Do Business Travelers Deserve Extra-Legroom Seats?

A nationally recognized reporter, writer, and consumer advocate, Ed Perkins focuses on how travelers can find the best deals and avoid scams.

He is the author of "Online Travel" (2000) and "Business Travel: When It's Your Money" (2004), the first step-by-step guide specifically written for small business and self-employed professional travelers. He was also the co-author of the annual "Best Travel Deals" series from Consumers Union.

Perkins' advice for business travelers is featured on MyBusinessTravel.com, a website devoted to helping small business and self-employed professional travelers find the best value for their travel dollars.

Perkins was founding editor of Consumer Reports Travel Letter, one of the country's most influential travel publications, from which he retired in 1998. He has also written for Business Traveller magazine (London).

Perkins' travel expertise has led to frequent television appearances, including ABC's "Good Morning America" and "This Week with David Brinkley," "The CBS Evening News with Dan Rather," CNN, and numerous local TV and radio stations.

Before editing Consumer Reports Travel Letter, Perkins spent 25 years in travel research and consulting with assignments ranging from national tourism development strategies to the design of computer-based tourism models.

Born in Evanston, Illinois, Perkins lives in Ashland, Oregon with his wife.

See recent posts by Ed Perkins

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The Boston Globe‘s story about shrinking coach legroom on several big U.S. airlines generated a lot of coverage in travel media outlets. As The Globe reported, WestJet has joined the ranks of United (which started it all), American, Delta, Frontier, and JetBlue in tightening up regular coach seating in order to install a few rows with extra-legroom—and extra-fee—seats.

The question for business travelers is not whether those extra-legroom seats are a good deal; the additional cost is generally reasonable. The question is whether corporate travel policies cover the extra fees. And here, I’ve been surprised to read that lots of companies don’t cover them.

To me, that’s inexplicable. Contrary to some uninformed public opinion, business travel isn’t a paid vacation. Business travelers are expected to represent their companies during what are often long days of high-pressure situations, and to travel to and from distant destinations on their own time. While I can understand a corporation’s reluctance to pay for exorbitantly priced first-class tickets, it seems to me that corporations owe their business travelers any reasonably-priced alternative to the miseries of conventional coach travel. And conventional coach travel is a miserable—even demeaning—experience. Anthropometric data show that today’s typical coach seats are too small to accommodate Americans comfortably. Although the for-fee alternative doesn’t solve the problem completely—even with extra legroom, those coach seats are still too narrow—the option helps take at least some of the discomfort out of coach travel.

Unfortunately, this development is a zero-sum game. If you pay more, you get a better product, but if you don’t pay extra, you get a product that’s inferior. Business travelers who pay for their own travel are free to use the new extra-legroom option, and I’m sure many do. As for the others, I can only suggest that professionals who travel under tight corporate policies ask their companies to rethink their positions. It’s a matter of fairness and respect.

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