Why should you pay for extra leg room on an aircraft?

There was a report on the radio this morning about discrimination against overweight people in the job market. One of the reporters said "If you're tall, you're lucky, since people discriminate in your favour". Ahem. Clearly the reporter was not a tall traveller.

Many airlines charge a premium for seats with extra legroom, which can be as much as twenty pounds on a one-way fare (which can double the ticket price on some no-frills flights). OK, so if you're flying no-frills, you expect to have to pay for extras, such as coffee and sandwiches. But is it fair to discriminate against people because of their height? Could the emergency exit and bulkhead seats be allocated to people over six feet tall (they wouldn't be hard to spot in the check-in queue). Well, probably not. However, I've sent the reporter in question a note about tall travellers. Maybe you'll hear me on the radio soon.

Hotel rooms for Tall Travellers in the USA

At least one hotel group has recognised the problems faced by we tall travellers. The Hotel Monaco chain (part of Kimpton hotels) has a special range of "Tall Rooms" at sites in some large American cities.

They claim to have "longer beds, higher ceilings and doorframes, extra long bathrobes or raised showerheads, vanities and toilets". Next time I'm over there, I'll give them a try. But how is it that only one hotel chain in the world (as far as I can discover) does this? Over 15% of males, and 1% of females in Europe and the US are taller than six feet. Isn't that a market worth pursuing?

The Seat Guru

The Seat Guru is a handy resource for tall plane travellers. Although it doesn't cover every airline, it has many of the major carriers.

The site shows a map of every type of aircraft, and when you move your mouse over the seat plan, pops up information about legroom and comfort. The seats with the most legroom are shown in green, which makes life even easier. Of course, there's no guarantee that you'll be able to get your preferred seat, but if you can pre-book, you're in with a chance.

Even if (like me usually) you are flying economy class, you will see that there's a big difference bestween seats. If you are a single traveller, or prepared to sit apart from your friends and family for the sake of comfort, you'll find it easier to get a good seat too.

Hotel mirrors, showers and beds

I reckon I could tell you the maximum height of a hotel handyman. Five foot eight. That's the only explanation I can think of for the plethora of low-hung mirrors and shower heads (we'll get to beds in a minute, if you'll bear with me). In the great majority of hotels that I've stayed in around the world, showering has been a very uncomfortable experience, owing to the fact that I've had to crouch in a very undignified manner. In many cases, I've also had to genuflect in front of the mirror in order not to have to shave from memory.

As for the beds, most of them seem to be the standard six foot three, which requires a ceremonial untucking of all the sheets every night, in order to fit (just) under the covers. Oddly enough, hotel beds seem to be getting wider, which may mean that at some point I can move the pillows to the edge and sleep at ninety degrees (if you see what I mean).

So, I say "Tall Travellers Unite!" Let's fill in all those feedback sheets in hotel bedrooms and demand higher mirrors and showers, as well as longer beds. We have nothing to lose but the pains in our knees.

Getting legroom on "No frills" planes

A few days ago, I flew from London to Seville on one of Ryanair's new planes. One great innovation for tall travellers is that the seats don't recline - so that there is no chance of having your patellae crushed by the person in front. However, the seat pitch is not great, so I was still uncomfortable in the standard seats. However, the two rows of central emergency exit seats have masses of room, and were ideal - so we shifted into them as soon as we spotted a couple of empty ones.

The problem with low-cost airlines is that there is no seat allocation, and therefore no chance of pre-booking the emergency exit seats. However, they do now have a policy of giving you a number at check-in, and then boarding the plane in two groups (e.g numbers under 51 first). So you need to arrive early to get into the first group. If the plane is boarding by both front and rear doors, aim for the rear one. The first group of people will be going up the front steps for seats near the front, and probably will have blocked the gangways, preventing people from reaching the middle of the plane.

If you have a small child with you, you can often board first, but of course the children can't sit in the emergency exit seats. If your partner is with you, they can sit in the row behind (or in front). OK, you won't be sitting beside them, but that's a small price to pay for comfort!

Let's get started

This blog has been years in the making. I have visited dozens of countries, thousands of hotels and countless plane trips. I'd like to gather and share experiences of tall travellers like me, so that everyone's life could be a little more comfotable. And that's what we all want, isn't it?

So how tall is tall? Well, I'm six foot three (around 192 cm, I think), and see plenty of people as tall or taller than I am (especially in The Netherlands). So, I reckon that there must be millions of us who can't get enough leg room on planes, have to crouch under hotel showers, or find that beds are way too short. This blog is for all of you out there.

I welcome feedback (whatever your height!), and hope that the advice and links posted here will be helpful.

Let me know what you think.