I’m still wondering how I ended up in seat 18E — a middle seat — on a Hong Kong Express flight from Phuket, Thailand, to Hong Kong. But it was an extreme inconvenience.

I was wedged in with just 28 inches of pitch between seats, which is about two inches less than normal. The plane smelled like mildew and body odor, and the seats looked threadbare. I thought of moving to one of the empty exit row seats, which offered a little more legroom, but a flight attendant sternly warned me that there would be an extra charge.

I was stuck.