Joe K.

I flew in E- for the first time in years tonight and my right knee is paying the price. I flew IAH-EWR on a 737-800 in seat 31 D on the aisle. No way in hell, could I do that again. Granted I am a big guy (6'2" and 285 lbs) but that experience was inhumane. I seriously believe all of these "air raid" issues are a direct result of today's coach configuration. This was a 3 hour flight. I literally would have had gone to the front cabin and asked folks to name their price to switch seats with me if this flight was 4 or more hours. I typically am okay with a seat pitch of 32" but anything less is unbearable. My question is what would the pitch be on this aircraft if they removed one row?

mduell

31 inches removed / 14 remaining rows = 2.2 inches/row gained

LarryJ

The problem is that you can't spread it out evenly throughout the cabin. There are fixed points which can't move (much) such as exit rows and lavatories. When you pull out one row it'll only affect the rows between those fixed points and not the entire economy cabin. That's also why you have some configurations where the E+ rows don't match up from the left to the right side such as on some of the 737-900s.

I'm 5'10" and the E- legroom is fine. I miss the extra foot room, with my carry-on under the seat, but legs and knees are fine.

I don't know if you fly United often enough but you can buy a yearly subscription to E+. I they start at $499. With your height it may be worthwhile if you do several trips per year.

https://www.united.com/ual/en/us/sub...on/economyplus

lhrsfo

The more relevant question nowadays is how much pitch will be lost by adding one or more rows.

halls120

Indeed. Now that AA has announced their decision to add rows, can UA be far behind?

gene2632

As long as demand is growing and share holders are more important than customers you can expect to see seat pitch continue to shrink on the cheapest fares.

Billygreg

^^^ Sad that someone even has to write that, but it is true.

grapegrower

I am 6ft 1in and 220lb and have no trouble in an E- aisle seat even 13 hours across the pacific.
It's all a state of mind IMO.

jr0ck

Is there any more room to add more? I feel cramped enough and these new seats are terrible.

itsallgood

You need to fly some discount carriers. Try Spirit or Allegiant. It's even worse with European ULCCs.

Do that a couple of times and you'll think that E- is spacious.

notquiteaff

Or you have disproportionately short legs

Obviously, thousands of people every day survive such a voyage. That doesn't mean I would be able to put myself in a state of mind that would let me enjoy that experience. So I choose carefully which carrier, aircraft type, and class of service I spend my money on.

PushingTin

I'm fat and 5'9, but for some reason I sit taller than almost everyone in Y? My wife finally let me in that I have short legs, like maybe 1-2 inches shorter than should be. I'm all torso. Y- is fine for leg room, unless there is a box down there.

dw

Not even European ULCCs anymore... BA will be going down to 29" on their A319s and A320s. It was only a matter of time until something approaching that came to one of the US legacies (which ended up being AA) and I wouldn't be surprised to see the others follow eventually.

nnn

Remember when AA tried it?

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...out-coach.html

3Cforme

Nope. There were boors and drunks flying from the time people started flying.

If you can't handle seat pitch less than 32" you really need to buy on E+ (or F) seating on UA/DL/AA. You demand more than what is typically offered in the standard coach config these days. Carrier (or SeatGuru) seat maps will confirm this broadly across the mainline and RJ fleets.