As happy as most travelers are when they find cheap airplane tickets and cheap vacation packages, many travelers dread being assigned to middle seats on planes.
A recent survey of airline passengers found:
More Americans would prefer getting stuck in traffic (56 percent) or going on a blind date (56 percent) than sitting in a middle seat on a full flight.
Half the respondents said they would be willing to wait for the next available flight if they could be promised an aisle seat. 20 percent said they would be willing to spend the night at an airport hotel in exchange for an aisle seat on the first flight the next morning.
Nine percent said that they would refuse to sit in a middle seat on a flight that was over two hours long.
The top five middle seat complaints were as following:
Having a intrusive seatmate looking over your shoulder (84 percent)
Having to maneuver around the person on the aisle in order to get to the bathroom (83 percent)
Not being able to stretch out (83 percent)
Having an overweight passenger on either side of the middle seat (80 percent)
Not having anywhere to rest your head (71 percent)
Unfortunately more people are likely to be stuck in middle seats going forward as airline reduce capacity as well as reduce and/or increasingly sell aisle and window seats at premium prices.
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