Tuesday, September 9, 2014

The Great Crisis of 2014

Matt Thurman
Mrs. Sharon Straub
Advanced Placement Economics
07 September 2014
The Great Crisis of 2014
One of the great dilemmas of the current world is staring frequent flyers right in the face.  What once was a standard feature of comfort and satisfaction 35,000 feet above the earth has now become the epicenter of a horrendous calamity: reclining seats.  As passengers become more irritable and legroom becomes scarcer, the risk of reclining one’s seat on a commercial airplane appears to be one that only the bold are presently willing to take.  While one party has taken the initiative to petition the removal of reclining seats, another has considered a more cost-effective approach: “be nice to your neighbor” (Associated Press).  Although reproducing airplane seats that do not have reclining capabilities would surely eliminate aerial scuffles, airline companies can save large quantities of expenses by simply advising their passengers to think courteously while reclining on airplanes.

To fully understand the significance of this global issue, one must recognize the value of legroom on an airplane.  Perhaps the principle property of comfort on airplanes, leg space is a necessity for any length of flight and any length of person.  Unfortunately, airline companies have lessened the value of passengers’ legroom, as the below image illustrates the lessening of distance between plane seats since 2000.  (Picture Link)
seat distance.jpg
According to Dallas News, airlines believe passengers will not notice the decrease in leg space over time, largely because of new seat designs that create a sense of more space.  Relocating magazine pockets and reducing tray table sizes are just two methods via which these airlines endeavor to combat the diminishing seat separation.  On paper, they appear to be effective strategies.  On planes, they go unnoticed, as recently several fights have erupted solely because of the interference of legroom caused by seat recliners.  David Kerley of ABC News details the excitement of one fight on a Florida-bound flight.  (Watch 0:20- 0:47)  A knitting woman made a classic mistake, misjudging the marginal analysis of reclining her seat.  Supposing that reclining a few degrees would maximize her comfort or performance while knitting, she simply forgot to calculate the marginal cost of doing so, angering her fellow passenger.  The only thing she did consider was her utility, which apparently was great enough to disregard the marginal cost.  To the dismay of the other numerous passengers and the pilots, the plane was commanded to perform an emergency landing.  This episode revealed the major dilemma surrounding airplane seat recliners.

Economic analyst Dr. Thurman visits this quandary in a late chapter of his renowned Thurmanomics: A Study of the World Through the Lenses of Matt Thurman.  The notable question he poses is “is it worth reclining your seat an extra degree?”  While the mathematics behind the marginal analysis of reclining one’s seat and the ensuing discomfort and potential rage of the flyer behind that person seems rather pedestrian, the implications of this configuration are critical to controlling one’s behavior inside the pressurized cabin.  Figure 19.3 of his work details the hypothetical linear, positive relationship between the degree of seat reclination and the discomfort of the flyer behind due to limited legroom.  In creating this helpful visual, Dr. Thurman revives the age-old question, “what is the optimal degree to which one should recline his or her seat?”  Every flyer must realize that by reclining his or her seat to a comforting degree, he is endangering the knee health of the flyer behind.  Such health endangerment can be especially worrisome to frequent flyers; imagine the impact of a substantial amount of weight forced on one’s knees for two hundred two-hour flights in one year.  Yet – unsurprisingly – people often discount this notion, as the decision to recline an extra degree often does not produce a marginal cost that directly impacts that person negatively.
labeled graph.png
Such social insensitivity commonly appears to be acceptable.  That is, of course, until the water is thrown, the fists are flown, and the air marshals’ covers are blown.  As the flyer discomfort increases, the probability of retaliation also increases.  Already three situations since August 24th, 2014 have exhibited the extremes of this relationship, as two additional planes have made emergency landings due to altercations regarding the reclining of seats.  ABC’s David Kerley explains the other two striking events in an alarming video.  In one scenario, a passenger sought to avoid the problem of losing leg space by inserting devices that prevented the forward seat to recline.  Naturally, this incensed the frontward passenger, compelling her to throw a cup of water on him.  In a transatlantic flight, a passenger whose diabetes influenced a complaint regarding a reclining seat ended up thrown to the floor by three air marshals after he held a flight attendant who attempted to calm him.  Mayhem has reached all-time highs on airplanes.  What appears to several viewers as a trivial matter has become a startling predicament, as airlines are pressured now to quell the sudden unrest of passengers.  One thing is clear; turbulence is no longer only an external factor.  Therefore, airlines need to recognize the unruly behavior of passengers and solely need to instruct travelers to use courtesy while reclining on planes.
Works Cited
Associated Press. "It's No Longer Safe to Recline Your Airplane Seat." The Dallas Morning News. N.p., 02 Sept. 2014. Web. 08 Sept. 2014. <http://www.dallasnews.com/business/airline-industry/20140902-its-no-longer-safe-to-recline-your-airplane-seat.ece>.
CNN Wire Service. "Seat Recline Fight Diverts Another Flight, Woman "demanded" That Flight Land." FOX6Nowcom. N.p., -2 Sept. 2014. Web. 08 Sept. 2014. <http://fox6now.com/2014/09/02/seat-recline-fight-diverts-another-flight-woman-demanded-that-flight-land/>.
Murray, Rheana. "The Do's and Don'ts of Reclining Your Airplane Seat."ABC News. ABC News Network, 29 Aug. 2014. Web. 08 Sept. 2014. <http://abcnews.go.com/Travel/dos-donts-reclining-airplane-seat/story?id=25184467>.
Murray, Rheana. "Watch: Unruly Flyer Escorted Off Plane After Reclining Seat Fight." ABC News. ABC News Network, 03 Sept. 2014. Web. 08 Sept. 2014. <http://abcnews.go.com/US/video-unruly-flyer-escorted-off-plane-reclining-seat/story?id=25235578>.

