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Economy class legroom: How low can it go?

A 737 MAX in American Airlines livery. (Image: Boeing)

It’s ironic that word leaked out this week about American Airlines’ plans to reduce seat pitch on some of its new single-aisle aircraft. Ironic because it’s the same week that the House Transportation Committee held hearings in Washington about U.S. airlines’ poor treatment of passengers– and the possibility of regulating airline seating was discussed.

CNN said it learned that American plans to stuff more seats into its new 737 MAX aircraft by reducing seat pitch from the standard 31 inches to  a tight 29 inches on three rows in the economy cabin, and to 30 inches on the rest. The report said United Airlines “is considering a similar move.”

Our guess is that those three painful rows will be reserved for passengers who have booked the cheapest “basic economy” fares which the major airlines say they’ve introduced to compete with ultra low cost carriers. Since these will be the least desirable seats, and basic economy passengers are the last to board, they’ll end up in these seats by default. Another issue left up to speculation now is whether or not these seats will recline. I would hope not, but you never know.

Related: Should you ever book a Basic Economy fare? 

The new configuration will give American 170 seats on the new planes, vs. 160 on existing 737-800s, although they will still offer first class and Main Cabin Extra (with 35-37 inch pitch) seating.

According to the CNN report, 40 of the 100 737 MAX aircraft ordered by American are expected to join the fleet by the end of 2019, and the airline is reportedly thinking about reconfiguring economy seating in its older 737-800s to match the new planes.

“As the big airlines match each other move for move, the risk is that 29 inches becomes the standard (seat pitch) for flying economy in the United States,” CNN said.

JetBlue’s Airbus fleet has standard seat pitch of 32 to 34 inches. (Photo: JetBlue)

Frequent travelers know that an inch or two of more (or less) legroom can make a big difference in comfort, and if the legacy carriers were to reduce that number, they risk losing one of their main advantages over ultra-low-cost carriers.

Among the major airlines, seat pitches on single-aisle domestic aircraft generally range from 30 to 32 inches. Almost all airlines offer extra legroom seats with 34-36 inches of legroom for elite level members of frequent flyer programs or those who pay higher fares.

According to Seatguru.com, American offers 31-inch pitch on its 737-800s in economy class, and pitches of 30-31 inches on A319s, 31 on A320s and 31-32 on A321s. Delta’s economy pitch is 30-31 inches on 737-900s, and 31-32 inches on 737-800s and single-aisle Airbus planes. At United, 737-800s and -900s offer 30-31 inch pitch. Alaska’s 737-800s have 31-32 inches and 737-900s have from 31 to as much as 35 inches.

Spirit Airlines squeezes ’em in with a 28-inch seat pitch. (Image: Spirit Airlines)

JetBlue appears to be the most generous, with economy class legroom ranging from 32-33 inches on A321s to 34 inches on A320s. Southwest’s standard pitch is 31 inches on 737-700s and 32-33 on 737-800s. At Virgin America, economy seat pitch is 32 inches on A319s and 320s.

By contrast, low-cost Spirit Airlines has a standard pitch of 28 inches across its fleet of single-aisle Airbus planes. Frontier Airlines’ economy seat pitch is 28-31 inches on A319s, 28-29 on A320s and 30-32 on A321s.

What do you think about the tighter configurations? Is the new “get what you pay for” mentality among major airlines going to far? Should seat pitch minimums be regulated by the feds? 

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Comments

  1. This is why I bailed on AA along time ago. If you’re taller than 6 feet you are doomed in theses seats. I know pay the extra for Economy-plus, just to get the “old” leg room back. It makes a huge difference on long flights. I flew on a Japan Airlines flight and could not fit in the seat, they had to move me. AA is concerned about one thing and one thing only : profit.

  3. Comfort during flight is the main reason why I’ll give my money jetBlue whenever possible.

  4. Couldn’t agree more, I write letters to Mr. Munoz monthly to invite him to spend one flight with a customer like me to show him how terrible his airline really is but he never gives me back an answer.

  5. They can do this because their is no competition among the airlines, they have all merged and have big monopolies in most of the markets across the country.

