Airlines Sacrifice Customers For Profit?
PEREIRA: Up next, discussion could very have you shaking your first of fury. Say goodbye to your personal space. Airlines are looking to cram even more passengers onto their planes with new slim line seats. The company say they save on space and on the cost fuel. Most customers, they won't even notice the change. However a new survey says people are noticing and they certainly do not like it. This could spell big trouble for the airlines' cost cutting ways. Here now Mark Murphy, travel expert and author of "Travel Forward." I'm hoping that you are upset by this too.</s>MARK MURPHY, TRAVEL EXPERT: I hate getting jammed in. It's kind of funny. I think they need to have a combination marketing deal with slim fast or Jenny Craig.</s>PEREIRA: Well, let's talk about the actual slim line seat. It's not just about you losing knee space. The seats are getting more narrow?</s>MURPHY: The old seats were a little fatter, so they got them skinnier so they can put an extra row in each plane. That adds up to millions and millions of dollars over time for that aircraft. By slimming them down, they can jam an extra row or extra two rows into each aircraft. In some places you get on a plane, only 17 inches of width in your seat. That's been on ongoing trend as long as losing the space between the seats. They're going with the cheapest possible ticket in the back of the plane and having you pay incremental costs to get a comfortable seat.</s>BOLDUAN: How much are they making, so they're considering --</s>MURPHY: They say one to two rows.</s>BOLDUAN: How much are they going to make?</s>MURPHY: It's $150 to $250 based on where you're flying to. Times how many turns it's going to do, times -- you're talking millions of dollars.</s>CUOMO: So how do we get around it? You don't. It's called capitalism. You're stuck with it. If you want that cheapest ticket, if you want the comfort, it's the a la carte pricing.</s>PEREIRA: Some of the airlines are saying, while they're doing these slim line seats, they're going to add Wi-Fi and do some features that will make the flight better.</s>MURPHY: Right. If they can't make money, if people aren't sliding the credit cards, they are going to remove that. A lot of people bring iPads and everything else. At one point that was a big differentiator.</s>CUOMO: Now you're going to be able to pair up anyway because you're going to be sitting like this. You only need one iPad.</s>PEREIRA: You look back in the day, a lot of people are saying it used to be such a delight to fly. The fact is -- talk to us about that. Back in the '70 easy was it really --</s>MURPHY: That was when it was regulated and prices were set. Most people drove. We'd drive to Chicago. We drove to Disneyworld.</s>BOLDUAN: If we were back there, they would never imagine the flying experience would be what it's like today, which makes you wonder --</s>CUOMO: It's like a cargo ship now.</s>BOLDUAN: Where are we heading? How much --</s>MURPHY: Stand -- I think that's just a publicity gimmick. But I think as much as they can squeeze dollars out of you, the resorts are doing it with resort fees. You want to use the gym, you want to use the pool, it's going to be another $30 a day.</s>CUOMO: I think there's going to be lawsuits. As you notice now as the seats get smaller, I'm starting to get dead spots on my arms and on my legs.</s>BOLDUAN: They can blame --</s>CUOMO: I'm telling you, there will be litigation at some point.</s>MURPHY: People are really angry when they fly these day and part of it just the discomfort.</s>PEREIRA: I'm so glad you're in this with us because people are miserable about it.</s>MURPHY: I flew 66 times just last year just on one airline.</s>PEREIRA: And?</s>MURPHY: And I still haven't paid the change fee.</s>BOLDUAN: So your bottom line is happy flying. Thanks, Mark.</s>COUMO: Coming up on NEW DAY, everyone's talking about Richard Sherman's memorable rant after him game saving deflection the Seahawks into the Super Bowl.</s>BOLDUAN: That got our Jennie Moos thinking about the best rant of all times. Get your score cards ready.</s>CUOMO: Seattle Supersonics, they don't even exist anymore.