28 comments:

  1. Your blog post was very fun and enjoyable to read. It had a lot of information and was backed up by facts that made it very interesting. I do agree that in airplanes, there isn't legroom and you're pretty cramped. But, I never noticed that the space for your legs was decreasing, and airlines hope you don't notice. You are a very good writer and your post was very well written.

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  2. I have to agree with the Associated Press' idea of "being nice to your neighbor". It is not only the most cost effective but also the most moral. I also liked how you brought this small issue to life. Although it's not our biggest issue right now, leg room on airplanes has been a complaint for far to long now.

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  3. What is the marginal benefit of decreasing the leg room on airlines? Are the airlines able to add additional seats to the planes by decreasing leg space? If the airlines are unable to add additional seats, then there appears to be no marginal benefit and many marginal costs. This seemingly small issue could result in the loss of flyers, hurting the commercial flight business.

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  4. Although this piece was satirical in nature, you did a good job of making it easy to comprehend complex economics ideas like "marginal cost". The graph was also a really helpful visual aid. By combining humorous writing with relate-able content it made your post easy to understand and fun to read. It seems to be a common trend, not only with airlines but with other companies, to make cuts in the quality to alleviate the growing population or cuts in budgeting. It will be interesting to see if this trend continues as the years go on. Good Job Matt.

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  5. I understand the argument, traveling on several flights you can get irritated relatively fast when the seat in front of you is reclining their seat, and get gets worse when they do it repetitively. There have been drawings and prototypes of planes have a bunk-bed like set of that would be located in the center and regular, non-reclining seats on either side. The problem with that is there would be people wanting to be in the other but that type of seating is full. Until the technology is here, for now it might be best to give your neighbor the right and ask them first before you recline

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  6. The piece had good information and states everything clearly. There are a lot of things that the airlines could do potentially to make the rides more comfortable for passengers as well. They don't need to make the space between each chair smaller so the stress level of passengers go down. If the passenger is truly comfortable then they would not need to recline their seat in the first place.

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  7. I get onto an airplane a couple of times a year, and once the airplane is in the air the person that seats in front of me usually ends up putting their seat back. It makes the plane ride a lot more difficult just because you don’t have the room to stretch your legs and get the blood flowing in your legs. I think that having reclining seats is an awesome feature when it comes to flying. But I think that they should reinvent the seat so that the passenger behind the recliner isn’t affected as much when the seat is reclined. To do this they should make the seat slide forward when the passenger wants to recline, keeping everyone happy.

