acceptable to Quasimoto (spelling?).

Thank you again for the input.

emma69

Adjustable = more things that can break, I think I would rather have a non-adjustable seat than risk one broken in an uncomfortable position.

I agree with the comments above, what is comfortable for one person is hell for another. A few years ago I moved offices and was given a Herman Miller Aeron chair. It was the most uncomfortable chair I have ever had in a workplace. The ergonomics consultant spent over an hour with me trying to adjust things to make it more comfortable for me, all to no avail. (They also wouldn't let me get a cheapy chair from Staples because they wanted to maintain the 'look' of the office. I had to supplement this $1500 chair with a pillow from Ikea just to get some decent lower back support.

howahya

The head rests could go a long way towards making your whole spine more comfortable too. I sat in one that was meant for a taller person and it tilted my head forward and was quite uncomfortable for my neck. Why on earth couldn't that be adjustable? How could they expect everyone's head to be at just the right place?

For the record, it looked like a little adjustable, detachable, pillow but was firmly fixed in place.

ysolde

Bottom line for me is that, even in premium classes, I am going to be uncomfortable in an airline seat pretty quickly. I am just too short (at under 5 feet) for lumbar support to hit me at the right spot/angle and neck support is non-existent in my case. I have this learned to use pillows to support my lower back, and to create a neck roll with a pashmina to give myself much-needed neck support.

No one seat is going to work for everyone, so we must all learn to adjust. At least, being short, I rarely feel like my knees are shoved up against my brea . . . err . . . chest.

tentseller

This is what I use along with a folding seat pad.

http://www.amazon.com/Back-Booster-1.../dp/B000P41RK8

http://www.ebags.com/product/travelo...+pillow+(black)

http://www.ebags.com/product/travelo...cushion+(black)

sbm12

More moving parts = more costs, both for initial install and maintenance.
More parts = heavier = higher fuel burn and lower range.

Turns out it is actually very expensive to do this.

kyee

Lack of lumbar support is a problem for me as well. I take this with me, if the flight is longer than a couple of hours.

TempurPedic

Even though it's advertised as a neck pillow, it works great for lumbar support. When I forget to bring it, then as mentioned previously, a rolled up jacket works in a pinch as well.

skylady

I'm seeing a lot more personal pillows coming onboard these days

PaulST

I take a towel to roll up and stick behind my back whenever I fly Y internationally.
I suspect it's because a lot of people carry their own natural lumbar support (thanks to their poor eating and a lack of exercise) which could be quite uncomfortable if the seat provided additional lumbar support.