Maybe I am looking into this wrong. But for example, take a seat pitch of 30" from the bottom of the seatback to the exact same point on the seat in front of it. Yes that is 30" but there is a seatback between those 2 points. which has to be atleast 4" maybe more. So there really is only 26" of room. Does that make sense? I think most people would interpret 30" of seat pitch as 30" of room.
And it would also vary from airline to airline on how thick the seatback is. Again I could be wrong.
I think most people would interpret 30" of seat pitch as 30" of room.
You might interpret it that way if you've never been on a plane before. But otherwise, it should be pretty easy to realize that there is not/never was 2.5 feet of room between you and the seat in front.
Seat pitch is useful mostly as a comparison rather than an absolute. If one aircraft has a seat pitch of 30" and another has 33", then you will have about 3" more leg room on the 2nd plane compared with the first. I say "about" because the thickness of the seatback and shape of the seat can vary a little.
The only problem here is you're not comparing apples to apples when you look at seat-to-seat comparisons. Seat backs have different depths and a 34" on an older plane is worse than a 34" on a newer plane. Newer seats have less cushioning and offer more legroom when you consider the classic definition of seat pitch.
The word "pitch" (in this context; it has many other meanings) has meant the distance between two corresponding points of something for centuries. The gear pitch of a cogwheel is the distance between two corresponding points on adjacent teeth, for example. Airlines took an existing word, in common use in many fields, and applied it to seating without changing its meaning. It's not realistic, or even reasonable, to expect them to redefine it, especially when there are already perfectly good other terms such as "leg room" for the other measures a passenger might care about.
The reasons airlines publicize seat pitch, the largest of the available measures, rather than any of the smaller ones has to do with marketing, not terminology. Redefining words wouldn't help.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bsmooth1
So there really is only 26" of room. Does that make sense? I think most people would interpret 30" of seat pitch as 30" of room.
Kind of like what the definition of "is" is. Regardless of how someone might interpret it, the definition of pitch (dot pitch, gear teeth pitch, etc.) is as defined.
Yes, with varying seatback widths, you could get different usable leg/armroom with the same pitch.
But since most seats are fairly standard thicknesses, the relative measurements are meaningful. 32" pitch will give you more room than 30" pitch, even if they are really only 28" and 26".
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CPRich
the definition of pitch (dot pitch, gear teeth pitch, etc.) is as defined.
With that, I agree. Pitch has a very standard definition. Moreover, it's also an independent property useful for the airlines - the pitch alone is what determines how many rows can fit in a given cabin configuration, independent of what the actual legroom may be.
Quote:
Originally Posted by CPRich
But since most seats are fairly standard thicknesses, the relative measurements are meaningful. 32" pitch will give you more room than 30" pitch, even if they are really only 28" and 26".
With that, I disagree. Newer seats (especially the very latest generation) are substantially thinner than old seats, many of which are still flying. Therefore, a 32" pitch with an old seat may give you the same, or even less, space than a 30" pitch with the newest generation of seats. This is why, for example, UA's upcoming 777 reconfiguration is rumored to reduce pitch but maintain legroom - because they are switching to newer, thinner seats.
I don't think that pitch is a misleading quantity - it has a very specific definition. However, pitch alone does not translate directly to legroom, without knowing the actual seat dimensions... and these can vary significantly depending on the seat make and model.
