• What's ticked?
• Accolades
• Contact us

c o l u m n s

• Cheap Charlie
• ChrisCrossings
• Err Travel
• Leocha
• Travel Notes
• Archives

Delta's DVT Debacle
ChrisCrossings · February 8, 2001

Q: I have flown on Delta for the past six years on a monthly basis. Last year I landed in the hospital with a massive blood clot. Since I do not have propensity for having clots, the doctors concluded that it was due to the amount of flying without sufficiently moving about in the cabin.

Delta's policy of strapping you to the seat and not having enough room to move about when you are seated are primarily responsible for this injury. I believe that there are thousands of people out there that have not realized what caused their thrombosis.

I suggest that airlines introduce an on board exercise program so that passengers can move their legs and body to avoid getting a blood clot. But what more can be done?

-- Alfred Jugo

A: Plenty. For starters, Delta could expand its legroom in coach class. Instead, it is playing with its steerage seats to make it seem as if you have more room.

A few weeks ago, one of this column's readers sent me a letter he'd received from Delta. In it, the airline pledged to "begin an aggressive seat enhancement program in the main cabin that will … provide wider aisles, additional legroom and more comfortable seats."

I forwarded the memo to a few of my media colleagues, who contacted Delta. As you know, Delta refuses to return my phone calls because it can't tolerate criticism. At any rate, Delta denied it intended to give its economy-class passengers more room. Instead, the carrier is simply replacing the four-inch seatbacks with two-inch seatbacks. But it said the new seats would make it appear as if there was more legroom.

The obvious question is: what happens with the extra space? A savings of two inches per seat across 30 rows amounts to roughly 60 inches, which is enough to add one or two new rows of seats, or to give business class passengers additional space (as if they needed it) or to give passengers in the main cabin two extra inches of room.

The only reasonable explanation is that Delta intends to add more rows, which the airline denies it is doing. However, when Continental installed "thin" seats a few years ago, that's exactly what happened.

All of which suggests Delta doesn't give a damn about the Deep Venous Thrombosis (DVT) problem. Are you surprised?

None of Delta's contracts or its nebulous "Customer Commitment" makes any mention of legroom. The Americans With Disabilities Act doesn't address DVT or consider people prone to blood clots as protected under the act. Federal law is silent on the issue as well, and it doesn't address minimum seat size on commercial aircraft.

In other words, Delta can do whatever it wants.

While I was researching this column, I spoke with your physician, Dr. Mubarik A.Shah, one of the county's leading experts on DVT. Dr. Shah confirmed that you suffered from a form of DVT. He also believes there are thousands, perhaps even tens of thousands, of other cases of air-travel related blood clots that go unreported, either because they're misdiagnosed or an autopsy failed to determine the likely cause of the clot.

The international airline industry is taking DVT far more seriously than the US carriers are. British Airways and Qantas both have begun printing warnings on tickets. Earlier this month, airline executives, doctors and pilot union representatives met in Australia to discuss the ailment that some have begun calling "economy class syndrome." A few days before the summit, a London newspaper reported that the scale and seriousness of DVT has been known to airlines for at least 30 years. The revelation followed the DVT-related death of a British woman traveling from San Francisco to London.

And late last year, a Japanese study revealed that 25 passengers had died of the condition at Tokyo's Narita airport in the past eight years.

Needless to say, this is a significant problem. I find it unconscionable that Delta is essentially reacting to it by not only keeping its seat pitch at the 30 to 31 inches in economy class, but that it continues to suggest that passengers remain seated with their seatbelts fastened because of the risk of clear-air turbulence. I mean, are thousands of passengers being injured or killed because of turbulence? Let the people out of their seats. Better yet, encourage them to get out of their seats.

Until Delta, and indeed, the entire US airline industry, acknowledges the scope of the DVT problem (a few lawsuits ought to do it) you can protect yourself from economy class syndrome by requesting a bulkhead or exit row seat and stretching frequently.

It may take some time before the airline industry does something about DVT. But it will.

Christopher Elliott's column appears on Thursdays. All e-mailed questions to ChrisCrossings become property of Ticked.com and may be edited, condensed or republished at the site's discretion. You may reach Elliott at chris@ticked.com. Or visit his home page at http://www.elliott.org.