Winging It: Cramped space helps squeeze the joy out of flying

For the last several years, this specialist in writing about travel has done his best to take as few airline flights as possible.

As millions of us have learned, the more we're able to communicate online and the more of a hassle flying on commercial carriers becomes, the fewer air trips we feel we absolutely must take.

Most of my air travel these days takes me to conferences, where I meet people I write about face to face. Otherwise, it is for visits to family and friends.

I did both on my latest venture out of the office, when I experimented for the first time with checking e-mail at 35,000 feet, using onboard WiFi service on one leg of a four-segment trip on AirTran Airways.

But the most valuable insight I gained on the trip was something I had not anticipated.

My flights, including two trips through AirTran's bustling Atlanta hub, helped me better understand why federal regulators are poised to hammer airlines with heavy fines if they keep customers stranded on a plane on the ground for more than three hours.

AirTran did a good job of providing reasonably priced transportation. The WiFi service worked well, allowing me to work for an hour online for $10. But the thoughts I had during the trip weren't about AirTran or any other airline in particular.

Given the realities of flying in coach, it is easy to imagine how awful it would be to endure hours trapped in the tiny sliver of personal space known as your assigned seat. The outrage of those who have had that dreadful experience has led to the new rules the airlines must follow, starting April 29.

Every seat was filled on three of my four flights. The overhead bins were full before a quarter of the passengers had even boarded. At least I got the aisle or window seats I wanted - by paying $6 each way for the privilege.

On the return trip, because of the limited bin space, passengers were encouraged to gate-check bags they had planned to carry on the flight. Since I was headed home and had nothing but dirty clothes in my carry-on, I took the offer. That meant I beat the system, and didn't pay the $15 fee I would have had I checked the bag at the ticket counter.

The worst part of the personal-space issue was the seat pitch, or the distance from the back of one seat to the one ahead of it. On two of my flights, it was 30 inches, an inch or two less than the average for coach cabins on most airlines around the world.

So while I was able to fire up my laptop, I couldn't read what was on the screen in a normal way with it supported on the tray table. I was forced to tilt the screen toward me, and that was with the passenger in front of me not reclining his seat. It was a tedious exercise that made me cut short the online session I had paid for.

Readers' responses to my recent columns about airline policies for accommodating obese passengers have made it clear that cramped quarters and lack of legroom is an even more important issue than how to handle oversize customers.

Airlines have created the cabins they have for reasons that make perfect sense to them. With fares held down by competition, they need to squeeze as many seats on board as possible.

The only recourse a traveler has to be guaranteed more legroom is to fly business or first class, or use the few carriers that offer some coach seats with more space for an extra fee. United Airlines is the leader in that last category with its "premium economy class."

For everyone else in coach, a Web site such as www.seatguru.com has details on seat pitch and tips on finding the best seats for every plane operated by almost every airline. Most seats on American, Continental, Delta, United, and US Airways jets have a 31-inch pitch. Most seats on Southwest are 32 inches.

Despite the negative aspects of my flights, there were moments I enjoyed. Among them was using Philadelphia International Airport's Terminal E, where the recently completed expansion has given AirTran and Southwest passengers better gate areas and other amenities they didn't have before.

My trip also made me a believer in the value of in-flight WiFi service. It was easy to sign up and pay online for the access I had. From the way I noticed it being used on my AirTran flights, passengers weren't annoying their neighbors the way they would if they were talking on cell phones.

AirTran and Virgin America are the only U.S. carriers so far that offer WiFi service on all flights, but most others are installing it. Delta is close to equipping its entire fleet, and American has about 25 percent of its planes outfitted.