Paul Woods

I looked at my boarding pass… 15C - I thought I had struck gold.  It definitely picked me up very early last Thursday whilst waiting at Brisbane Airport for my 6:00AM flight to Sydney (my day trip to speak @ TechEd 2006).  Having left home at 4:30AM, it put me in a much better mood!

Then my dreams of a comfortable flight were dashed.  I was one row away from the promised land of rows 13 and 14!  Being 6’1, economy class on a Qantas 737-800 is not the friendliest place to be.  Nothing worse than having your knees digging into the seat in front of you (even on a 1hr flight!).

And just to rub salt into the wounds… the gentleman infront of me (the best seat in economy!) decided that extra leg room wasn’t enough, and that he needed to recline his chair as well… during the food service!!

Luckily one of the flight attendants saved the day when she saw me knocking my head against the seat in front of my whilst trying to eat some cereal!  She told him to push his seat forward.  But that only lasted about 10 minutes, then the seat was reclined again.  Arrrrgh so very very annoying.

This is not too much of a problem on a 767 like the one I flew back to Brisbane on that evening.  Economy is configured with a little more leg room (maybe an inch?) and it sure makes a big difference.  Next time I travel to Sydney early in the morning, I might wait 30 minutes and get the second flight, and get a 767 instead of the cramped 737.  Especially because that extra inch of legroom does not cost any extra, and I would get to sleep in a little more :)