Originally Posted by
nanp
The reason I was asking is that we fly to Europe every fall, and have always flown Economy. When flying to France we always flew Delta. This year we are flying to Edinburgh, Scotland(or Glasgow) and it looks as though the flights will be on Continental or United(we want to avoid stopping at LHR or CDG). I was thinking of spending a bit more for the tickets(we are not Elite) and get a bit more legroom. From the above posts it sounds as though it may be hard to be guaranteed the extra room.
Nancy
The fact is you have a much better chance (at least until the CO planes are refitted) on UA than on CO.
Why?
If you fly to Scotland on CO, you will be going on one of their 752's, which have 18 ELR seats (6 of which have limited recline). Since CO/UA elites get these seats for free, the only hope you have of getting one of these seats, is to buy it as early as possible.
Were you to fly on UA (which doesn't fly to Scotland), you would most likely connect in London, and fly the Trans Atlantic leg on a UA 777 that has 84 E+ seats with up to 36" of seat pitch.
So the difference is the amount of inventory available. On CO, you will have 18 seats in coach with more legroom (only 12 are really any good), while on UA there would be 84.
Of course,CO gets you to either Edinburgh or Glasgow non-stop from EWR, so that may be more of a benefit than extra legroom (especially if you get to avoid the horrid LHR)...since you live in TN, I'm not sure that would be a big advantage for you, though.