Too Big for Coach. Help
 

Hi All,

I hope this is not seen as either obvious or inappropriate; however, I am in need of guidance. I am quite large at 6’7 325 lbs. I am not obese or even fat (and I am not judging those who are). I am just a large mesomorph. My problem is that I hope to fly from Tampa to Prague and then from Prague to San Francisco. I am starting a PhD program, but would like to spend some time in Europe before the onslaught of education begins. While I am not really a frequent flyer, when I do fly, I am usually put in first-class because of the discomfort that my size causes those sitting in my row. However, this does not always happen and when it does not, the arms of the chair dig into my legs and I, as well as those in my row, need to continuously compress the width of our bodies to fit in he space allotted. Usually I fly from Tampa to Newark (NJ) so it is only a couple of hours and if I am not upgraded, we just deal with the discomfort for the short flight. I am would not be capable maintaining this level of discomfort for such a long flight. I would also feel horrible for putting who ever sit near me, through this torment. I realize that they paid good money for their seats.

So why not just buy First Class? It costs too much. I cannot afford it. So I noticed that AA has a business class for both “legs” of the trip for 100,000 points. So I started looking around and noticed two things, it’s not that easy to find points for sale and that one guy has been selling the same 202200 AA miles for about a year now (I don’t trust him).

So, what is it I am hoping to accomplish? I would like to find reasonably priced (if not cheap) miles, 100,000 of them. I have looked online, but most websites that say they sell them are no longer running. I did see that I could buy 40,000 from AA directly but that still leaves me 60,000 short. I looked through this forum but did not find a thread that offers this.

Also, there were some people online who claimed that AA points are more difficult to redeem then other company points. So I checked the number of points that Delta required for the same trip and they wanted 400,000 (yikes). Continental was 100,000.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thank You!

Al

Perhaps you can find an airline that allows partial payment with points and fly first for about coach fare......

Some airlines have premium economy seats that are bigger than coach but not as expensive as business class.

Welcome to FT, Ammjr!

As jphripjah pointed out, you may wish to look at the premium economy options of some planes. United has E+ which gives you more legroom (though your seat width will be the same).

Delta has announced their new Economy Comfort section, and the Delta forum would be the best place to look for which planes have it.

Both airlines will offer the upgrade option at time of booking (if available).

Another option is Virgin Atlantic (Premium Econ) and BA (WT+) which have better econ seating in seat width and pitch, and service -- but you will also pay a premium

Seatguru is a very good source of information for different planes and the seating options (with measurements on width and pitch.)


A final option if you are looking to accumulate and redeem points is to look at some of the credit card offers which may have large bonus offers, with some cards offering more than one variety for which you can apply.

Happy, safe AND comfortable travels!

There's been a number of threads with AA credit card sign up bonuses of up to 75,000 miles, though that seems to have dropped to 50,000 miles now. I'd look at some of those. Two credit cards and you'd have 100,000 miles.

Also, note that all AA award seats are not available on line. You won't see Iberia, Air Berlin or British Airways without calling. Even if you have 100,000 miles there's no guarantee of an award seat.

Be VERY leary about buying miles from someone you don't know. AA does audit and close accounts. If they find out the miles have been sold you could end up on the wrong side of the Atlantic with no way home. See:
Thinking of trading/selling miles/VIPs-- think twice

Why not just buy two coach seats and not worry about whether upgrades will clear or be offered?

Have you considered buying two economy seats? It's certainly cheaper than buying J/F internationally and may even be cheaper than some of the Premium Economy offerings. If you call the airline and explain they may be able to put you into a row with more legroom. The extra seat solves the width / neighbor problem (assuming armrest lifts up).

Oops - didn't see Tom911 already suggested the same!

If you're just looking for the 1 trip and you have enough time before booking to get two Citi Aadvantage credit cards with 50K bonus each (one Visa, one Amex flavor), you'll have what you need.

And unless your trip is at a peak time, you should have no trouble getting to Europe in Biz with AA or one of its partners. You will need some help if booking with partners, though - as you'll have to call AA and often know what to ask for. But FlyerTalkers can help you at that point :)

BTW - since AA prices awards in one-ways, that different origin and final return destination stateside is no problem at all. Each leg will be 50K. You can even have a free stop over in the city to leave to Europe from (if not non-stop).

Be sure to search the discount business class fare buckets.

That said, and I hate to put it this way, but if you can't afford business and you can't stand to be crammed in economy, maybe now isn't the time for an international trip. There is plenty to see in the us within shorter flight distances.

I just want to chime in in sympathy with the OP. At 6'3", which is hardly 6'7", coach seats are downright crippling. At 6'7"? I just can't imagine. You'd have to hope and pray that some kind flight attendant would have mercy on you and just bump you up to 1st.

You know how, when you're a little kid, you say "If I were president, I'd make every weekend a 3-day weekend"? Well if I were president, the first law I'd pass would be to make a mandatory seat pitch of 38" in coach.

Signed,

Too Tall

+1 to this idea.

Or, if you're willing to slightly modify your plan and fly into Budapest (a place to which AA flies directly from NYC), and you're going between now and May 15, you could get an off-peak award on AA for 40,000 miles. You could redeem for one free seat and then just buy the seat next to it -- that should be more affordable.

OP, I commend you for looking to solve this problem through your own initiative. It's a refreshing change to a common attitude on these boards (and in society)-- that of entitlement and blame.

I would hope that airlines would recognize this common problem and offer 2 adjoining economy class tickets for less than the cost of 2 single tickets. I have never looked into this, however.

If your credit is decent follow the advise above for getting two 50K mile bonus cards. Link here" http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/miles...-targeted.html

I suggest looking into booking two economy seats or a carrier with premium economy. I know British Airways and Air France have a dedicated premium economy cabin on their metal across the Pond.

United, Delta, and KLM have Economy Plus/Economy Comfort, but they are basically coach seats with more leg room.

Also want to commend the OP for actually caring about this situation and be another to suggest the AA credit card route. If you can get approved, it's by far the easiest way to earn enough miles for a premium trip.

For the domestic flights, I'm surprised no one has recommended Southwest... They requite a "person of size" to purchase a second seat but as long as the flight is not completely full, they'll refund the cost of the second seat after the flight. Here is the policy: http://www.southwest.com/html/custom...index-pol.html The Q&A talks about the refund procedure.

Since most flights are not 100% full, this could be a great way for you to not even have to worry about having enough room on the TPA-EWR trips.

Budapest is a fantastic city, IMHO, better than Prague in some ways. It's a relatively easy drive from Budapest to Prague, about 8 hrs, all highway. DO NOT SPEED through Slovakia. Not even 1 kmh. The government (well, IME, all things) in Slovakia is highly dedicated to revenue generation, and they will pull you over for anything.

If you are interested, Aushwicz (sp?) would not be too far out of the way.

Rail is also possible, but, crazily, the two cities are not in the same Eurail zone, so you need to buy an actual ticket, not sure how much it is.

The other option that may be closer is Berlin.