People deserve decent seats after paying lacs of rupees to airlines

My plan for a visit to US happened very suddenly. It was a work a work thing. I had to pack and travel within 4 days. The company I worked for booked the ticket on an Emirates flight via Dubai.

It was two 4+ 14 hours flights in Economy class. I was given the option to upgrade but in that case I would have to pay myself.

As a true Indian I decided not to make the extra expenditure. 

I was contemplating whether I made the right choice. 

When I had to select the seats, i saw the emergency window seat open and happily thought I will get the leg space like in the past experiences. 

However, the airlines realised that there are people getting vetter seat and leg space for free so they had already found a way to charge for that too. The front seats near the window now cost $150 during checkin. The company I work for had already spent more than $2K on the ticket and if i wanted decent seats I would have to spend yet more.

When we entered the flight we were made to go through the first class where 10% of the passengers were given space enough to lie down and be sleeping like babies. Then there was premium economy where the next 10% of passengers were settled who still had some decent leg space although not the comfort of lying down. Finally we reached the economy class where the rest of the 80% passengers were literally shoved in small, cramped space. I am average height female and my knees were cramped in the seat. I don't know how a taller or bigger person would survive sitting in such a place for hours on a 4am flight.

So after paying more than $2K one still doesn't get space to even sit decently. This is true for majority of airline customers. 

To emirates, i ask, do you guys ever do test runs? Has any emirates employee ever traveled for 4 hours sitting in such seats at 4am in the morning? 

The worst part is that Emirates is supposed to be one of the better airlines in India and known globally. So why can't even they or rest of the airlines take some loss but atleast allow their customers to sit in comfort. 

This was my experience in a 4 hour flight, I am dreading the next 14 hours and wondering if it would be just as awful. 

It seems like the airlines are more and more interested in sucking money out of their customers (for seats, for stale cold food that they charge 10x, for any 1-2 kg extra baggage, cancellation, insurance and so on) but have not put even little bit of thought into improving comfort of the passengers who they watch on a daily basis suffering due to bad seats and cramped up spaces. These are people they are serving, old people, pregnant women, parents with small children but the airlines do not feel the need to improve their journey experience even a bit. Their focus being completely on monetising every single bit possible from these people without any efforts to improve their lives.

Its cold. Its sad. Its corporate.

And the day an entrepreneur realises this problem and stands up to solve it, these flights businesses are in for toss. That day is not too far.

People should stand for themselves. They deserve basic rights to decent seating after paying so much.

I hope this article will provoke some thoughts. 

Thats all for today. I say goodbye as I sit here dreading my next flight.