Tag: seat pitch

Why I Now Prefer The Planes I Used To Hate

After the merger of US Airways and American Airlines in 2013, the two airlines operated separately up until 2015. All of the US Airways planes were eventually repainted and the interiors were rebranded but the amenities didn’t change. This led American Airlines loyalists to try to avoid these planes because they didn’t have the same features as American’s planes, like seat-back entertainment or power outlets.

Flash forward to 2019 and most ex-US Airways planes still do not have seatback entertainment or power outlets but I’d rather fly on one of these planes instead of one with the new American Airlines interior.

Continue reading “Why I Now Prefer The Planes I Used To Hate”

American Airlines 737-800 Has The Worst Economy Seat, And They’re Making It Even Worse

I’m sure American Airlines wasn’t thinking about the 737-800 when they put the ad telling you to rate the seat on Tripit into the seat back pocket. If they were, they might have tried a little harder to make sitting in one of their seats a less miserable experience. I can’t put my finger on exactly what made the seat feel as bad as it did. Was it the narrow seat width? Maybe it was the seat pitch (distance from the seat in front). It could have been we were already in a bad mood after having to deal with surly gate agents trying to check as many carry on bags as possible, even if they were the correct size.

I did some checking on narrow body jets we’ve flown on this year and American’s 737-8 ranks towards the bottom of seat comfort metrics, but not the worst. So why did American seem so much worse than it looks on paper and how could they make it any worse?

Continue reading “American Airlines 737-800 Has The Worst Economy Seat, And They’re Making It Even Worse”