Coach Seating Design Idea
 

I don't mind coach seats much, but the one thing that really gets me is narrow armrests and the game of "elbow hockey" that you often have to play with your neighbor.

So, the last time I was flying I was thinking about this.. airlines could give everyone in coach more elbow room without adjusting seat width at all. All they would have to do is stagger the heights of the seats a little. In a two-seats next to the window configuration, if the window seat was about four inches higher, the seat next to it could have some "tuck under" elbow room.

Seems doable. Any reason why an airline shouldn't try it?

Although a good idea, the fear of litigation (e.g., a child falling from the "dangerously elevated" seat) would probably prevent it from ever being tried.

That would really suck if you don't have anybody sitting next to you and want to raise the arm rest and spread out.

Perhaps, but theaters seem to do well with stadium seating.

Maybe one can raise and one can lower.

the window space would lose too much headroom and seem claustrophic, which is worse than less elbow room.

This is actually and interesting idea and I have thought of variations to it.

It is silly when you do not space and yet you see all this wasted space above you.

It does seem there would be a way to design seats to accomodate more elbow space AND perhaps more recline space.

I think the airlines will be highly interested in your idea! Because...

Maybe they can now put 7 seats on a single aisle plane, or 10 across in 777, 12 across in a 747. More revenue! The seats can now be even narrower because your arm has somewhere to go now!!!

How about give everybody a mattress instead? People will be happy with beds, and they can load people into drawers like some Tokyo hotels. Maybe a A380 can hold over 1,000 people that way with people stacked 3-4 high in the cabin.

http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttr...um/biggrin.gif

Hey, I know you are being funny but I won't consider air travel a decent mode of transportation until they have berths like trains in the old movies. If I'm horizontal I can sleep any place, any time. It would beat the seats. For some reason I can't sleep in them at all.

Go ahead, stick me in a drawer when I travel, I'd love it. :-)

I agree. I've stared bleary eyed many times on transatlantic red-eyes and thought of all that wasted space above. If they had floor to ceiling bunks, everyone could sleep much better and arrive in less of a foul mood. But there would be many problems with needing to be able to sit upright at times, for landings and meals. Maybe Virgin Atlantic will come up with something innovative on the A380.

reminds me of the film White, where the main character loses his passport and therefore decides to seal himself in his luggage and flies home in the cargo hold from Paris to Warsaw.