The Post-Flight Questionnaire: Who Was Your Seatmate?

Co-blogger Crosscheck and I fly pretty often (both over 100,000 flight miles last year) but rarely are we traveling together (we live in different countries). So whenever one of us flies, the other always asks:


Who was your seatmate?

Every once in a while there are stories of the Person of Size, the guy with a sleeveless t-shirt (shudder), the teen with oversize laptop computer (more about that in a future post), the Global Services member who sells pistachios for a living, the off-duty pilot, or the hot chick (yeah!).

With that in mind, it occurred to me that there ought to just be a form we can fill out and e-mail to the other person...like the one I created below...

What would you ask about your friend's seatmate?


Airline (and aircraft type):

From (airport code):
To (airport code):

My seatmate was:

Sex

_ Empty next to!

_ Male

_ Female
_ Honestly? Not sure

Size

_ Small

_ Medium

_ Large
_ POS

Hygiene

_ Clean

_ Dirty

Noise

_ Totally Quiet
_ Quiet except for "hello" or "may I get up please?"

_ Chatty in a harmless way
_ Flirting
_ Would not fucking shut up

Looks

_ Scary looking

_ Average

_ Hot!

Attire
_ Dressed casually but OK
_ In goddamn sweats
_ In business attire
_ Functionally? Practically naked.

Age

_ Crying baby
_ Kid (<18)
_ Youngish (18 to 29)

_ Medium age (30s or 40s)

_ Freakin' old! (>40)
_ Old Timer

Job/Career

Probably works as a:   ______

Comments/Noteworthy:

##

Feel free to use it, and if you get anyone good - drop us a line at exitrowaisle@gmail.com.

That Would Be a "Bed" Where We Come From

We loved Lufthansa's press release about its new Business Class seating, especially this part:

The new Lufthansa Business Class seat boasts a horizontal sleeping surface measuring 1.98 metres in length.

OK, cool.

But, how is this different from any other long haul seat in C? We're sure it's fine, but...what's the hook? Lie flat? That's old news, dude (unless you're one on of those ancient-config UA 777s).

We did, upon closer reading, discover one detail that will make co-blogger Crosscheck pretty happy:

Two neighbouring seats are angled towards one another along a central axis. This solution enabled Lufthansa to fulfil [sic] one of the main wishes expressed by customers – to sit or lie facing the direction of travel.

Have to say...the seats look nice.

Speaking of Exit Rows: UA's New [Crap] Policy

2P bastard stealing seat 30H on a 777, by hansenbrian via FlickrHere's a quote from United's new exit row seating policy. As a 1P (Premier Executive) passenger who flew almost 95,000 flight miles last year, this pisses me way off:

• MileagePlus members with 1K, Premier Executive, Premier, or Global Services status may select exit row seats...at no extra charge when purchasing tickets...

The emphasis is obviously added by me. This isn't the first downgrade to MileagePlus status benefits and it won't be the last. But in its effort to incorporate CO flyers and planes, UA is going crazy, nibbling away at the differences between mid-tier status benefits.

Sure, anyone can (already) buy exit row seats when they purchase a ticket (even non-MP members). 

But they don't. Those seats are almost always still available when I check in online 24 hours before flight time. Will that still be true if 2Ps can select them at the same time I can?

You're a 2P who flew 25,001 miles last year. I flew almost 100,000. Shouldn't there be a little more differentiation between our benefits, and not a little less?

Korean Air's Prestige Lie-Flat Dental Torture-Looking Seat

We're all for lie-flat seats – I personally can't sleep, even on a long-haul flight, unless I'm lying flat. Some of the seats you see on major carriers not only perform this function, they do it with style. You can get a pretty good run down over at the Skytrax seat review site.

But I was horrified by the design (pictured here) of Korean Air's Prestige Sleeper Seat. Never mind that it gets bad reviews, it looks like a torture device from one of the Saw movies.

Or worse – it looks like something you'd see at a combination dental + gynecology practice.