flyerjay

Does anyone have any information about the "preferred" economy seats (the first few rows of the economy section)? Specifically I'm interested in those on the 787 (first 6 rows), the 737-700 (first 2 rows), and the 737-800 (first 4 rows). On their seat selection page, they charge a higher fee for these "preferred seats" and list "extra leg room" as a benefit. I called and spoke with a CSR who stated they have a few inches more legroom, however I can't find any other information about these seats anywhere. On SeatGuru and other similar websites, they don't indicate anything different about these seats. There are some videos on YT, but they don't mention anything about these seats. I've booked these based on the representation made by the CSR and to keep my DW happy, but I'm questioning whether I should expect any benefit for the $$ I paid (other than sitting at the front of the plane which I really don't care about).

These seats aren't to be confused with "premium economy" - I'm not talking about those, which are substantially more expensive and have much more room.

Thanks for any info anyone has.

V1213

The WestJet aircraft pages list the seat pitch for Preferred seats.

According to those pages, it's 35 inches on the 737-800, 737 MAX-8 and 787, and 33 inches on the 737-700.

Fisch

As a cabin crew member @ WS I can confirm this to be correct. The pitch is significantly greater and noticeable in the rows of Y mentioned versus the general Y cabin. Welcome to WS hopefully!

flyerjay

Thanks! This is what I was looking for!

Thank you for the confirmation! We'll be flying late this year - first time with WestJet. Found flights to Hawaii to be much more reasonable from Toronto than Detroit, with added bonus of flying on the 787. I'm also now considering Calgary for a ski trip in the future as well.

Cledaybuck

When I got to select my seat, it shows the first four rows of Y (737-800) as preferred with extra legroom, but the seat map here:
https://www.westjet.com/en-ca/aircra...ration-737#800
does not. Are you saying that these rows do in fact have extra legroom? I'm willing to pay for extra legroom, but not just to the 4 rows closer to the front.

Fisch

Yes correct. Those rows have pitch 34”. Rest of Y (excluding exit row) is appx 31”.

sdophoto

I try to book the exit row whenever I can or bid on an upgrade. On an upcoming trip in November the exit rows are already booked.
The exit rows are booked for an upcoming trip and I was wondering if the preferred seats in the first few rows of economy really provide any extra room or comfort? I looked on seat guru and there is no indication that they are in fact better.
thanks

FlyerJ

The first few rows of Y on both 737s and 787s definitely have better seat pitch than the rest of the cabin, but not as much extra legroom as at the exit row. The difference is noticeable and, yes, they are more comfortable.

(FWIW, SeatGuru is often very, very wrong. It feels like it’s never updated … ie they still show WestJet 767 seat maps. It used to be a great resource, not so much now.)

sdophoto

Good to know about Seat Guru. I chose my seats in preferred based on the fact that row 7 is suppose to have a mis aligned window.

cedric

Correct. Seatguru hasn't been updated for quite some time, nor do they intend to continue updates.
However, aerolopa has updated seating diagrams: WS Boeing 737 - aeroLOPA | Detailed aircraft seat plans

FlyerJ

Those seat maps don't show any seats as being "Preferred" seats with different seat pitch ... it seems to show every seat in Y as being identical. (They just kinda, sorta visually show exit rows as maybe having a bit more legroom.) Same for their WestJet 787 map, where there are definitely preferred seats with better pitch in the Y cabin. Their AC maps don't show their "Preferred" seating either ... even though AC treats it as a pretty well-defined product within their Y cabin.

cedric

Look closer. There is more room between the economy seats towards the front of the cabin. Those are the preferred seats.

FlyerJ

Really?!? Even if I hold a ruler up to my monitor, I don't see any difference in pitch on their maps. That site seems to mark preferred rows on some airlines (like AA and UA) with different colours on the Y seats, and they have a bunch of text at the bottom of each page where they explain what each colour means. I don't see any of that on their WestJet maps -- every row looks identical minus exit and bulkhead.

gcashin

The exit rows and bulkhead have visibly more room on that map, but it’s not clear for the other preferred seats. Does row 5 preferred seating have visibly more room on that map than row 19 on a 737? It’s not discernible given the scale. A colour coding for preferred seats would be a major upgrade on the WS or Aerolopa seat map.

cedric

Agreed that the colour coding would help. However, I believe the aerolopa maps are still accurate in relation to locations of windows, etc.
Can certainly still be used as a tool, in conjunction with Westjet's own seat maps, to help determine seat selection.
Way better than Seatguru, that's for sure.

And yes, there is ever so slightly more room in the first few rows. If you line up the front half of Economy next to the back half of economy and try to line up the seat backs, you'll note that as you get further into the cabin the back half seats are forward of the front half seats, indicating they have less pitch.