Airport chairs. WTF?

Having flown to Coeur d'Alene yesterday (and boy, are my arms tired! Har!), I noticed yet again airport chairs. I look at them, and I think "What are they thinking?" Here are the chairs in the Boise Airport.



Here are the chairs in the Spokane airport.



Note the similarities. Really exaggerated sway in the seat, and low armrests. Low backs. Realizing that it's fairly common that folks get trapped in an airport for hours, or overnight, and they try to sleep in these chairs, these chairs suck.

You can't lean back and snooze; the backs are too low. If you slide down far enough to rest your head on the back, your rear end is hanging uncomfortably off the seat. It's really tough to stretch out over several chairs because of the armrests. If you find a few chairs without the armrests, the sway back prevents comfort. Here's a pic of a guy who's trying that, but note how the sway-backed seats dig right into the middle of his back. You can't sleep like that.



So, I'm guessing the the clowns who make chair purchase decisions 1) don't get stuck in airports, and 2) have another outdated agenda. And that is, they think that they can't let folks fall asleep in airports because they'll sleep through boarding calls and miss flights.

Back in the day when flights weren't full, and when missing a flight didn't cost you, it cost the airline, it was important to ensure that travelers didn't fall asleep in the airport. Now if you miss the flight, it's either tough s*** on you because the tickets are nonrefundable, or you pay extra for the ability to reschedule.

So, how 'bout giving us some decent chairs? And, for just for the halibut, here's a shot of another traveling horror. That's right, the two seat belt seat mate.