Comments on: Standing Room Only Seats?

By: iahphx

iahphx — Tue, 02 May 2006 20:31:38 +0000

Actually, I see that the NYTimes ran a correction today regarding Chris’ story. He had a good run. :http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/02/pageoneplus/corrections.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

By: iahphx

iahphx — Tue, 02 May 2006 20:24:40 +0000

If anyone still cares, Mike Boyd has a good discussion this week on how bad journalism caused this crazy story to be printed in the NYTimes. http://www.aviationplanning.com/asrc1.htm

By: Jared

Jared — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 22:18:26 +0000

I agree, it’s goofy. But would you pay $15 for a LGA-BOS or LGA-DCA shuttle flight standing up? The flight’s about as long as my subway ride in the morning.

Realistically? This’ll never happen…

By: iahphx

iahphx — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 04:38:05 +0000

Chris is certainly better as a travel ombudsman than with his coverage of industry developments. I really don’t think this was a serious study by Airbus. Think about it — it’s pretty much nuts! Nobody — and I mean nobody — is going to buy a “standing room only” ticket on an airline. And, frankly, I doubt the safety authorities would ever allow it. What are they going to do — tape you to a board? It’s just a goofy idea.

By: Jared

Jared — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 02:57:02 +0000

I’ll stick up for Chris Elliott a bit. In his role as a “travel problem solver” I’ve found him to be the only guy in this role who doesn’t let consumers whine about travel problems they’ve had — he always points out where they should’ve done something different rather than just blaming the airline or hotel or whoever.

That said, this story seemed odd, tho not implausable…and if it IS wrong, I blame the Times for putting it on their front page (but I bet it turns out to be true…)

By: iahphx

iahphx — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 16:08:22 +0000

I can’t be 100% sure, but I believe this story is bogus. I’ve found this particular reporter (Chris Elliott) to often be unreliable in his reporting. FWIW, Airbus itself is calling it “crap.”