One of the prime reasons people decide to travel is often the availability of cheap travel alternatives, such as cheap airplane tickets, discount hotel rooms and cheap vacation packages. Unfortunately, there is little joy to be had flying when stuck in a middle seat and/or a seat that does not recline.
Finding comfort in coach is possible, if you are willing to do a little work. Unfortunately it is not necessarily true that purchasing your ticket early and requesting a seat assignment will guarantee that you are given the best available seat. Many airlines have started charging extra for better coach seats.
Recently, domestic airlines have started offering premium economy seating which is a roomier class of seats between business and coach. American Airlines will shortly start selling Main Cabin Extra seats that come with 4 to 6 inches of additional legroom for $8 to $108, depending on the length of the flight. United Airlines is rolling out Economy Plus seating which offers 4 to 6 inches of additional legroom for $9 to $159 one way to its Continental planes. Delta will start offering Economy Comfort seats this summer that come with 4 additional inches of legroom initially priced at $19 to $99 one way.
Airlines continue to reserve their best coach seats for their most elite frequent fliers. United allows its top elite frequent fliers to enjoy Economy Plus seats at no charge.
If you dont happen to be an elite frequent flier, the following are strategies you should consider to find the most comfortable coach seat available:
Do not decide which airline to fly based on price alone. For example Spirit Airlines and JetBlue both fly A320 planes between Boston and Fort Lauderdale, FL, but Spirit squeezes in 24 more seats on its plane. JetBlues seats are much roomier with 34 inches of pitch (the distance between seats) vs. 28 on Spirit.
Visit websites such as SeatGuru or SeatExpert to find better seats. Both sites offer information including which seats will not recline. Sites such as ExpertFlyer send out free alerts when more desirable seats become available.
Be flexible and consider if you are traveling as a couple reserving window and aisle seats in hope that the middle seat will be empty. Unfortunately planes are flying so full that the odds of the middle seat remaining open are slim. An alternative is to sit across the aisle from each other so neither party has to sit in the middle.
Go out of your way to be nice to flight attendants and request being moved to a better seat if one ends up free. It is amazing what flight attendants will do for passengers they take a liking to.
A website called GadgetDuck sells what it calls the Knee Defender for $19.95 which prevents the seat in front from reclining.
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