The leg room page - economy class seat pitch

SINCE    I'm 6'5" tall, and I'm sick of being squashed up like a melon into a seat for undersized dwarfs. So I dedicate this page to conveying whatever information I can find on seat pitch. 

NEW - detailed legroom guide for the upper classes (premium economy, business, first class)
Latest airline seat pitch moves
T-t-t-t-ips for the t-t-t-traveller
Seat pitch by airline table
Really smart way of overcoming tight seat pitch without paying for business class
Breaking a long-haul flight by a short stop at an intermediate airport is another good way of mitigating the legroom issue. This article covers airports at Hong Kong, Singapore, Vancouver, Narita, and Bangkok. Don't forget the Emirates stopovers for about $A100 at Dubai as well.
Discount business class airlines and guide to the business class seats
Seatguru and Skytrax

Latest airline seat pitch moves
I can’t look back at 2008 without noting that only six carriers earned the top ranking in the annual Skytrax customer experience awards for that year – and Asian operators dominated that five-star category. Asiana, Cathay Pacific, Kingfisher, Malaysia Airlines, Qatar and Singapore Airlines led the way in ’08, in terms of seating, catering, airport services, in-flight entertainment and customer service. Most airlines ended up in the three-star category, so there’s clearly plenty of room for improvement.

Applause still to SAA who reconfigured their A340s to give more legroom in economy (32-33"), and put in new (and much better and even, some say, the best in the world) lie-flat seats in business. And good news for normal travellers - the creature comforts enjoyed by business travellers are trickling down more and more to the less-affluent flyers with the wider introduction of premium economy cabins on long-haul flights. And the airlines have turned to beds in business class. Air carriers are (and I quote) "making their beds sleeker, flatter and longer". There is a neat tip here for travelling on discount economy fares with decent space.

Both Qantas (internationally) and V-Australia are going to offer premium economy with 38 inch leg room. Virgin Blue is now offering a premium economy product on Australian routes with 34-inch pitch - great seats and a sub-cabin load factor of less than 10% - you'll always get a row to yourself. Air New Zealand have done done their massive cabin revamp programme (= good stuff). Virgin Atlantic's Premium Economy section seats about 40 people in wider seats with a 38-inch seat pitch - or about 6in more than the average international economy seat. Air NZ, with its present economy 34-inch seat pitch, already has more economy legroom than its rivals and 2-3 inches more than Qantas. For an extra 20 per cent on the economy fare, Air NZ will offer a 40-inch seat pitch on a wider seat with more recline. All of which beat Qantas and comprehensively trash Jetstar, or should that be Qantas and Jetstar . I can't even begin to adequately express my thoughts about Tiger Airways with their 28 and 29 inch legroom.

T-t-t-t-ips for the t-t-t-traveller  

1. Also many airline websites (SQ, Emirates, Qantas, Virgin Blue, Emirates, Cathay) allow you to pre-book your seat online. 

2. Watch out for the bad ones - there is often no recline in the seats just in front of an exit row (Virgin Blue are bad for this), or the seats right behind the (baby) bulkhead row are close to squalling brats, icky food, and vomit, or the seats at the very back are often right next to queues of desperate people wanting to get to grips with the toilets. 

   Of course, if your sense of humour is quirkier than mine, these are the seats that you book your boss into. And don't forget to call ahead and change his food preference to lacto-vegetarian with no sugar. 

3. The real intrepid people look for an airline that has just suffered a major disaster and then fly with them - there are whole rows that are empty.
4. There are/were some 'discount' business class airlines flying which styled themselves as 'all-business class' airlines while offering cheaper seats. However the economic woes have cast shadows over most of them..

AIRLINE SEAT PITCH TABLE
NEW - expanded legroom guide for the upper classes (premium economy, business, first class)

Pink background stands for crippling cramp and DVT clots, orange for circulation cut-off and air rage, blue for tight fit, and green for the Right Legroom...........

Other resources:  
http://www.seatguru.com/ - shows little maps of aircraft with comments and advice on all the seats   http://www.airlinequality.com/Product/seat_intro.htm - extensive coverage of airlines

Really smart way of overcoming tight seat pitch without paying for business class

[thanks to cavortingcheetah]
Always book three seats when my wife and I travel economy. That's cheaper than business or first and usually more comfortable.
I go LHR-JHB 3/4 times a year. If you cost out the price of an extra seat, round trip on that flight, say £400 for twenty four hours total flying. That works out at about £16 per hour or £8 if you divide it by two, as both my wife and I use the empty seat between us.
That's a bargain on a double overnight flight.

1. What name do you use for the extra seat? 
I use my own name. So far I've never had a problem.

2. How often do you find check-in agents misunderstanding what you have done?  
Never had a problem with check in staff even in funny places where their not used to such an approach.

3. Do you have difficulty getting the full baggage allocation for the third seat?    
Never had a problem with the extra 20kgs. I suspect that some might baulk if I tried to take an extra 10kgs on top as water sport gear. So far no problems though.

4. Do you come under pressure to give up the seat?    
I have come under pressure to give up the seat, especially on KLM which is the airline I use most often on AMS/JHB. I always politely refuse to give up the seat unless the airline is prepared to move both of us up into business or first. You've just got to grit your teeth on this one and grin inanely at the other passengers. Something I do quite well by all accounts. On a Jumbo, the extra seat is always the middle of a three row on the port side so the usual form is a family who want to change and sit three together. Often they are standbys, poor souls, but I just hold out for the upgrade.
It is all quite kosher and the cabin crew have to go along with my plan at the end of the day. I have threatened to show the crew my hip replacement scar in the past to reinforce my need for extra room. It looks like a shark bite. 

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