Mellonc

Has any one sat in the new aisle seats of American Airlines? You know, the ones with video on demand like the ones from Jet Blue and Virgin America? The video equipment is on the side of the chair-leg and is seriously crimping the width available for a briefcase. As you know, the aisle seats already have reduced width down there which amounted to about 14inches (space between the left leg and right leg mounts of the chair in front of you). Due to the equipment, however, I think the width is no larger than a length of a plastic Coke bottle which is only about 10 inches tall.

How are you all fitting your briefcase down there? I had to akwardly tilt my briefcase and it barely fit. Then, I have no room left for my shoe size 11 feet.

gobluetwo

Not just AA. The UA 737s also have very narrow underseat space on the aisles in both F and economy. My backpack will barely fit if I remove my chargers (laptop, other devices) from the side pockets). Forget briefcases, as you can't really reduce the width. It really is ridiculous, as I've seen many people have to resort to using the overhead bins for their bags which they would have otherwise put under the seat.

Mellonc

so I did a nerdy thing and actually measured the width of the foot room underneath the aisle seat. It's 10.5 inches.

How are you all fitting your briefcases down there? Or what are you carrying that none of you have much complaint? I am a bit miffed myself. Whenever I fly coach, this is gonna be a huge problem. (I don't like window seats which don't have the equipment)

rufftackle

I feel your pain. I've started to think about giving up my aisle access freedom in lieu of having more room for my feet and laptop bag. Riding 5 hours with your knees together because of the video on demand equipment is not fun. For the first time in my life, I envied the middle seat guy with all of his underseat space...

Mellonc

I'm flying again in about 10 days. If I don't get upgraded, I'm gonna try a gym bag style duffel bag and put all my office stuff in there.

ccengct

Just another reason to pick window seats on short-haul flights. I've been doing that for 30 years.

cynicAAl

I haven't seen a briefcase since 1989. It's mostly soft computer bags and backpacks now, both of which can be wedged into that space if not overstuffed.

ubernostrum

This is why every time someone complains about lack of in-seat IFE on pmUS aircraft I laugh -- I have the means to entertain myself, and I like my legroom and my storage space.

arlflyer

I hate this. Why they have to install something the size of a 90's PC tower to support less content than I can hold on my Android phone, I'll never understand. They really couldn't be progressive enough to go the streaming route like certain "inferior" low cost carriers that the AA elite all like to rip on?

TSparky

I ran into this for the first time on Sunday and my laptop backpack had to go into the the overhead. I might as well grab the bulkhead if I'm not able to use the under seat space.

VickiSoCal

I was just able to squeeze my laptop bag in sort of diagonally / vertically. Not happy and as stated above starting to reconsider always aiming for aisle.

hbtr

IME they would have to go well beyond "not overstuffed" - "really small" is more like it.

Mellonc

I'm heading out to JFK again next week. I asked for the window seat in case I don't get upgraded..... really blows....

WheelsFirst

What makes it worse is that the IFE vendors offer equipment setups that don't compromise legroom, it's just that many airlines don't select that option for whatever reason. There's no legroom intrusion with B6 or VX.

aamilesslave

Or WN, where it's BYOD (bring your own device...via WiFi)