If you sit in the aback of the plane, your cruise will get worse — unless you pay for better. If you sit up front, your cruise will get better. Wherever you sit, you'll pay a bit more, on average. And as in the past, the best way to buy air tickets is during a book "sale." In a nutshell, that's my book for airline biking in the New Year.
For calm travel, airlines will focus on in-flight ball and connectivity as the alone way they're accommodating to "improve" their product. Onboard WiFi, bigger screens, and such: The gizmos will be bigger and bigger on new planes, and on any above retrofits. Of course, you'll pay — at atomic for the WiFi and maybe for added features.
The blow of the coach/economy acquaintance will get worse. A bellwether in the industry — Southwest — appear it would add seats to its accepted fleet, abbreviating legroom by at atomic an inch, and new planes will be pre-configured to crisis your knees and accomplish it harder for you to use your laptop. The net result: JetBlue will be the alone calm band with even abutting to able legroom.
Boeing's aboriginal 777s about came with nine seats per row, which are about the widest abridgement seats in the air. Sadly, big airlines, including American and several across lines, are starting to get new 777s with a bound 10 seats per row, and added curve are reconfiguring accepted fleets to that adverse standard. Similarly, Boeing's new 787s were advised to be absolutely adequate at eight seats per row, but at atomic bisected of the buyers — including advance calm chump United — are installing attenuated 737-width seats at nine per row.
If you wish reasonable legroom, you can pay for it. Delta, Frontier and United accept already added legroom-for-pay seats at the foreground of their abridgement cabins, and American has appear it will do the same. For 2013, it seems to me that Alaska, Hawaiian, Southwest and US Airways accept to be searching actively at afterward suit. I doubtable that even low-end Allegiant and Spirit could accomplish a business case. Across lines, on the added hand, accept about autonomous for accurate exceptional economy: abstracted cabins with lots of legroom and added seats. The botheration is that those fares tend to be at atomic bifold approved abridgement fares and accordingly a poor amount hypothesis for a lot of vacation travelers.
Airlines will abide to focus on artefact advance — but in business class. Flat-bed seats are acceptable the norm, and airlines that haven't installed them yet will be affected to play catch-up to abide competitive.
I aswell attending for some burden on common flyer programs to abate breadth earning on the everyman fares. Basically, the mileage-to-award-travel aspects of common flyer programs accept morphed from adherence rewards to banknote cows. The primary adherence account is now aristocratic status, with its "free" upgrades and added perks. And for advantageous loyalty, airlines would rather abject accolade levels on how abundant you absorb rather than on how abounding afar you log. They yield several approaches:
— Do as airlines with newer programs, including as Southwest and Virgin America, do: Abject accolade levels on how abundant you spend, not miles.
— Cut the breadth awarded for aerial on the everyman fare: Delta started it; you'll apparently see added of the same.
— Retain abounding biking acclaim on the accepted afar aureate base on all tickets, but cut the amount of "elite qualifying" afar on bargain tickets.
I see no advance in availability of accolade seats at the everyman breadth levels — the ones the airlines affection if they're touting their "generous" programs. Business/first-class seats will abide even scarcer. Realistically, seats to accepted destinations will still be boxy to score, and reasonable abutting itineraries will abide next to impossible.
All in all, then, except in the foreground of the plane, air biking will not be any bigger in 2013. You'll be advantageous if it doesn't get a lot worse.
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