Average sized people often feel threatened by people with height. These are the most annoying things said to me as a tall person. I list them here as away of acknowldging their stupidity. Please feel free to contribute, with any others, I may have missed?

1) Do you play Basketball?
2) Whats the weather like up there?
3) Where you born in a grow bag?
4) What did they feed you growing up?
5) You’re tall, aren’t you?

Nature versus nurture is a shorthand expression for debates about the relative importance of an individual’s innate qualities (”nature”) versus personal experiences (”nurture”) in determining or causing physical and behavioral traits, including height. A longer explanation of Nature Vs Nurture can be found here.

It is widely accepted that Height is influenced by an interaction of genetic and enviromental impacts. Have a look at my previous post on auxology this is a cross-disciplinary field involving historians, economists, biologists, anthropologists, and physicians who accept that height is a response to both nature and nurture.

However as a tall person (6ft 6) I would be interested to establish which has been more influential for me personally. From a family of six, no one else in my immediate family is above 6ft. I have cousins who are up to 6ft 4. But what made my body grow to 6ft 6. I think this debate differs from weight because weight can be knowly influenced (by eating less or more) but height can not? I accept that height is influenced by nature and nurture, but which had more effect for me? If anyone else out there has any ideas on this please let me know?

Another great inspirational tall person of our time is Ivo Karlovic.

Sadly Andy Roddick just beat Croatian Ivo Karlovic in the Stella Artois title with a tight 7-6 7-6 victory. Roddick said: “Ivo’s serve is probably the biggest weapon in tennis… that was not fun at times.”

Karlovic, at 6ft 10ins is the tallest man in professional tennis. Fingers crossed him for him during Wimbledon.

See other inspirational tall people here and here.

The Problem
Tall People are unfairly Taxed when travelling on Planes.

You have no legal right as a tall person to demand a seat that is big enough for you to sit in.

In the industry they refer to the space available to you as the Seat Pitch
It is defined as ‘The distance measured between a seat back and the seat back in front of it’. The Average is about 32 inches. BA and Virgin have 31 inches in economy class. This means anyone with an inside leg measurement of longer than about 33 inches will not fit in that seat. On average this effects those 6ft 1 and above.

Recently a Not Much Fits hero, Donovan Winter took BA to court. Have a look.
Donovan claimed that by putting him in a cramped seat “they were placing me in danger of getting deep vein thrombosis, a condition which has been linked with sitting for prolonged periods in cramped airline seats.” Donovan lost the case.

BA said, “the company’s policy regarding tall people was to recommend they upgraded to a better cabin class.”

That’s all very well, but most tall people can’t afford to pay an extra 50% on price, just for the right to be able to sit comfortably and safely in a seat big enough for them. I wonder why airlines have a height restriction for employing cabin crew? Space is limited in badly designed planes; tall people find their legs being crushed by the seat in front of them.

You have to ask yourself, if a 5ft 6″ person was put in a seat that was only big enough for someone who was 5ft tall, would they be prepared to sit in it?

The Solution
Since this problem is really more concerned by leg length rather than height, the answer could be to measure leg length at check-In. Any Man or Woman with an inside leg measurement greater than say 34 inches would be automatically assigned to a “better cabin class.” It might sound silly but it could be done fairly easily by declaring your leg length at check in. Any disputes could be settled by having a board next to the check in desk, that travellers stand against. If their legs come above that point, they are eligible.

Do you have a better solution? Then post it, comments welcome.

Alternatively why not let you feelings be known to BA. Its time to take some action, if we concentrate on putting pressure on one airline, I think we might have more success. So why not email them.