The skinny on airline seats

The skinny on airline seats

The weak pun in the headline is intended: Almost all economy airline
seats are skinny, indeed. In fact, almost all of them are two to three
inches too narrow to accommodate American male travelers comfortably.
But they're not all equally skinny, with a variation of up to two
inches in seat width among different airlines and aircraft types. And
as to legroom, you find variations as much as five or six inches
between the best and worst options.

No wonder, then, that readers often ask, as one did recently, "How can
I find the best seats?" My answer is that there are several sources of
information on airline seating that are readily available to
consumers. And while none provides totally accurate information,
they're far better than remaining in the dark.

Measuring the seats

You need two measures to describe airline seat space:

* Front-to-rear space is measured by "pitch," defined as the
distance between any given point on a seat to the identical point on
the seat in the next row forward or to the rear.
* Side-to-side space is generally measured by the width of the
seat cushion.

Why pitch works

Pitch is a totally accurate way to measure how much front-to-rear
space you have, for your legs and at reading-working level. It's
widely accepted as the standard. Airlines can adjust pitch in one-inch
increments, regardless of airplane model, so the legroom you get is
strictly up to each individual airline.

And why cushion width doesn't

Cushion width is not a good measure of your side-to-side space.
Anthropometric data show that what really matters is width at shoulder
level, which should be measured by the distance from the midpoint of a
seatback to the seatback midpoint of the seat on either side (a
measurement that would be analogous to pitch). Unfortunately, nobody
reports seat width that way, so we have to make do with cushion width.

You can generally figure that the shoulder width in economy seating is
two inches more than the seat cushion width. So you won't be far off
by adding two inches to the width measure. But because of the much
wider armrests in business and first class, seat cushion measurements
understate the true shoulder width in premium classes by as much as
six inches. On a typical narrow-body jet, for example, a first-class
seat cushion might be 22 inches wide, which doesn't seem all that much
more than an economy seat. But due to a wide armrest, the distance
between seatback centers is actually 28 inches.

Airlines have only limited flexibility to tinker with seat width. In
most cases, they install the widest seats possible in each cabin,
consistent with keeping adequate aisle width. The only adjustments
come in big jumps, when an airline changes the number of seats in each
row. So the seat width any airline provides is mostly fixed when it
decides which airplanes to buy and which to use on any given route.

Airline websites

Many of the world's airlines show seat pitch and width on their
websites. Usually, you find the info by clicking on "about us," then
"our planes," with minor variants. A few airlines, however, make it a
bit harder. On United, you have to click on "Travel Support,"
"Inflight Services," then "Airplane Maps," a counterintuitive
progression if I ever saw one. But United, at least, posts the data,
as do most other U.S. airlines. All too many foreign airlines, on the
other hand, do not provide that information at all.

Independent sites

Several independent websites provide airline seat information.

* The winner—by a big margin—is SeatGuru, which shows detailed
seat maps plus width and pitch data. Currently, SeatGuru provides info
for Air Canada, Air France, AirTran, Alaska, America West, American,
ATA, British, Cathay Pacific, Continental, Delta, Frontier, Hawaiian,
Independence Air, JetBlue, Lufthansa, Midwest, Northwest, Qantas, SAS,
Singapore, Spirit, United, US Airways, and Virgin Atlantic. It
provides a dynamic display of special details as you move your cursor
over different seats on the seat map. SeatGuru bests the airlines' own
sites in terms of ease of use and detail. The only downsides are (1)
use of the undesirable seat cushion width measurement and (2) coverage
limited to just 25 airlines.
* Skytrax is the opposite of SeatGuru: much more limited
information about lots more airlines. It lists "typical" pitch for
each entire airline, ignoring the fact that, on any given airline,
pitch may vary significantly among the different airplane types. And
it has no width data at all.
* SimplyQuick occupies the middle ground between SeatGuru and
Skytrax—more airlines than SeatGuru, more data than Skytrax. If an
airline of interest isn't on SeatGuru, SimplyQuick is your next best
place to look.
* Flat Seats is a "division" of Skytrax but not immediately
accessible through the Skytrax site. As the name implies, it has a lot
of information on seating in business and first class, with special
emphasis on the emerging standard of seats that lie flat. It's a big
help for travelers on premium tickets, but of no use to the 90 percent
or so of the world's travelers stuck in economy. Unfortunately, it
does not post any data on premium economy, either.

Recommendations

If you don't have a chance to spend a half hour or so researching
seats on the Internet, here are some general guidelines about coach
seats in airlines that fly in the US.

# Width: Best (by a wide margin) is "Signature Service" on Midwest.
Next best are 777s, in general, followed by Embraer 190s, most Airbus
models, MD11s, MD80s, 767s, and 717s. Keep in mind, however, that some
operators of these planes have installed narrower-than-necessary
seats. Worst are all 737s, 747s, 757s, and most older regional jets.

# Legroom: Best is "Economy Plus" on United, but you either have to
pay extra or be a premium frequent flyer. Next best are JetBlue (but
only in rows 11-26), Frontier, Song, and Southwest. Worst are most of
the others.

http://www.smartertravel.com/advice/...8&u=SL4F6B4DC5

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"I don't care (if I get booed). I don't know any of those people. As long as my kids tell me that they love me, I'm fine. My motto is, when people talk about me, I say, 'Who are they? They're not God.' If God was out there booing me, I'd be upset."
-- Bonzi Wells, Sacramento Kings
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