End Of The Battle At 30,000 ft. ?
We all have our pet hates when traveling by airplane. The person behind you who keeps kicking your seat, the person in front of you who puts their seat right down (and keeps it down while you’re trying to eat), but what about the person who is lumped next to you? Assuming you are traveling alone, I expect most of you would keep to yourself - just listen to your i-pod or watch the movie.
And yet you are in the middle of a constant, subtle duel. If you are in a window or aisle seat you only have to keep your eyes on one person, but if you are in the middle your reflexes need to work overtime. And even if you win, your prize can be snatched away from you in the blink of an eye. So you then have to wait for the next opportunity to present itself to reclaim your lost prize. Well my friends such battle of wits may soon become a thing of the past.
The appropriately named Middle Seat Terminal Blog has posted an article about the new armrest design shown in the the photo called “The Paperclip Armrest Concept”.
The new armrest, designed by a 25 year old employee of CathayPacific, has already won an award and some are calling it the end of the ‘Elbow Wars’ that I described at the beginning of this post. The concept is basically a two level arm rest, where one passenger puts his/her arm on the top, with the other passenger taking the bottom level (a bit like a bunk bed).
But as the article points out, in the future there might be arguments on who takes top and who takes bottom !
Thanks Ab for telling me about this !
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Wonder where they will put the remote to to the tv with this design. Usually it’s at the side of one of the armrests.
I know what u mean about being in the middle seat. I never forget when I needed to leave my seat and the guy next to me on the aisle was snoozing away. I tried the gentle “excuse me” approach, no such luck. I then tried tapping him…still nothing. Eventually the air hostess woke him up!!!
Thats an interesting concept. I didnt think there was a big problem with arm wars though, unless someone is reading a newspaper and invades your personal space - then theres a problem!
Do you really think Kuwait Airways will adopt this!! They have not updated their chairs in at least 10 years!!
Besides, I would feel a bit uncomfortable if I knew that the person next to me had his arms so close to me , but I can’t see them!
Alia: True the remote control and volume controls need to go somewhere ! As a person who always takes aisle I know that I have to be prepared to be disturbed occasionally to let the person next to me get out. So the snoozing guy should not complain or even tut. Good move with the air hostess though !
Za: Well the good thing with someone who reads newspaper is that when he (its usually a ‘he’) turns the page you can grab the armrest ! :)
gasman: LOOOL ! I have a feeling this concept is waaay down the list of priorities at Kwt Airways….that’s assuming such a list actually exists !!
haha battle of the wits wella battle of the forearm? :P