Add to that I have frozen shoulders (again common in the elderly) and it’s a tragic accident waiting to happen. As such, I couldn’t actually stand without coming into contact with the chair in front of me which is pushing back at my frame and forcing me to use one arm to keep myself from falling back into the seat when trying to get up. My experience - and I am NOT overstating this - was that it actually was extremely difficult for me to stand up (I have mild and very common old age mobility issues, I need to use my hands to get out low chairs and swing my body forward a bit to get momentum - totally average for folks over 60 who live sedentary lifestyles) the chair in front of me was leaning into my space even when its fully erect. More worryingly, I’d argue chairs like this are an example of why the feds are starting to get sufficiently upset about airline seating in economy so as to start to consider legislation to put an end to what’s been happening, namely, the rows of seats in economy becoming so close together as to be a survival risk in case of emergency. but on this flight I couldn’t do any of that and only managed about 2 hours of highly interrupted napping. ![]() I got to the plane, my row was empty except for me… and discovered to my horror that inexplicably the armrests in economy didn’t lift!!!! They’re designed so you can’t stretch out even if the seats next to you were empty - which like I said I’d gone to an effort to ensure mine was … Also they don’t lean back much at all (which I guess is because if they did - as a result of how closely the rows are shoved together, you’d be making human sandwiches) … as a result … and in spite of having a window seat where normally I sleep pretty well, resting my head on the window and my feet propped on the adjacent seat …. I’m willing to bet money the Aer Lingus configuration I suffered will become illegal.One of the things I tend to do is I buy my flights at the last minute so that I can find flights that are still half empty and reserve a seat in an empty row, so that I can stretch out. Surprise, they all got out quickly… Legislators in the US (led by Tammy Duckworth who is a military veteran who lost both her lower legs in the Iraq war) are beginning to investigate, and asking that the tests be redone only that this time they will be forced to include elderly people with normal legs for old people (not the folks who are doing yoga at 95 and still running marathons, but your average human who are a bit overweight, i.e., the american average, probably have type 2 diabetes and are complaining of knee pain), people with babies and children in tow, etc., everyone will have ‘Stuff’ like on a normal flight, and then retime how fast they can get out. ![]() ![]() *After the flight I saw a news coverage of how these minimums were initially determined… they filled fake flights only to 30% with young healthy adults, no children, no elderly, no people with any sort of mobility issues and no luggage to boot, not even purses, and then timed how fast they could get out of airplanes with different seat configurations. Return flight I put in a bid to upgrade my economy return to business class, and I won it (only to find business was half empty and I probably could have gotten the upgrade at 1/2 what I bid for it) and while the seat was much better (it reclined) that one too was very narrow - much narrower than other business seats I’ve sat it… and the food once again - while it looked prettier than in economy - was dreadful to inedible (unless it was packaged processed stuff they bought from a provider rather than made themselves). but on Aer Lingus, in economy, I only managed about 2 hours even though the flight was during my normal sleeping hours (so it wasn’t a jet lag issue). Sure it’s the cheapest flight available, but it’s also probably one of the worst and most uncomfortable flights I’ve been on in years (and I fly a lot) … let me preface this by saying I’m pretty good at sleeping on planes I used to live on one coast and work a 5 hour flight away - took the red eye twice a week and slept like a baby on the flights. ![]() Having now flown Aer Lingus in both economy and business class seats I strongly suggest that if you’re flying to the UK or Ireland from Chicago, do yourself a favor and avoid Aer Lingus.
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