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  8. Colin Marks

    The marginal benefit and marginal cost example with the reclining seat was great because it was something that people can relate to with discomfort on planes. This blog post is just what society needed. we have all been thinking this but none of us had the guts to call out the airline companies. Airlines reducing leg space on planes is a travesty that can no longer be overlooked. I'm glad you came out and said this. Hopefully airplane companies catch wind of this and change their horrible ways.

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  9. First I would like to reply to Jackson's previous comment about the marginal benefit of decreasing leg room on airplanes. It would make sense that by gradually decreasing leg room over time, eventually there would be enough room on commercial planes to add an extra row of seats. Also, airlines might decrease this leg room over time so that passengers don't notice the decreasing leg room and airlines can keep their prices the same. I agree with Matt in saying that this is a valid strategy. However, being 6'5", it is incredibly annoying that I don't have enough room to fit my knees into the seat, and that every time I want to put my tray table down I have to fold my legs underneath. This creates a very uncomfortable flying experience, also I have never had the problem of the person in front of me reclining their seat because my knees prevent the seat in front of me from reclining. I also believe that it is a valid strategy for airlines because airplanes are the only cost and time efficient way to travel long distances and go overseas. So until another airline comes along that can charge cheap prices and have copious amounts of leg room, I fear that this problem will continue.

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  10. Matt,

    Your article, thematic as it is, is also incredibly true! While it would be nice for airlines to drop millions on new seats for each of their planes, I guess we'll have to cope with a friendly reminder from them on a flight, but who's to say every passenger will adhere to these recommendations. You're no fool, there are jerks everywhere, making it practically inevitable to prevent one more seat from reclining in the cabin. As nice as it would be, the world can't be perfect, and neither can our flights. One more thing: you've got hilariously subtle instances of sarcasm in your article, and I really love it, gives it an extra dimension of life and spice!

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  11. This was very entertaining to read and while it is an actually serious topic, it had some lightness brought to it. It was kind of ridiculous to see how much reclining your seat back on a plane really disrupts people. The comment you made about being nice to your neighbor may just be what it comes down to. Economics is sometimes hard to understand but you made this post easy to read and had very helpful visuals.

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  12. Your ironic voice in this blog post made it easy to read, as well as the unique and relevant topic you wrote about. I fly on airplanes rather often, and for me, being an average sized seventeen year old girl, reclining the seat isn’t really necessary. I think it’s pretty ridiculous that people are getting into fights regarding lack of space, but maybe they except more for how expensive their tickets are. I would guess airplane companies in other countries don’t have this problem because on average they have skinnier people than we do, so they don’t feel as cramped on the plane.

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  13. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  14. The blog post was nice, but the effect of reclining one's seat puts a negative externality on the person behind, which is economically unwise. In order to counteract this it makes sense that having a fixed seat angle would fix these problems, however the marginal cost is greater than the marginal benefit of keeping the old seats.

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  15. Being a victim of trapped on a plane thousands of feet above the surface, I was one who dared to recline my chair. On a plane for fourteen hours headed to Southeast Asia, comfort was a must. And so this debate goes on on how to solve such a problem of finding comfort in limited space. With the trusty and humorous statistics given by Thurmanomics, I can agree that comfort is a necessity when trapped in a high speed moving object, imprisoned with fellow strangers. But not only are the passengers in front and in back of you are to take note of, but the person sitting next to you. Fighting over the one armrest provided. How will you make your little nest consisting of a small travel pillow and a nice blanket to wrap yourself in? I agree with what was said above, because it really is an issue when one wants to find comfort in such little space that something must be done for a better and less chaotic trip. Perhaps airplane companies should think this issue over, or maybe a debate with one’s parents is needed to take first class for the best comfort.

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  16. I fly quite often and I have noticed a decline in foot room. There should not be recliners on the seats because not all take advantage of them, and the marginal cost is much greater than the marginal benefit. I do not personally believe that a few extra degrees of back comfort is worth having the person behind you very mad, as well as uncomfortable.

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  17. I’m going to disagree with you (it’s more fun that way) and say that it’s not the reclining seats that are at fault here. In my mind, it is the general atmosphere of an airplane - the stress of traveling, the annoyance of pressure changes, the cramped cabin - that makes people volatile and more prone to violence. Having someone enter your personal space with their chair is just a convenient negative externality that sets these passengers off. Theoretically, any unanticipated negative externality, like a spilled glass of water or a crying baby, could erupt these tensions.

