# World's Best Economy Class Airline Seat



## Swadian Hardcore (Aug 31, 2015)

Take a look at Japan Airlines' Sky Wider II, the Economy Class seats on their Boeing 787 aircraft:

https://www.jal.co.jp/en/inflight/inter/economy/y_seat/index2.html.

Japan Airlines is the only airline to not use a cramped 3-3-3 seating configuration in their 787s' Economy Class. ANA also has a few aircraft with the spacious 2-4-2 config, but they are converting their 787s to 3-3-3.


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## Devil's Advocate (Aug 31, 2015)

Swadian Hardcore said:


> Take a look at Japan Airlines' Sky Wider II, the Economy Class seats on their Boeing 787 aircraft:
> 
> https://www.jal.co.jp/en/inflight/inter/economy/y_seat/index2.html.
> 
> Japan Airlines is the only airline to not use a cramped 3-3-3 seating configuration in their 787s' Economy Class. ANA also has a few aircraft with the spacious 2-4-2 config, but they are converting their 787s to 3-3-3.


I used to fly JL fairly regularly due to the ease of securing exit row seats for taller passengers like me. Everything was fine until JL joined the US airlines in reserving exit rows for status holders only. After that I wasn't flying JL anymore. Now they're back with a 34" sales pitch I can get behind. Unfortunately I have little doubt that this too will eventually go the way of economy lounges and MRTC. NH can forget ever seeing a dime of my money with their knee crushing 31" pitch. It's weird to think that you can legally market and sell a seat that represents a serious and unavoidable health risk to millions of potential customers without having to warn them first. For some reason tall people are often lumped in with wide people even though there's no way for me to decrease my height simply by making lifestyle changes. I guess I could pay tens of thousands of dollars to have my bones cut and reset, but for some reason that seems a bit extreme to me.


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## Swadian Hardcore (Aug 31, 2015)

I'm not very tall so legroom is generally OK for me. I also have a BMI of 15.6 which means I really don't need to worry about seat width.

Generally, I'd rather have more legroom than more seat pitch.

Qantas' refitted 747s with 31" pitch seems to be OK. Raw seat pitch helps, but the seat cushion height, seat design, and seat comfort are also important.

Kudos to JAL for offering more comfort than ANA and much better service than any of the Chinese airlines. They're probably one of the best airlines in East Asia.


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## Devil's Advocate (Aug 31, 2015)

Swadian Hardcore said:


> Generally, I'd rather have more legroom than more seat pitch.


Although it's a vague term that could be used any number of ways in my experience "pitch" is generally used to refer to legroom rather than seat width. That's also how I intended it. I'm not sure why JL is not on board with the same definition as everyone else but it meant I had to look it up elsewhere.



Swadian Hardcore said:


> Qantas' refitted 747s with 31" pitch seems to be OK. Raw seat pitch helps, but the seat cushion height, seat design, and seat comfort are also important.


I've found a similar and largely unexpected benefit to UA's 787 seats. Unfortunately the rest of their long haul fleet remains set to knee crushing hell pitch.



Swadian Hardcore said:


> Kudos to JAL for offering more comfort than ANA and much better service than any of the Chinese airlines. They're probably one of the best airlines in East Asia.


Indeed.

This may actually be the first positive news for international coach travel in nearly a decade. Hopefully the cost is reasonable as well. When booking UA initiated trips I've noticed a substantial increase in Chinese airlines that UA.com keeps trying to push on me. In the past I would fly a different airline just because it was new to me but these days who you fly can have a huge impact on your overall experience, even in coach. Everything I've heard about Chinese airlines has been almost universally negative.


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## Swadian Hardcore (Sep 1, 2015)

Don't fly on Chinese airlines. The only decent Chinese airline is Hainan. I've flown on most of the rest, and they all sucked. Delays are rampant and all kinds of other problems pop up out of nowhere.

Why does JAL choose to do this? Some of the 787-8s have only 161 seats, which is a remarkably low-density config. Seems like Japanese airlines prefers an "all-or-nothing" strategy where short-haul aircraft have very high density and long-haul aircraft have very low density.


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## Palmetto (Sep 11, 2015)

United's new premium economy seat [unveiled yesterday] looks a lot better than JAL's.


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## Devil's Advocate (Sep 11, 2015)

Palmetto said:


> United's new premium economy seat [unveiled yesterday] looks a lot better than JAL's.


UA's economy seating, the kind that was originally referenced in this thread and fills the bulk of aircraft floor plan across UA's entire fleet, is pretty bad compared to almost anything. United's Economy Plus has always been just like any other economy seat except for a few extra inches of pitch. I'm not familiar with UA's new Premium Economy seat but I am familiar with UA's staff and considering how much they struggle to make International First Class feel "premium" I can only imagine what sort of service they'd provide for a Premium Economy cabin. JL used to have a vastly superior service compared to UA. Not sure how well they're doing today but with their improved Economy Class pitch I'm certainly willing to give them a try.


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## Swadian Hardcore (Sep 11, 2015)

United vs JAL? I'm sure JAL would win by a landslide. That being said, United's old-fashioned Economy seats on the 747 are OK, though very outdated.

I really hate Delta's vinyl seats.


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## Bob Dylan (Sep 11, 2015)

We have several members that regularly fly on International Routes on various Airlines, so itv will be informative to get current, butt in the seat reports from them!


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## Devil's Advocate (Sep 11, 2015)

jimhudson said:


> We have several members that regularly fly on International Routes on various Airlines, so itv will be informative to get current, butt in the seat reports from them!


I actually haven't seen anything about UA's new "Premium Economy" seat but assuming such a thing exists it will probably be months if not years before it becomes a common sight. I don't need plush seats so long as I have enough legroom so I doubt I'll be flying PE so long as E+ remains intact. Maybe Palmetto will link to something that gives us a better view of whatever he's talking about so we can make our own judgments.


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## Swadian Hardcore (Sep 12, 2015)

United doesn't offer Premium Economy. Such a thing doesn't exist. They only offer Economy Plus.

I heard KLM's 747s are quite comfortable.


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## OlympianHiawatha (Sep 13, 2015)

While those JAL seats may have more width and pich they still don't look like they have any meat to them and those thin cushions could get mighty uncomfortable after a few hours.


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## Swadian Hardcore (Sep 13, 2015)

OlympianHiawatha said:


> While those JAL seats may have more width and pich they still don't look like they have any meat to them and those thin cushions could get mighty uncomfortable after a few hours.


I tend to find that the thickness of a seat does not affect comfort as much as lumbar support and bottom cushioning. I don't like sitting in very thick, flat seats.


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## Devil's Advocate (Sep 14, 2015)

OlympianHiawatha said:


> While those JAL seats may have more width and pich they still don't look like they have any meat to them and those thin cushions could get mighty uncomfortable after a few hours.


I've flown JL several times and never had an issue with the cushioning thus far. UA's 787 seats are also rather thin but they haven't bothered me as of yet. I bring my own cushioning wherever I go so maybe that's why.


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## Swadian Hardcore (Sep 14, 2015)

All airline seats are getting thin these days, with Thai Airways International being a rare exception.


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