dear equipment scheduler

First it was gate agents, and now I have a beef with the equipment scheduler. The equipment scheduler is the person(s) who decide what type of aircraft goes on which route. Their primary focus is not customer comfort, it’s getting the cheapest to operate plane that will accommodate around the number of folks who want to fly.

I suspect these folks all use the same manual for figuring this out, as both Untied (sic) and Mapleflot schedule Airbus 319’s for cross-country journeys. I also suspect these folks have never had to fly cattle class in a 319. For those of you who haven’t had the pleasure, the 319 is kind of like the Honda Civic. Great to get around the city, not so great on long voyages.

The 319 is a short-medium haul airliner, designed for flight durations of 60-180 minutes. The seats are cheap-ass and uncomfortable, and are laid out for high-density passenger seating. You can stay relatively (ha ha) comfortable in them for a couple of hours, but anything more than that is pretty god-awful. San Fran to Toronto or Philadelphia is five to six hours. For those who skipped math, that’s 2-3 times longer than what the 319 was designed for.

Unbelievably uncomfortable, and my butt and legs will take a day or so to get back to normal.

Stop. Using. This. Piece. Of. Shit. Airplane. On. Long. Hauls.

Use an A321, or a Boeing 767 . They were designed to run a little longer and offer similar economics as the 319. They are also comfortable enough to keep your customers from wanting to slit your throats and wishing the flight would end, please god, end now aiiiiiegggggggghhhhhhh….

Whew.

No 319s. Unless I’m going to Toronto, New York, or Chi-town.

Thank you.

3 thoughts on “dear equipment scheduler

  1. I can barely handle these on the short haul flights. The seats are so narrow that I don’t fit in them (fat jokes aside, I’m plain broad shouldered).

    But Kev – you fly enough, why don’t you just upgrade?! 😉

  2. Uh, kev, if you keep complaining about aero, eventually you will get around to complaining about something my girlfriend did.

    (You’d be surprised at how much stuff they own and operate)

    I’m just saying.

Leave a Reply to j2 Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *