Smiles
January 17th, 2012, 10:52
For about ten minutes I was thinking of ditching United Airlines and switching to Cathay Pacific (which flies Vancouver >> Hong Kong >> Bangkok. United having an extra stop in the Land of The Free).
Airtrax ~ for what it's worth ~ rates Cathay as a 5-star airline and United as a 3-star, and although my complaints against United are few and minor I really would like to go direct from Vancouver rather than stop over in Seattle or San Francisco. Cathay provides that, although the long leg is 13 hours+. Oddly, the prices Cathay quotes these days (on their own website as well as Expedia) for my destination are less than United, which has not always been the case.
I fly Economy, though I always splurge a small amount on United with their Economy+ seating where, for 150 extra bucks, one gets quite a lot more leg room. But I'm of a 'normal' height and fairly slim so I have no trouble at all in economy seating, and as well I pay no attention to the food provided ... never eating all I'm offered and more often than not sleeping through at least one of the meals: a feature which Cathay seems to be often lauded.
But after reading the customer comments for Cathay regarding the Economy seating I'm going to rule them out after all. The commentary (two examples below) was 100% loathing for Cathay's new sliding-not-reclining 'shell' seats. One could possibly bear a two hour hop with these puppies, but I'm pretty sure the 13-hour leg would be excruciating.
The commentary is quite devastating and I'm in a quandary as to how Airtrax could even think of rating Cathay as 5-star when confronted with horror comments such as those below (plus 3 pages more on the website) regarding what I would think would be a very major criteria measurement.
"I flew return from Vancouver to Delhi, via Hong Kong, in February. Although there were two different aircraft involved, each with a different seat configuration, the seats were the same - the worst I've ever experienced. Very little legroom, but worst of all, the seats didn't recline. All that could be done was to slide the seat bottom forward, which only gave the illusion of leaning back a bit. This put my back into a painful slumped position, and because the seat back was still upright, my head and neck were pushed forward. Within half an hour I had excruciating back pain, which I couldn't get rid of, regardless of how I positioned myself. On such a long flight as Vancouver - Hong Kong, such seats seem absurd, since it's pretty much impossible to sleep. I was miserable the entire time, and could only pray that the seats between Hong Kong and Delhi would be different. They weren't. When the agonising trip was finally over and I was finally in India, I kept having the awful realisation that I was going to have to sit in the same torturous seats all the way home again."
"Having read these reviews I can only assume the 'shell' seat is unbearable at any height. I am a 5'6"female & travelled with my 15yo son (5'10") and husband (5'9") - all of slim to average build - from Melbourne to Hong Kong. This was our first experience of these seats, and the torture they induce. We each tried to cope with the unnatural shapes the seat contorts your body into by adopting different positions - enduring neck, back and/or tailbone pain as a result. These seats are unquestionably the worst we have ever experienced, I am just glad we left our 6' plus son behind. We assumed this was an old plane/old design; having just visited the Cathay site I am shocked to learn they are being lauded, particularly given all the negative reviews."
http://www.airlinequality.com/Product/Yseat-CX.htm
Airtrax ~ for what it's worth ~ rates Cathay as a 5-star airline and United as a 3-star, and although my complaints against United are few and minor I really would like to go direct from Vancouver rather than stop over in Seattle or San Francisco. Cathay provides that, although the long leg is 13 hours+. Oddly, the prices Cathay quotes these days (on their own website as well as Expedia) for my destination are less than United, which has not always been the case.
I fly Economy, though I always splurge a small amount on United with their Economy+ seating where, for 150 extra bucks, one gets quite a lot more leg room. But I'm of a 'normal' height and fairly slim so I have no trouble at all in economy seating, and as well I pay no attention to the food provided ... never eating all I'm offered and more often than not sleeping through at least one of the meals: a feature which Cathay seems to be often lauded.
But after reading the customer comments for Cathay regarding the Economy seating I'm going to rule them out after all. The commentary (two examples below) was 100% loathing for Cathay's new sliding-not-reclining 'shell' seats. One could possibly bear a two hour hop with these puppies, but I'm pretty sure the 13-hour leg would be excruciating.
The commentary is quite devastating and I'm in a quandary as to how Airtrax could even think of rating Cathay as 5-star when confronted with horror comments such as those below (plus 3 pages more on the website) regarding what I would think would be a very major criteria measurement.
"I flew return from Vancouver to Delhi, via Hong Kong, in February. Although there were two different aircraft involved, each with a different seat configuration, the seats were the same - the worst I've ever experienced. Very little legroom, but worst of all, the seats didn't recline. All that could be done was to slide the seat bottom forward, which only gave the illusion of leaning back a bit. This put my back into a painful slumped position, and because the seat back was still upright, my head and neck were pushed forward. Within half an hour I had excruciating back pain, which I couldn't get rid of, regardless of how I positioned myself. On such a long flight as Vancouver - Hong Kong, such seats seem absurd, since it's pretty much impossible to sleep. I was miserable the entire time, and could only pray that the seats between Hong Kong and Delhi would be different. They weren't. When the agonising trip was finally over and I was finally in India, I kept having the awful realisation that I was going to have to sit in the same torturous seats all the way home again."
"Having read these reviews I can only assume the 'shell' seat is unbearable at any height. I am a 5'6"female & travelled with my 15yo son (5'10") and husband (5'9") - all of slim to average build - from Melbourne to Hong Kong. This was our first experience of these seats, and the torture they induce. We each tried to cope with the unnatural shapes the seat contorts your body into by adopting different positions - enduring neck, back and/or tailbone pain as a result. These seats are unquestionably the worst we have ever experienced, I am just glad we left our 6' plus son behind. We assumed this was an old plane/old design; having just visited the Cathay site I am shocked to learn they are being lauded, particularly given all the negative reviews."
http://www.airlinequality.com/Product/Yseat-CX.htm