Flying While Tall

The Height Site can't recommend a favorite airline because in any given situation, any airline can be a villain or a saint to the taller traveler. The bottom line of your airlines' performance depends on the airport staff, the airline staff, and the airline crew on duty at the time you check into the airport and those working your aircraft.

Getting a seat that fits

Find the best airline seats in First Class, Business Class or Coach. SeatGuru.com allows you to select the airline and aircraft you're flying and to look at a diagram of the aircraft's seat configuration. With information on seat pitch and width this site is a valuable resource for both holiday and business travellers alike.

Skytrax does a great job of tracking airline quality (and lack of it) with their web site, AirlineQuality.com. On the site, you'll find their 'best of' lists, plus reviews of airlines, airline meals, flights, flight lounges and even airports. They also rate legroom and seat pitch.

What about legroom?

Every cramped air traveler may have the right to lean his seat back, but that right stops at our knees! Ira Goldman wants justice for the tall person stuck behind the reclined seat — and he's found a way to even the score. His product, the Knee Defender is a set of beeper-sized blocks of plastic that allow long-limbed passengers to keep the seat in front from reclining.

After a huge marketing campaign, American Airlines added legroom to many of its aircraft. After threatening bankrupcy, they found enough money to quietly remove the exra legroom and replace the seats removed to create it.

Now, one of their competitors has decided to try installing extra legroom. JetBlue has added two extra inches of legroom for two-thirds of the seats across their fleet. The new seat configuration will now feature 34 inches of seat pitch to help you stretch out.

The extra rooom is not available up front, so if you prefer to sit up front for quickest boarding and disembarking, you'll still be a bit cramped. Taller travellers needing a couple of extra inches of legroom should pick seats between rows 11-26. --»

What about luggage?

Rolling luggage makes traveling easier - especially when connecting flights are involved! Taller flyers may have trouble finding luggage with handles long enough to accommodate our natural walking stride without forcing us to hunch down roll the bags along. These handle extenders address the needs of tall flyers quite well and both easily attach to luggage quickly and easily to add up to 8 inches to the handle!

TRAVELON
Comfort Grip 3-in-1 Travel Luggage Handle Extender is Affordably priced and built with a durable molded polypropylene construction, ergonomic shape.  The handle extension has a side-release buckle to permanently affix itself to the telescoping handle of any wheeled briefcase, upright, or computer case.

Available at:

Travel Oasis

Packing Light

TRAVEL TOW
The Traveltow handle adapter has two nylon/neoprene adjustible straps for optimum control and maneuverability. Attaches and removes from luggage is less than 20 seconds and adjusts to fit all handle sizes. Can remain attached to bag when not in use. 360 Degree handle rotation allows ergonomic positioning. Stability allows for both pushing or pulling when attached to luggage handle.

Available at:

Amazon

eBags

Voice Your Frustrations

The Height Site is developing a Tall Flyer's Guide and we would love to include your travel stories and suggestoins! If you'd like to share your airline experiences, either bad or good. Please let us know and you might see them on The Height Site soon!

Devices like the Knee Defender (see item listed above) have garnered quite a bit of contentious disscussion in the forums at FlyerTalk.com, a consumer Web site for frequent fliers. Join the fray and give a tall flyer's perspective or just check out what frequent flyers are saying about destinations and great ways to get there.

Flying while tall is even more challenging for the economy class in a post-911 world. We don't have to put up with it anymore! Check out Flyana.com for tips on dealing with airlines. You can even share your own tips and let your gripes be heard.