Absurdly Driven looks at the world of business with a skeptical eye and a firmly rooted tongue in cheek.
Some people don't care what sort of plane will carry them when they fly.
I admit I'm not one of them.
A bigger plane, to me, is always better. Configuration matters, too.
More legroom and fewer seats surely don't hurt.
Recently, I wrote about how United Airlines has decided to shove an additional 21 seats into its Boeing 757-300 planes.
This brings the number up to 234. Yes, in a single-aisle plane.
Mercy isn't a concept easily ingested by most airlines. Delta already uses this configuration.
Still, should you wonder which routes might be affected by these over-populated planes, United has just updated its schedule.
As Routes Online reports, from June 2018 there will be 16 routes that will begin to be graced with these planes.
I wonder how many of these will make passengers ululate.
For example, San Francisco to Washington D.C. is a long schlep. The flight back can be around six hours.
Would you really want to be in the Economy Class claustrophobia for that long?
How about LAX to Honolulu or Kona? That's more than five hours on the way back.
Then there's San Francisco to Honolulu and Kahului. And San Francisco to Orlando.
These are long flights, ones that surely won't be improved by the presence of 21 additional humans.
Moreover, think about it from the Flight Attendants' point of view.
I asked United whether slipping a lot more seats into the planes will come with, say, an extra Flight Attendant to look after those extra passengers.
I will update, should I hear.
I fear, though, that United's staff may simply be asked to do more work.
Just as the passengers will be asked to be more tolerant.