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If there’s one airline that may be described as polarizing, it is most likely Southwest. Some vacationers swear by the airline’s open seating coverage, whereas others favor to fly with carriers that help you choose your seat prematurely. However now, the controversy about the way you select your seat has considerably fallen by the wayside, as vacationers are up in arms about Southwest Airways’ new bodily seats. The airline introduced some controversial “upgrades” in a current TikTok video, which showcased computer-generated photos of a redesigned cabin.
RELATED: Southwest Is Making These 4 Main Modifications to Seating.
“Introducing our up to date cabin design and new seats!” the caption reads. “You possibly can catch this inside on new plane deliveries starting subsequent yr. To not point out our ongoing rollout of including greater overhead bins and in-power ports to our present planes!”
In a Feb. 2 press launch, Southwest defined that it partnered with design firm Tangerine to create the up to date inside, which integrates shades of blue. The brand new seats have the Southwest coronary heart emblem on adjustable headrests and private digital system holders, per the discharge. Equipped by plane seat producer RECARO, the seats are “intuitively designed…for final consolation whereas maximizing seat width and total assist,” the airline mentioned.
Nevertheless, clients had completely different ideas on the seats—and so they weren’t precisely optimistic. Southwest’s TikTok video was flooded with sarcastic feedback, with many stating that the seats regarded “smaller and thinner” than they did earlier than.
“I did not suppose it was doable to make the seats any extra uncomfortable, nevertheless it seems like in some way you managed. Congratulations, I suppose,” one remark reads.
One other commenter was shocked that the seats have been accepted in any respect, asking, “Did y’all not do a single focus group on these?!” (Within the press launch, the airline did write that “Buyer analysis and product testing” guided Southwest to collaborate with RECARO.)
Others made jokes, asking if there’s “an possibility to only stand” or whether or not the airline thought of wood benches, which might “be simply as cozy.” A number of feedback in contrast the seats to garden chairs, plastic pool recliners, and slabs of granite, whereas others mentioned that the brand new chairs are akin to these on price range airways like Spirit and Frontier.
Critics additionally argue that the “thinner” chairs is likely to be rolled out to create house for extra seats. “So extra crowded and fewer consolation? Superior,” a remark reads. One other asks, “Are the cushions thinner so you can put them nearer and squeeze in an additional two rows?”
Curiously sufficient, Southwest (together with JetBlue) has been acknowledged as having essentially the most legroom in economic system seating. Again in 2015, Southwest’s Chief Business Officer Bob Jordan additionally mentioned that the airline would have the “widest economic system seats obtainable within the single-aisle 737 market,” at 17.8 inches, Condé Nast Traveler reported. This set Southwest aside, as most airways have been shifting to slimmer seats.
In a press release to Finest Life, a spokesperson for Southwest famous that the RECARO seats “preserve the typical seat width and pitch on Southwest Boeing 737 MAX 8 and -800 plane, and exceed the width presently obtainable on the -700 sequence plane.” (Pitch is the time period utilized by airways for the house between a seat and the seats in entrance and behind it.)
Concerning the seats themselves, the airline mentioned that they’ve really made enhancements by way of consolation.
“We collaborated with RECARO to custom-develop a extra ergonomic cushion through the use of completely different foam applied sciences and densities, and including extra padding to sure areas of the headrest, backrest, and backside cushion,” the spokesperson mentioned. “The seat materials chosen for these new seats shouldn’t be solely softer to the contact, however higher showcases the froth expertise.”
The Southwest spokesperson additionally mentioned that the airline did, the truth is, conduct testing for the brand new seats.
“Southwest performed a number of rounds of consolation testing with a whole lot of contributors, and we’re assured within the consolation and reliability these seats present,” the assertion reads. “After testing, Southwest continued to leverage RECARO’s experience in growing long-haul premium economic system seats within the worldwide market and translated these learnings and enhancements to make a {custom} seat distinctive to Southwest.”
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On prime of basic frustration with the seats, some vacationers mentioned it is sufficient to make them take their enterprise elsewhere.
“You simply earned your self a Delta buyer,” one remark reads on the TikTok video, whereas one other known as Southwest’s video “the very best Delta advert I’ve seen.”
A number of commenters additionally wished to know why the renovated cabins did not embody charging ports, which has been a ache level for vacationers. Nevertheless, the airline addressed this within the launch: New 737 MAX 8 plane may have USB A and USB C energy ports and bigger overhead bins. As well as, each charging ports and bigger bins will likely be added to present MAX 8 and 737-800 plane over the following a number of years, Southwest mentioned.
Finest Life reached out to Southwest for remark and can replace the story after we hear again.
