by Vijay Verghese

See also First Class Seat Survey | Business Class Seat Survey | Small Airlines Guide | Airbus vs Boeing | Frequent Flier Programs | Business Class Seats Review

MAS seat-back video	Cathay B-777	Dragonair: 18 inches	SIA: "Leadership" arrives	Sri Lankan PTV

SHOEHORNED like an American bison in a Barbie Doll seat, 30,000ft aloft on an interminable nonstop to New York, you’re wondering how you’ll ever extricate yourself to get to the loo before the post-movie rush. Well, it’s time to whip out the measuring tape and get to the bottom of things. How wide is your seat really? How much footsie space do you have in front of you? Does your seat actually recline or must you travel in the brace position all the way to New York? Finally, an airline economy class seat survey with all those niggling details. See the winners of our Favourite Airline Poll 2005.

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Let’s face it though. You’re travelling economy so stop whining and do something about it – like toss your boss (or husband, or whoever bought your airline ticket) out of a high floor window. This is cattle class, back of the bus. Get real. You won’t find acres of rugby space back here, or a comfy love seat to share with your wife, or left butt cheek – just a few inches of valuable real estate. And every inch counts. Let’s check out those seats in the back.

Let’s start with legroom. In airline parlance this is called “seat pitch”. Specifically this refers to the space between each seat anchor, row by row. This can fluctuate even in the same class especially as you move further up to the nose or tail of the aircraft. Wide-body aircraft, like the businessmen who fly them, are widest around the middle. Cabin space is restricted at either extremity and this can affect both seat pitch and seat width – unless you’re flying business or first, of course.

Economy class seat pitch in either Boeing or Airbus aircraft hovers in the 32 to 34-inch range. It is a fallacy to assume that a fat B-747 will offer more legroom than a smaller A-330. Space depends on the airline’s configuration. A couple of airlines stand out from the crowd.

Singapore Airlines’ new “ultra longhaul” Airbus 340-500 enabes nonstop flights from Singapore to Los Angeles and even New York, with soft-focus guitar-strumming sarong-clad lovelies. With the “Megatop” moniker fast losing prominence, SIA has dubbed the new aircraft “A345Leadership”. This may sound like a dull boardroom file but the A345Leadership Executive Economy Class, in 2-3-2 configuration, offers an Olympian seat pitch of 37 inches. The recline on these seats is eight inches with a 20-inch armrest-to-armrest width. There’s also a mega nine-inch PTV and power supply for your laptop. Now you can really strrretch on those ultra-longhaul flights. The new B777-300ER in a 3-3-3 configuration offers a 19-inch seat width and a 115-degree recline. Power supply is available in most seats and the PTV screen size is 10.6 inches.

Beleaguered United Airlines also has an ace up its sleeve. It offers an “Economy Plus” product. This is not a separate class but is actually an area of the cabin featuring four extra inches of glorious legroom, more than enough to swing a bison by the tail. Economy Plus is available to travellers possessing Premier or higher status on United’s Mileage Plus frequent flier programme. It is also available to those purchasing full-fare, unrestricted economy tickets. So while pitch is 31 inches in the rest of the aircraft, on Economy Plus seats it is actually 35 inches. Stretch out.

Qatar Airways offers an 18.9-inch seat width with better-than-average leg-stretch space. The seat pitch on A340-600 and A330s is a huge 34 inches. India's Jet Airways offers a 14.3-degree recline onboard its B777-300ER aircraft as well as on the Airbus A330-200s. The airline also has the distinction of serving up some of the widest economy class seats in this survey at 20 inches. A touchscreen entertainment system offers a large screen with clear images and the seat pitch is 32 inches.

The big daddy when it comes to legroom, however, is Scandinavian Airlines. Its “Economy Extra” offers roomier seats at a 37-inch seat pitch (the biggest by far) and comfy recline at seven inches. Economy Extra seats also include power for your laptop. Another airline getting kitted out anew with a “Super Economy Class” is Royal Brunei. If you still need an extra inch to get a full 38-inch seat pitch you'll need to opt for British Airways' World Traveller Plus on the B747-400. The normal World Traveller seat pitch is a comfortable 17.5 inches.

Japan Airlines has begun rolling out its new Premium Economy, initially on the Tokyo-Frankfurt and Tokyo-Paris routes. JAL Premium Economy occupies a separate cabin with the new JAL Sky Shell Seat in a 2-4-2 configuration on B777 aircraft.

