It’s those damn seats.

I just flew on American this week to Austin and back. Short flights. Really short flights.

But even so, I was reminded of how positively uncomfortable those seats are on an MD-80. At least for someone who has had hip surgery. And hey, probably for everybody else as well.

Crowded, cramped, and a rather low seat placement with funky back support. That’s what it was like.

Ugh.

Of course the flight down to Austin was not helped at all by the fact that the airline refused to hook up the APU and the inside temperature of the aircraft had to be close to 90 degrees. Or more. My ability to put up with a hot aircraft at the gate is very limited to begin with, but this experience was brutal. Especially since, because no one wants to pay to check their bag on American, it seems that everyone drags aboard bags the size of small refrigerators and then tries to cram them in the overheads. This takes time. Lots and lots of time.

Made me think of that goofball Richard Simmons. Here I was, “Sweatin’ on an Oldie.”

Okay. I’ve re-upped my American AAdvantage miles account. Paltry as it is.

But you know what? It’s going to be a long time before I get on another one of those airplanes.

What can I say? Ever since I had that great education in “passenger space” and what makes a good airline seat and what doesn’t when I visited the Boeing Customer Experience Center with David Longridge and Kent Craver showing me the ropes (or rather all the different types of seating configurations) — I now know it’s not just seat pitch.

And boy — did that lesson come back to bite me in the butt yesterday.

Literally.