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  18. I like your topic a lot In the beginning, it pulled the reader in and made this piece enjoyable to read. I do not fly as much as others but it is interesting to see the remarks about the decline in foot room. The marginal benefit for the airlines must exceed the marginal cost otherwise the airlines would not do this. The marginal cost however must be how upset and angry certain flyers get when they realize they have less foot room. This is a very interesting topic that was interpreted very well by marginal analysis.

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  19. Although the airlines are putting a negative externality on passengers by decreasing the amount of leg room they give its passengers, passengers need to be able to make a marginal analysis. If you become disturbed by a situation on a plane, you must ponder if the marginal cost of getting water thrown in your face or getting tackled by air marshals is worth the marginal benefit of the leg room. One might think that all of these issues could be solved if the airlines were to increase their amount of leg room but in a market economy like ours, the airlines run their business in the way that is most cost effective for them. If they can increase their amount of seats on a plane, they can increase their profits even if the opportunity cost of suffering passengers is present.

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  20. Matt,

    I agree with what you are saying but only to a point. As you stated the minimum discomfort for a passenger on an airplane is five. Therefore I would say that right from the get-go passengers are on edge and any number of things could set them off. This could be the decrease in leg room, but it could also be something like loss of an armrest, spilled food or drink, or any number of other things that can happen on a flight.

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  21. Quite a an interesting topic, the title was rather misleading. It's an interesting topic but I wouldn't say it's a problem. When I do fly, which is at least once a year, I rarely see people reclining seats and have never had any comfort issues except for being in the same spot for more than 2 hours. Also, what is their reason for the reducing in legroom? You never addressed why this is happening.

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  22. While I understand that airlines are trying to increase the comfort of passengers by giving them the option to comfortably recline their seats, they have also made the mistake of attaching food trays to the backs of said seats. Therefore due to this design when one might recline their seat, anything set on the tray to the back of said seat is now at risk of meeting a fate with the floor. A possible solution to this would be disabling the reclining feature on seat in airplanes. This is a more viable solution than changing the design of an entire airplane--which would likely cost thousands of dollars. In turn the flyer may be less comfortable but when flying said consumer must have prepared for and/or been aware of the chance of a possible uncomfortable seating while on the airplane. Eliminating the possibility of a reclining seat would cost close to nothing, minimize the number of fights on airlines and cause consumers to come to terms with the things that they cannot change about flying on an airplane.

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  23. I agree with the topic but in the end, a calm message to everyone on a plane should be enough. It may seem more efficient to replace the seats, but as your post said that an announcement is better. Another way is ask the person behind you if you could recline your seat instead of invading their leg space.

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  24. Matt,

    I totally agree with you about the discomfort being caused by reclining seats. I would disagree with the discomfort to degrees reclined graph as i would argue that there is a sharper increase in discomfort as the degrees increases. I would also say that this problem will not go away anytime soon because the airline companies are in the business of making money and with the decrease in leg room the planes can fit more seats which create more revenue.

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  25. Matt,

    I really enjoyed reading your piece, because you picked an interesting topic and made it quite entertaining. You argued your point well from an economical standpoint that the marginal benefit of removing reclining seats would not outweigh the marginal cost of what it takes to remove them. Overall your blog post was well done, and sparked interesting debates on the controversial topic of airline leg room.

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  26. Matt,
    I think you wrote a great piece that we all can relate to. I agree that reclining your seat on a flight is simply not polite, and not worth it. The marginal cost is far more than the marginal benefit. I've had two knee surgeries, and flying is uncomfortable. Last time I flew we upgraded to seats with more leg room, so it appears that airlines are profiting by creating a desire for more leg room.

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  27. I really liked this Blog because it used non-economic related topics to explain economics concepts in other ways than money and how money works. It was funny and true, because airplanes are getting worse and worse to fly on. The opportunity cost for three less seats on a plane should outweigh the rest of the seats having just about two feet of leg room per each one, right?

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  28. This is extremely clever and you really seem to get the whole tie to economics thing going on here. Everyone has dealt with uncomfortable flights and those really do affect the airlines because so many people are begin to try to travel in other ways partially due to the discomfort and aggression they feel on flight.

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