I did get a reply from Air Canada. It is below and confirms what you have all said.
I wonder if Air Canada knows just how savvy you all are about the aircraft on which you fly so often? As a former Flight Attendant, I must say I am impressed, but also rather sad that you have to be away from your families and on airplanes so much that you have to care about such things.
Our knowledge of the aircraft is limited to the basics (although it fills one of our 3 manuals) with the safety manual being the most important. AC flys as many as 14 or more different aircraft configurations, depending on the leases, and that makes it difficult to be 100 percent familiar with all aspects of each aircraft.
The reply from Air Canada follows...
Good afternoon Pauly,
I am responding to your email regarding the reduced seat pitch due to
the reconfiguration of the economy class cabin.
I reviewed this issue with the maintenence group and they did confirm
that there has been a reduction of the seat pitch on the A 319 and A320
aircraft for the seats forward of the emergency exit rows..
On the A320, rows 13 and 14 now have a 31 inch pitch compared to rows 15
and 16 (35 inches, emergency exit rows) and 32 inches for the rest of
the Y class cabin.
The A319 seat pitch is now uniform throughout the cabin at 31 inches
except for the emergency exit rows, 35 inches.
I agree that these are premium rows and although we would have preferred
to keep an increased seat pitch, we were constrained by the location of
the emergency exits when the re-configuration was done.
Regards,
Franca Bretti