One Thing Changed In My Life, And I Don’t Mind Coach Anymore – View from the Wing

Growing up I used to fly coach all the time. I never imagined I’d fly anything else. I never heard of an upgrade, and couldn’t imagine either being in a position to pay for anything else – or being willing to spend so much money just for comfort during the flight. “You’re both getting there at the same time!” I flew cross-country and across oceans often.

Taking an American Airlines DC-10 to Sydney via Honolulu wasn’t bad at all when the plane was empty and I could snag a middle row of coach to myself. It wasn’t great flying a completely packed plane. I still remember watching John Goodman star as King Ralph on loop and being unable to escape it all the way to Honolulu.

Once I learned about upgrades (about 30 years ago) I started doing everything I could to avoid coach. When I was just a premier (now ‘silver’) on United, I would go out of my way to pick larger aircraft with more premium seats, and even pick my travel dates and times, to maximize chances of an upgrade. I’d fly a Boeing 777 at noon on Wednesday via Denver if I had to, instead of a non-stop to the West Coast, but fortunately back then United flew even Boeing 747s that were can’t miss for the upgrade.

Upgrades aren’t as easy as they once were. Airlines have gone from selling just about 10% of their first class seats on domestic flights, to monetizing the vast majority of them for some amount even if it’s just a ‘tens of dollars’ cash buy up. I’m willing to play the discounted cash game now, too.

However I’m also willing to fly coach, and one thing about my life has changed to make it much more comfortable. I lost a lot of weight. Before the pandemic my view was that it wasn’t just the legroom that’s an issue, but the seat width too. I was just a lot wider!

In 2020 I wasn’t traveling as much, so I was eating better and had a healthier routine. I dropped 20 pounds that year. Since then, though, I’ve dropped another 60 pounds. And that’s made all the difference. Several of you commented on the difference when I shared photos from SMU’s Texas Economic Forum.

Give me an exit row and decent seat padding, and I don’t mind coach at all. However, there are two caveats. I need decent seat padding, and extra legroom.

• Standard coach seats at 31 inches from seat back to seat back doesn’t work for me, because I need to comfortably open my laptop and work on the flight. For me, high speed inflight wifi is for being productive, not just doom scrolling social media.
• And if I have to sit in United Airlines coach with their hard 1-ply seats, I’m going to have a back ache. Southwest’s latest generation seats aren’t better. Airlines tried to mask how much legroom they were taking away – squeezing seats closer together – by also taking away seat padding. That way they ‘got back’ half an inch of space, at the cost to your bum and back. I need a decently-padded seat.

The ergonomics of a seat, which isn’t just seat padding but that’s an important part, make enough of a difference that I’d rather fly coach on a Qantas Airbus A380 than premium economy on an American Airlines Boeing 787.

The American Airlines premium economy seat is basically a domestic first class seat, with a seat back screen and an unusable foot bar (bulkhead seats have a foot rest). I found premium economy on the 787 to be uncomfortable just flying Los Angeles to Dallas.

In contract, Qantas with a decent 34 inch pitch and soft seat just isn’t horrible for a long flight. And while I’ve never found Qantas crew to rival those of the better Asian carriers, I’ve always felt well checked-on during flight with frequent passes of snacks and water.

I shared recently my second child so maybe I’m doing a bit of oversharing here. But my perspective on traveling is heavily influenced by my experience traveling so the things that shape that experience matter and feel like something I ought to disclose.

I absolutely still want to fly in premium cabins! I love international first class. I don’t want to do long haul in less than business. But it bothers me a lot less that I may wind up stuck in back on more domestic flights than this used to happen.