  6. I just think that these airlines are playing with fire. After the drilling they received from Congress on Tuesday in which they all said that they realize that they need to get better and give more customer service, this is what happens? I for one don’t like congress having to pass regulations but they may have no choice, these guys are completely out of hand. They are making profits beyond their wildest dreams with fees from baggage to cancellation to now paying for better seats and instead of the airlines thinking of ways to make it better and more comfortable for us, they dream up more ways to stuff more seats into a plane and make even more profits.
    The big problem is that most of these executives are getting paid big bonuses for bringing in more money, so they dream all of this up. As someone said below, I would really like to see Mr. Munoz sitting in economy on a 777 with ten across seating on a flight from San Francisco to Hong Kong. These guys live in a glass bubble not realizing how really bad the airlines have gotten.
    We are now seeing more violence on planes because people are now too crammed in and tempers flair over. It’s all because of the greed of these executives like Mr. Munoz, who is paid millions of dollars in bonus money because he has made not only the seating uncomfortable but customer service non-exist because he is saving money in order for United to make Billions, yes billions with a capitol “B” so that he can then make his $10,000,000 to who knows how many millions of dollars in bonus money.
    Yes congress may need to get involved, it’s the governments fault to have allow all of these mergers in which we now don’t have any choices.

    Flying sucks and it’s because of the greed of these airline executives looking to make millions of dollars in bonus money. All of us through these kind of websites should figure out ways of creating havoc and grieve for all these airlines that think it’s ok to make thing even worst so that they can make more money.

  7. Just have to sigh…I think some of the blame goes to us consumers. We want to fly cheap but at a champagne level. I don’t fly very often but now when I do I’ll be paying a lot more attention and if I fly overseas it won’t be with any US airlines.

  8. Some passengers — probably, usually elderly — select seats near the toilets.

  9. I’d let market forces dictate what seat pitch should be. I remember flying in cramped AA MD-80s in the 1990s when Bob Crandall reduced seat pitch to <31", saying that customers wanted cramped seating because they wanted lower fares more than anything else (and that memory is why AA is not my airline of choice now). Either AA flyers will accept the lower pitch, or switch carriers. If the former, DL and UA will follow suit – otherwise, they will lose too much revenue. If the latter, AA will re-increase pitch (similar to what AA did after DL and UA introduced Comfort and E+, respectively).

    AA can truthfully say that other US airlines have <29" pitch.

  10. There is no ironing it out. It will happen and happen fairly quickly I imagine. Spirit (I’ll walk before I fly Spirit or Frontier) has made a good run at it. If you travel you will do it. As a Diamond 3MM flyer my loyalty (not saying I light the seat direction) is because when things go bad (My fault, your fault, anyone’s fault) DL will get my butt on a plane pure and simple.

  11. And to think that as recently as three years ago, AA was still flying 737-800s with 150 seats (there were two of the best coach rows in all of the US Airline biz with blocked out middle seats to ensure 150 total seats).

  12. Unfortunately, yes this could happen. We’ll have to see how the airlines iron out these issue as the new seating rolls out… still quite a while until they start jamming them in. Perhaps they’ll reconsider.

  13. Chris, I can think of situations where somebody could still get stuck in these seats without booking Basic Economy: Off the top of my head– IRROPS, equipment changes, last minute purchase on a nearly full flight where Basic Economy isn’t full. What will add to the pain is that if AA considers these main cabin seating there won’t even be a reimbursement of the fare difference.

  15. I hate the thought of more regulation, but seriously — it’s like they’re asking for the Feds to step in….

  16. Airline executives must be made to spend several hours every week, working, while sitting in these seats with the seat in front of them reclined.

  17. What is going to differentiate AA from NK or F9? Free water and a bag of pretzels? What a horrible idea.

    I don’t think DL or UA have any 29″ pitch planes in their mainline fleets yet.

  18. I did read the article, but I’m doubtful. These will be the last seats available on each plane since no one will reserve them. Therefore the basic economy passengers, who are the last to board the plane, will get these seats at the last minute. So while not officially part of the basic economy framework, it will end up that way.

  19. Apparently you didn’t read the article…this will have no bearing on economy basic.

    “Fliers will still pay regular economy fares for the 18 seats with two inches less leg room. Two of those three rows of 29-inch pitch will be in the back of the plane and a third farther forward. These seats won’t be part of its new basic economy fares, which sell for less because fliers don’t get access to overhead bins, a seat assignment or frequent flier miles.”

  20. to be fair, you should’ve mentioned that UA usually allocates about 1/3rd of their coach cabin to “economy plus” that has at least 34″ legroom. The equivalents in DL and AA are usually far fewer rows, and in DL’s case, a whole different fare class.

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