Overseas Flights Put the Squeeze on Legroom

Airlines Cramp Coach Seats In Sharp Contrast to Routes Flown by U.S. Discounters April 12, 2005; Page D6
Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

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When Mary Harada flew from Los Angeles to Australia on a Qantas Airways 747, she found the coach seats so close together she had trouble sleeping, even at only 5-foot-2-inches tall. But the trip home was worse. When she reclined her seat to sleep, the oversize passenger just 31 inches behind her protested, grabbing the back of her seat and jerking it back and forth. "He was pretty much unable to move his legs," she said. She feared assault. As much as travelers complain about cramped seating on domestic air service today, with discounters generally offering more generous legroom than older airlines, it is strikingly worse on international service. Consider that many wide-body 747s flying across the oceans for 10 hours or more at a stretch have less legroom in coach than a Southwest Airlines narrow-body 737 making a short hop to Las Vegas. SITTING TIGHT Airlines are battling over legroom. See a listing of major international airlines and their minimum legroom. FURTHER READING • Discounters Win the Legroom Wars 04/05/2005   Some international carriers are better than others in coach -- but only marginally. Singapore Airlines and Cathay Pacific Airways, both known for their high-quality service, offer at least 32 inches of seat pitch in coach, for example. (Seat pitch is the space allotted for one row, measured from one point of a seat to the same point on the seat in front of it.) While that is more than most international carriers, it is the same seat pitch offered by Southwest. Many international coach seats are allotted just 31 inches: Scandinavian Airlines System, British Airways, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and Qantas all have a minimum of 31-inch seat pitch in their largest planes. So do most U.S. airlines in their international fleets. Even worse, Air France has some seats in its long-haul planes with a measly 30 inches of space, and Virgin Atlantic Airways says it has some entire planes in its 747 and A340 fleets laid out at 30 inches of space in coach -- other planes have either 31 inches throughout or 32 inches throughout coach. But the airline doesn't tell customers if the plane has 30-inch seating or 32-inch seating because aircraft rotate around different routes, a Virgin spokeswoman says. The coach squeeze has been inching up on us for many years, and is a big reason "deep vein thrombosis" -- a condition when potentially deadly blood clots form in the body -- has been dubbed "coach-class syndrome." DVT certainly isn't limited to coach seating, but the cramped conditions are thought to have the potential to contribute to clot formation, along with dehydration, if travelers don't move around and stretch. "Thirty-one-inch and 32-inch seat pitch is incredibly tight for long trips," says Stanley Plog, a longtime airline researcher and consultant. "At one time, international flights were all configured to have about two inches more pitch than domestic flights." MIDDLE SEAT MAILBOX Have a question about air travel or the airline industry? Write to me at middleseat@wsj.com. Answers to selected questions will appear in Middle Seat Mailbox on Fridays. If you don't want your comments considered for Middle Seat Mailbox, please make that clear. Mr. Plog doesn't think tight coach seating is an airline plot to stimulate sales of business-class and first-class international tickets. Rather, he thinks it is just how airlines see their industry economics these days: Cram as many seats into coach as possible because what coach travelers really care about are cheap prices. Domestically, of course, discount airlines have changed the game by offering both cheap prices and better comfort. Eventually, the same may happen in the international market. But for now, without much competition from new entrants, established carriers are doing better financially with international flying, and packing in the customers. Some airlines have extra room in coach for ultralong flights. Singapore's Airbus A340-500, which flies a marathon 18 hours from Singapore to New York, has a minimum seat-pitch in coach of 37 inches, and wider seats at 20 inches, compared with a width of 17 inches or 18 inches on most planes. Emirates offers a relatively roomy 33 or 34 inches of seat-pitch in its Boeing 777s, but the extra room on the long-haul carrier comes with a catch. In coach, Emirates squeezes in 10 seats across each row of its 777; most other airlines only put nine seats in each row of a 777 coach cabin. That means Emirates seats are only 17.3 inches wide, compared with about 18 inches on airlines with nine seats across. Different types of planes within an airline's fleet can have different coach seat-pitch offerings as well. At Continental Airlines, for example, the Boeing 767-400 is laid out with 32 inches of standard seat-pitch in coach. But Continental's 777 has only 31 inches of row room standard. At Northwest Airlines, A330-200s have 32 inches, but A330-300s have only 31 inches (rows 10-28 do have extra room, Northwest's Web site says). Northwest 747s also have only a minimum of 31 inches in coach, and slightly narrower seats than either A330 model. If you have a choice and you're flying coach, look for the A330-200s. Even on the individual plane, seat pitch can vary considerably, and it can be difficult for savvy travelers to root out the best seats. At American Airlines, for example, the minimum seat pitch is 31 inches on 777s. But only 61 of 194 coach seats on a 777 have just 31 inches -- less than one-third of the seats. American says 53 seats have 32 inches, 24 seats have 33 inches, 34 seats have 34 inches, and four seats in coach have 35 inches. And that doesn't count exit rows or bulkheads. That's the good news, since odds are you will get more than 31 inches. The bad news is American doesn't mark the roomier seats on its Web site. Other sites like seatguru.com don't have it, either. To be sure, international carriers have improved their entertainment offerings, with newer planes offering individual screens to many travelers. Some airlines are moving ahead with wireless Internet service in international travel. Meals still are served on international trips. But for many travelers, the lack of legroom can negate all that. Don Diehl stands just 5-foot-5, but he had a tough time on a Scandinavian A340 from Seattle to Copenhagen in only 31-inches of space. "The food, wine and service were great," he said. But even when the seatback in front of you is up, "legroom is minimal," Mr. Diehl said. "Reclined, it becomes intolerable. Even reading seems more difficult with the book jammed under my nose.

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