To think low cost air travel is insanely uncomfortable

[qwerty36]

Yes it does what it says on the tin - budget airline. But bloody hell a 4 hour night flight on EasyJet was horrendous. Surely there’s a cheap way to make their chairs ever so slightly less like sitting on a concrete slab? Maybe put some soft material around the plastic arm rests even? Literally however you try and contortion yourself to get an iota of sleep was impossible.

Aibu??

And yes, I totally get what you pay for but just basic comfort surely is a given?

I can’t get worked up about this. For me, the travelling is generally an unpleasant but necessary part of any trip away. There are many other things to worry about with flying: delays, luggage, security, so I don’t care much about seats.

And as for destroying the planet… we can talk about that when eco-celebrities and politicians stop using private jets, range rovers, super yachts, helicopters etc.

I love Ryanair. I can fly to Finland without having to trek all the way to Heathrow. Last time it cost me £105 return with a 10kg cabin bag. The same dates were slightly more each way with BA. Bus with wings is definitely the way to look at it.
EasyJet always seem to change the time of at least one leg of a trip to something less convenient.

YANBU. Whoever coined the phrase “Hell is other people” had clearly never experienced a Ryanair flight.

You get what you pay for, which is true for most things. Presumably a private jet would be luxurious.

I travel several times a year for work, sometimes business class (depends on time/distance/event) and sometimes economy. Of course the seat is better, but the other issues of being able to use the lounge, early boarding, early seat selection, fast pass through airport, ... they are all the things that make it that bit better as an overall experience.

I do fly Ryanair and Easyjet for personal reasons from time to time, primarily for cost reasons (and sometimes location, easier rental car pickup at smaller airports). The reality is those types of companies have transformed the industry. I could afford to fly on BA business for example, but just don't feel it's worth it for me personal travel.

Air travel accounts for approx 3% of greenhouse gases by comparison farming methods account for between 12-16% but the single biggest contributor is electricity and heat production which accounts for between 22-28% depending on the figure you use. Combatting global warming comes down to Govt and MNCs policy not Smith family going to Tenerife.

We once made the mistake of flying Thomas Cook (standalone flight, not package) to South Africa. It was like sitting on a park bench and the flight staff were truly dreadful, just rude and uninterested.

Luckily our return flight was Emirates so we had a bit of comfort and good treatment to look forward to on the way back.

We could all stop driving, flying and eating meat tomorrow and it wouldn’t make a difference. Private jets are more of an issue than the ordinary working person going off on their summer holidays. Corporations who pump out more greenhouse gases in a day than the gases produced by one person going on their holidays are to blame, but they’ve gaslighted us into thinking we can do anything about it.

I've never noticed the seats being particularly uncomfortable. The rest of the experience is far worse in my opinion: the passport control, security, bloody restrictions on the size of liquids, the other passengers, the bag size restrictions. All of that said, it suits my budget and you get what you pay for.

BA used to be quite a prestigious airline when we flew long haul with them (remembering from my childhood). Now it’s more like all the other budget low cost no frills airlines.
I mean I don’t find any of them mega comfortable, no, but they do the job in getting me from A to B.
It’s a lot more pleasant flying since I lost weight though, has bought me a little more manoeuvring space in my tiny seat 😂

You must be flying with a different BA to me. All short haul flights are pretty much the same.

BA used to be quite a prestigious airline when we flew long haul with them (remembering from my childhood). Now it’s more like all the other budget low cost no frills airlines.

BA pretty much had no choice but to follow the market..

Large numbers of the paying public migrated to the Short Haul.LoCos when fhey arrived in Europe in the 90s, similar has happened in the Long Haul arena more recently.

Folks will grumble all day long, here and elsewhere about seat pitch and comfort but the reality is the first thing most peopel look at when booking flights is the basic ticket price.

Oh yeah @notimagain i realise they had to move with the times a bit in order to remain competitive. It was just more of an observation I guess that it used to be pretty luxurious but is now just the same as all the other budget options.

I actually don’t find flying any of the budget airlines chronically uncomfortable tbh - they’re not exactly comfortable but it’s fine for anything up to about 6 hours for me. Anything above that and I book extra leg room or bigger seats. But I find sitting at my desk chair at work tedious for anything more than 3 hours without getting up for a leg stretch, something I avoid when flying because I’m generally terrified and frozen with fear in my seat not wanting to tip the aircraft by my getting up 😂😂😂

Err because it departed at 23:30 and landed at 03:30 and I’d say the majority of the planet would like to be asleep during this time.

"Real" airlines are becoming the same as budget airlines without the discounted tickets. I don't mind Ryanair, maybe a but less space but it is only a few hours. For me lower price is more important tha comfort

We flew low cost carrier to Japan this year. 9 hours. I hadn't flown in a while and was a bit surprised how cramped it was. They really crammed you in! The icing on the cake was waking us at 4am to sell us breakfast (either pre ordered or purchased in flight ). No one slept.

Thing is, it was cheap. Very cheap. We couldn't afford to fly the four of us full service and the deal meant we had almost three incredible weeks in an amazing country. Cattle class flights are awful, but mean we have great adventures, so we treat them like transport, not an experience.

It really is, as well as the fact that you now have to pay extra for ANYTHING

But passport control, security, liquid restrictions and other passengers have nothing to do with low cost air travel. That's the airports.

Anybody getting on a flight has to go through the same procedures before they can board.

Bag size restrictions - fair enough, but I am one of those people that only ever (with one exception) travels with an underseat bag.

Im 5' 2" and 58 kilos, its not really uncomfortable for me

I’m 5’5 and 56kg. It most definitely was uncomfortable for a night flight particularly.

Anyone know about Tui premium seats? We’re flying Tui Dreamliner long haul at Xmas. We do premium with BA when long haul but not sure how it compares? Is the TUI worth it?

I was referring to easy jet and Ryanair type budget short haul like the OP.
Overnight flights that are more than 4 hours should use bigger planes with reclining seats.

It’s just depressing how bad air travel is these days. I remember flying short haul as a child ~30 years ago and getting a meal and snacks which were better quality than the food you now have to pay for (on top) on economy short haul flights.

We went on two flights to get to Bergen in Norway, we had two KLM flights on the way out, and a budget scandanavian airline on the way back. I'm approx size 22 atm with a lot of the weight on the stomach, and I fitted in the seats on KLM fine, with only a little room left on the seat belts, but nontheless I got in them, and was able to use the lap tray without it catching on my stomach.
The budget scandanavian airline however had smaller planes, and I couldn't use my lap tray to put my tea on as it wasn't level.

So does a premium airline somehow do less damage to the environment? Or should killing the planet be reserved for rich people?

The older BA planes are awful.
Never had a problem with Tui. Ryan air is just a plastic slab but at least they can clean the seats easily vomit 🤮