I believe they were common before jets, too. Anyway, when I first started flying Southwest (about 20, 25 years ago) the first row of seats was turned around backwards to face the second row. I’m guessing they did away with it because it took up more room than 2 rows both facing forward (and, perhaps, would free up enough room for another row). First class & lounge seating e.g. on a 747 also had seats facing each other; I can barely remember when (narrow-bodied!) 707s had lounge seating, taking up maybe 3 or 4 rows on the left side of the cabin (like a long couch, with the back toward the windows).
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And this is why you keep the seatbelt fastened until the plane is back on the ground.
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I’m now allowed to talk about the regular one, so that may be the reason I never heard about the Mile High Fight Club.
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British European Airways proposed fitting their Trident[1] airliners with rear facing seats throughout the cabin to improve safety.
Not sure this was a good idea, the Trident flew like a fighter jet and was famous for its ability to climb and descend on very steep paths. Not sure I’d want to be hanging from my seatbelt as it plummeted towards Heathrow under the control of the world’s first autoland system.
Fun fact, this proposal had an influence in geek culture when Gerry Anderson had his ‘Captain Scarlet’ vehicles fitted with rear facing seats which would be driven using TV screens.
[1] the world’s first trijet airliner. Hugely advanced, but crippled by De Havilland bowing to BEA’s wishes for a small jet. Turned out to be too small and the larger, much less sophisticated Boeing 727 took the market.
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I used to fly SW a lot for my previous job and whenever visiting family and friends in Northern CA (still do that) and I have the SW Visa, so I always have a ton of points.
When we flew to Kauai in 2021, we used my points to get both of us there and back.
It wasn’t terrible, but wasn’t great, either. I had enough points so I could purchase “business select” and we were the first to board, so grabbed the good exit row seats.
That said - I doubt I’ll do that again. Hawaiian or Alaska is better for that long a haul…
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FYI - American doesn’t provide a meal going to Hawaii. Found that out the hard way - we skipped breakfast and getting anythign in the airport because we figured a 8.5 hour flight would obvious have a meal. Not only did they not have a meal, they had no food available for purchase.
For the flight home, I bought sandwiches and snacks from a sandwich place near our hotel…and of course they busted out meals as soon as we sat down.
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The MAX 7 has a range that can take it from Dallas to Honolulu, so there’s still plenty of opportunity to make things worse if some enterprising airline chooses to fly the route.
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