I'm aware of AA's more room throughout coach (MRTC) and United's Economy Plus. I fly to Latin America for business and I sometimes choose to fly AA over CO because of more legroom in coach.
But let's be REALISTIC, if you are elite and you are smart you will book a bulkhead or emergency exit row seat in advance. I do that by simply calling the Elite line and requesting those seats. That way when I don't get EUA, I'm not putting my kneecaps at risk.
Having said that, I actually believe that MOST carriers are now at the 31" pitch. I believe Delta, US Airways, Northwest, and America West all have 31" pitch on all or some of their planes. Southwest in their defense has a few more inches. However, of all those mentioned airlines CO has a newer fleet and better service than all the aforementioned carriers.
CO is running a business, and they are one of the ONLY profitable airlines this year. So by the metric they measured against (remember a CEO works for the shareholders, not the employees or customers) CO management is doing a good job.
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by NJDavid:
As I said, for me and the routes and times I fly, I do not get to sit in first without having to lift a finger. It has cost me miles and/or time to sit in first, or make a loosing gamble with EUA or waitlists and be crammed into the smallest coach seat in the air.
On American, I am not forced into the pleasure of smelling the hair of the coach passenger in front of me. On United their equivalent of elite seating also is sized for normal humans.
[This message has been edited by NJDavid (edited 08-29-2001).]</font>