ethernal

This is a bit of a rant, but how does Delta get away with calling 1A a first class seat? There is literally no foot room on the left half of the seat. It's almost a health hazard (having to place your foot behind your knee when your knee is above horizontal creates a significant circulation cutoff and increase the risk of clots if held in that position for a long time).

1B, C, and D are not great but they are tolerable. But 1A is a whole different animal.

3 of my last 5 upgrades over the past couple of months (including today when I had used a RUC clear) have landed me in this seat. Clearly people avoid it since it is always one of the last seats available. Whenever I get "upgraded", I offer the seat to anyone I can convince to take it. 10C is my go-to but they declined to move today because they were another DM that realizes the pitfalls of this seat. I had to go back to 19C to find a willing taker.

Maybe they need to add an "avoid seat 1A" flag to your upgrade preferences.

jrl767

seconded ... and I'm only 5-6
it's not a whole lot better on the 20F 752 either

DTWflyer

Troppy

ethernal

Short answer is that the seats 1C,D seats simply have more room to the wall (probably at least 3 inches more).

The wall is extremely tight to Seats 1A and 1B. It is tighter than Row 11 in C+ which is also quite tight. To compensate, Delta has put a "foot cutout" that extends about 2-3 inches into the wall. You can place your feet into this "cubby" and lets you position your legs in a more comfortable place.

Unfortunately, Delta apparently really needed an extra 50 cubic inches of storage (or room for the door) and so the last foot or so on the "A" side does not have the cutout. To aggravate this further, since you are at the very front of the plane (the boarding door is literally inches from your feet behind the wall), the fuselage is already right at your side and bows noticeably inward (both at the seat and immediately past it) - so you are not able to move your left leg to the left to compensate for the lack of foot space. Your only option (outside of an uncomfortable knee-over-foot position) is to awkwardly angle your feet to the right where the cubby is.

I spend a lot of time in regular Y. This seat - at least for me - is worse than regular Y seats in terms of general comfort. It is a bit easier to work, but for me at least, it is actually worse comfort-wise than a regular (non-C+) seat.

The A320 series are luxury liners at the bulkhead compared to 1A.

DTWflyer

ethernal

Those are my go-to as well, but since there are so few good seats on the plane, those are never available. The other "good seats" are 10A and 10C - but only 10A is bookable (10B/C are reserved for gate assignment). No C+ seats are ever, ever available at booking - much less 10A - so 10A doesn't really exist either.

I've actually started taking 19B and 19E if they are available at booking, and 10B at the gate over regular aisle seats.. I've decided that the extra legroom is worth it to fit a laptop, and just gamble that I'm not between two broad-shouldered people.

I used a RUC yesterday because none of the above were available, so I was in my trusted 36C seat (Row 36 and 37DEF are blocked for gate assignment). So 10C was still definitely an upgrade, but of course would have preferred a non-1A seat to clear. But can't win 'em all I suppose.

Billy Mumphrey

Would have made more sense to ask 1B to switch. Then the dad could take 1B and put his daughter in 1A. A 3-year old isn't going to notice the limited legroom of that seat.

vincentharris

I am trying to remember what this looks like, and believe it or not have not flown a 737-900 in at least a month or so now. Next time somebody is on one snap a picture of 1A?

JTE458

Yeah, that seems like a dumb result. Have 1B move to 1C if they wanted to keep aisle and you take 1D.

ijgordon

Surprisingly, not my experience. And in general I find it pretty easy to get preferred exit row seats on DL (as Gold I can't get C+ until T-72h). And plus, often if the flight from LGA doesn't have good exit rows available, the one from JFK at about the same time will.

ethernal

I'm sure it is route and time dependent. Almost all of my bookings are less than 10 days in advance. Good luck finding an exit row window or aisle seat available on ATL-West Coast during normal travel hours under those conditions. Keep in mind that C+ is sold out usually 3-4 weeks in advance on these routes and upgrade lists are a minimum of 50 people (often 80+). I usually have to call in to get a regular aisle seat unblocked (36C usually) because they're already taken.

ijgordon

Apologies as we're veering OT, but even close-in my experience is good availability of exit rows (though I agree with you on C+, I almost never put in for the upgrade because I know I'll be stuck with a middle seat). It's not a huge sample set though, so I guess YMMV. But yesterday I ran up to a flight about 2/3 of the way through boarding as I was at the airport early, and got an exit row aisle (albeit non-reclining) with an empty middle, on an A320. ^ More room than in first class! (The GA offered me a C+ middle, but this was obviously a better seat, although the empty middle was a surprise).

Zorak

If you are already in C+ (and I know that's basically never in your case based on when you book and the routes) you can get them to assign you into the blocked seats although they will read you the disclaimer that you may be booted out of them if they need the seat for someone who requires it.

HDQDD

737's are generally narrower in the first few rows of the cabin. You can see it on many aircraft by looking at how the overhead bins tend to curve inward toward the front. I expect that's a contributing factor here. It's really a shame how DL has outfitted their 739s. Took a perfectly good airplane and skimped on things like this (and creating the World's smallest lavs) to add another row or two of seats. But that's life these days.

It pains me to say it, but the A320 family is generally more comfortable for pax than the 37s (even more pronounced now on DL's 739s).