Its refitted B767-300ER aircraft that came in early 2004 offers two inches of legroom above the standard 32-34 inches. Super Economy also features a personal video screen. JAL's inflight entertainment programming on its Magic-III system will double choice on international flights, meaning more Hollywood gore (or Bollywood cheese, depending on your mood) to choose from. The Emirates B-777 offers a seat pitch of up to 34 inches and, on Malaysia Airlines, both the B777-200 and B747-400 present a very generous 34 inches of manoeuvring space for your legs. The same pitch is available on Thai Airways B747-400 aircraft, with the B777-300s offering 32 inches.

But let’s cut to the chase. Bum room is what it’s all about. This makes all the difference between high life and high dudgeon. I’ve flown in TWA seats (domestic USA) where there was enough space to set up an Everest base camp. Of course I resisted the temptation, largely because oxygen canisters, sharp implements and nail clippers are banned inflight. TWA had their first class refitted years ago and the old front-cabin seats went back to business and so on down the line. Now that’s a bonus for some.

United legroom	British Airways backroom	Qantas B-747	Emirates: nonstop fun	MAS: roomy interiors

There was a time as well when several aircraft flying a two-class Asian route (but equipped with a full three classes – first, business and economy) offered a few lucky or knowledgeable passengers the widest ever economy seats. All you had to do was check-in early and ask for a forward row seat. These rows, invariably, overlapped the business cabin. There was a time as well when on some Japan Air Lines flights transpacific, the economy cabin was just 20 or so “privileged” seats. Why? Because the entire aircraft was configured for executive class. You could sit back in economy and get pampered silly while in business, weary salarymen fought for the attentions of a few overworked and distraught stewardesses.

We’ll let you in on a little secret. If you’re flying Vietnam Airlines, ask for the middle seat. That’s right. The middle seat. On several aircraft, for some reason, this is the roomiest. The middle seats are actually a couple of inches wider than the aisle and window seats. Incredible. Otherwise, Vietnam Airlines serves up a better-than-average 19 inches on the A320s and a whopping 20 inches on the B-777. The latter aircraft on some Cathay Pacific routes offers the additional distraction of a nosewheel camera that will have you riveted during take-off and landing. It’s not too bad for boning up on geography either on a clear day. Cathay B-777s offer 18.5 inches of space, or cushion area, as airlines like to call it. And their roomy A340-600s on the Hongkong-New York nonstops offer a seat pitch of 32 inches and a marginally slimmer width of 17.75 inches. Finnair’s MD-11 will be perhaps the tightest fit starting at 16.2 inches across.

The aforementioned SAS Economy Extra is a tad more accommodating at 18.3 inches while SIA’s soon to arrive Leadership Executive Economy will strrrrretch 20 inches. Every decimal place counts. Philippine Airlines’ B-747 economy seats start at 16.93 inches (going up to 17.17 inches) and Sri Lankan seats in the back are 18.11 inches which is up there with the best, narrowly beating Dragonair with 18 inches but just behind Cathay Pacific (18.5 inches on the B-777) and American Airlines (up to 18.4 inches on the B-777). MAS seats offer manually adjustable lumbar support as well as decent 6.5-inch seat-back PTVs. They also offers satellite phones. This is the same screen size offered by Emirates which also tosses in touch-screen controls. JAL has PTV on B747-400s and long range B-777s and B-767s. Air New Zealand weighs in with a reasonable 17.5 inches, just ahead of Qantas with 17.2 inches.

Seat-back personal video presents a mixed bag but several airlines compensate with large drop-down video screens.

On the recline front figures are not easy to sort out. They can range from inches to centimetres to degrees. Rule of thumb, about six inches of recline is the equivalent of about 25 degrees or 15cm. Recline figures in degrees can add to the confusion. Some airlines count it off from zero, others from the 90-degree perpendicular, so 15 degrees would be, in fact, 105 degrees and so on. Take your pick. Gulf Air’s A330-200 is seemingly top of the chart on recline, while Air France’s B777-200 offers 28 degrees and most other airlines offer around six inches. JAL’s B-777 and A-330 make it a comfy 32 degrees and Dragonair’s A-330 is at seven inches. MAS offers seven inches too and BA's World Traveller Plus seats again get a high ranking with a similar recline.

Now if you want to swing a cat by its tail back in economy, you’ll know where to begin.

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