Originally Posted by
DenverDean
I had my first experience on one of the new 319's in coach from DFW to DEN last week. Wow, what a let down. I got off the flight and my rear was hurting, I think I have sat on wood benches that were more comfortable. The seat wasn't as deep, and much thinner. My carry on which normally fit under the seat in front of me protruded out from under the seat in front of me, I was expecting the FA to tell me it needed to go in the overhead. The seating really made me wish my first upgrades would have cleared, but only four seats there in first, so for a gold member, not likely.
They put in a nice entertainment console, moving map, free tv, etc. actually kind of nice. Unfortunately the display, which also houses the inflight magazine and other flight necessities now protrudes three to four inches from the back of the seat in front of you. The display isn't an issue until you need to reach your carry on bag, you can't bend over to reach the bag, but I'm tall 6' 2". You'd think I could account for that by taking out the items I might need in flight and putting them int he seat back pocket, wrong. The seat back pocket is so taunt, and made of a material that doesn't stretch you can't get anything thicker than a folder with a few sheets of paper in the pocket. A water bottle won't fit there.
Airbus recognized that the seats would be closer together, they accounted for this by by curving the front edge of the fold down tray to curve around your stomach, assuming you have a body fat content of less than 5%.
I didn't even try to get or use my laptop on the flight, but watched a person sitting next to me struggle to use his. Of course it wouldn't fit on the tray with the seat back display and the seat in front NOT reclined, so the gentleman couldn't fully open the laptop, maybe opened at a 65 degree angle rather than a more typical 90 degree plus. The back edge resting on his legs and the keyboard and monitor were angled in what looked like a rather uncomfortable position to type.
This aircraft made me long for the dated MD80's. In the future, a middle seat "extra" seat will be my preference over a window or aisle further back, when you have that choice. If this is the new travel experience on AA, Southwest is going to be my new choice.
Denver, just curious, was your seat MCE or regular E? Seat comfort was lacking, but it seems like the personal space was really lacking too and I'm wondering if MCE would have made any difference, at least for space. One of the major selling points of AA's recent PR has been that 'new plane smell'. If the new seats are as bad as you wrote, this is very disappointing. I remember when LH made the switch from the old, more 'plush', seats to the slim-line seats and the difference was awful. Zero padding and super uncomfortable. It was alright for an hour and half Euro flight, but any-thing more than that and you were hurting. Heck, even the DC metro seats are more comfortable. I like AA's 738s and love the old MD80s, but was also looking forward to trying out the new airbuses. After reading this, schedule permitting, it's best to stick with 738s; hopefully with older seats. Sorry, I haven't flown much with AA this year as the vast majority of my flights were on US Air and flights with AA were actually a very welcome change.