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Airline Spokesman Admits That AirTran Coach Seats Suck

Attention AirTran: We appreciate that you're trying to make a buck by selling upgrades to people after they've already boarded your planes. After all, you're in business to make money not friends. But is this the best way to describe your new spring-for-business-class deal?

"A lot of people see [business class] and say, `Wow, I want to sit there,'" says AirTran spokesman Tad Hutcheson. "People say, `I want to buy that seat because I don't want to be, you know, crammed in the back.'"

If you don't want to get stuck with a sucky seat, we have a better idea than paying $50-$100 for an in-flight upgrade that may or may not be available: JetBlue offers at least three inches more seat pitch than AirTran, and Southwest also spaces its seats a bit farther apart than its competitor.

Related Stories:
· AirTran Clears Way for Upgrades [AJC]
· LCCs Taking Over for AA in the Caribbean [Jaunted]

[Photo: Drewski2112]

Tags: Upgrades / Forum Ferreting / → All Tags

Forum Ferreting: Wear a Suit Get an Upgrade?

A wedding dress and a bouquet may boost a coach couple to the lap of luxury (the same way a short skirt can get a girl nearly kicked off a plane), but the folks at Flyertalk wondered, what about the solo flyer? Can a fancy suit, a nice tie and some slicked-back hair send a non-elite traveler to the front of first class? According to one flight attendant, yes:

I assure you that passengers wearing jackets and/or ties stand significantly higher chances of snagging the upgrade than someone in a T-shirt, shorts and baseball cap. It also helps if you can make the check-in agent smile. Nobody wants to upgrade the sloppy grouch who argues.

Sure, that's nice, but like one biz-class traveler says:

When I'm sitting up front, it's amazing how many guys wearing suits do the walk of shame thru F or J to the back of the bus. Doesn't always seem to work for them.

Related Stories:
· Wear a Suit to Get an Upgrade? [Flyertalk]
· Bad Girls Fly Southwest [Jaunted]

[Photo: Jon Feingersh/zefa/Corbis]