How big are American Airlines seats?
American Airlines is one of the leading international airlines and a member of the OneWorld alliance of airlines. As the company operates a huge national and global route, it is not uncommon to find many passengers on the American Airlines flights. Another typical question that passengers may ask is, ‘How many seats are available?’ This is particularly important for long distances, since seats can be very cramped.
In Economy class the seat width varies with the following durations table. The general space for the standard economy seats provided on American Airlines aircraft vary from 17 inches to 18 inches. They include Airbus, Boeing, and Embraer Regional Jet airplanes that they own. In the same regard, standard economy seats on other major US airlines for instance Delta Airlines and the United Airlines, have a width of approximately 17 inches as well.
Some of the American’s Boeing 767 300 aircraft were quite old and seat in economy class were even narrower with only 16. 5inches width. Nevertheless, a majority of these aircrafts are already going through refurbishment to have their interiors changed to match the rest of the aircrafts.
Select Main Cabin Extra seats have extra width with 18. 5-inch width that is available on their flagship Airbus A321 Transcontinental planes they used on the premium routes between New York and Los Angeles or San Francisco. These offer extra facilities for the inter-state journey.
Seat Pitch in Economy Another key factor is the amount of space in the row, particularly the space for a passenger’s legs and the distance between the rows, or “seat pitch”. The American mainline standard coach seats offer between 30 and 32 inches of seat pitch on all its jets. This is in sync with competitors and generally provides sufficient space beneath the seats for a few hours’ flight.
More leg space and extra space is available for purchase within the Main Cabin Extra which is available at an extra cost which comes with a pitch space of 36-38 inches. Also there is the Basic Economy fare which provides only 30 inches of space for the legs, which allows to give the cut-rate prices for those who need the lowest fares.
Business Class Seats For premium cabins, it has fully flat business class seats on its international and domestic long-haul flights as well as the transcontinental flights between New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. This makes it possible to have a good sleep during long-haul flights like across the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, or even across the North America.
Business class seats in American’s fleet changes in size according to the individual aircraft: Depending on the specific type of the aircraft that American uses for its operations, the size of business class seats differ. Nevertheless, they are about 20 inches wide as a base with a cabin access for all the passengers in a reverse herringbone 1-2-1 style or a 2-2 across formation on some wide-body aircrafts. Seat width when the seat is fully reclined into the lie-flat beds range from 20 to 24 inches depending on seat design.
First Class Seats Although, in past few years they have reduced the number of first class seats that are offered, on some of the planes of American airlines, one can avail extra space and luxury through First Class. These seats offer slightly more width at about 21 inches and also give extra privacy choices, superior dining, amenities, and personal in-flight entertainment displays.
Economy seats convert into fully flat seats of approximately 77 to 82 inches long for dozing and sleeping on red-eye and transoceanic flights, such as New York to Los Angeles. In terms of the seat width and the bed length, it does appear to meet, if not surpass, rivals Delta and United’s domestic first class measurements.
Seat Size Considerations In view of this, it is important to set appropriate expectation when talking about the sizes of the seats offered by American Airlines. Economy class seats are tight in width; it measures 17 inches only since the density demanded by today’s airline companies, although they are appropriate for short-haul travel. In order to add more comfort, during flights one can opt for buying an additional leg space or can opt for Business class for long journey.
Competition can also be useful for comparison, such as comparing American’s seats on specific routes of interest to competitors. Some websites like SeatGuru help the travelers to compare from one to the other easily across the 35 seat dimensions and over hundred aircraft seat maps. This assists in filtering out flights that are likely to have the most appropriate seats to cater for specific requirements.
Nevertheless, in many cases, one can say that American’s seats are similar to Delta and United in such aspects as width and pitch of the seats. Well, as for JetBlue and Southwest, these are airlines that provide an additional one to two inches more width in their economy class seats, which can be beneficial for those who have a bigger built. Finally, it might be more efficient to identify which airline, type of aircraft, and cabin offers the necessary amount of legroom, depending on the person’s preferences and willingness to pay.
As with any airline, it is important to properly manage one’s expectations when it comes to the size of the seats and this can best be achieved through conducting a proper research before buying tickets for a flight across the vast route network of American Airlines that serves over 350 destinations worldwide. This ensures that you can get the maximum comfort the next time you travel on the plane, even in the economy section.