Scared that I won't fit in plane seat

4/7/2018 8:39:33 PM

Different airlines have different polices on this. First of all, Hilmar’s advice to check SeatGuru first is good advice. If you find there that the seats are narrower than your hips, you do have a few options, depending on airline and route.

International Premium Cabins

On large aircraft configured for long-haul routes, there will usually be Business and/or First-Class cabins that have quite spacious seats (most of which recline fully in to beds these days.) These are usually at least 20 inches (51 cm) wide, sometimes significantly more. Granted, they’re typically not cheap.

Domestic/Regional Premium Cabins

For aircraft configured for short-haul (e.g. domestic, regional, or intra-Europe routes,) there are often still premium cabins, but they’re not nearly as spacious (or expensive) as the ones you’ll find on long-haul routes. In North America, these are typically called "First Class" and are significantly wider seats than what’s installed in economy. In Europe, they’re typically called "business class," and are the same width as what’s installed in economy, but with the middle seat blocked off.

Economy

There’s less variation from short-haul to long-haul in the dimensions of economy seats than with the premium cabins. They’re typically 17-18 inches (43-46 cm) wide on either short-haul or long-haul. Some very-low-cost airlines even have a 16-16.5 inches (40-42 cm). However, many airlines have policies allowing you to book the seat beside you, sometimes for free.

According to this article and this article, here are the policies of some North American airlines (I don’t personally know how these vary in Europe.)

Free Extra Seat

  • Air Canada
  • WestJet

Extra Seat Cost Reimbursed if Flight(s) Not Full

  • Alaska
  • Southwest

Must Pay for Extra Seat

  • Allegiant
  • American
  • Frontier
  • JetBlue
  • Hawaiian
  • Spirit
  • United

Will Seat Next to Empty Seat Free if Available, but Recommends Purchasing Extra Seat

  • Delta
4/7/2018 2:04:07 PM

In general, the airlines have the following rules:

  1. If the seatbelt doesn’t fit, they will give you a seat belt extender. See more info about extender here: https://www.tripsavvy.com/how-long-are-airplane-seat-belts-2972596
  2. If one extender doesn’t do it, the airline won’t let you fly (this is very rare, though, and shouldn’t be a problem for you)
  3. You need to fit between the two armrests. If you can’t you need to buy two tickets.

The latter one is tricky since, unfortunately, the airlines keep squeezing seat sizes more and more. United just introduced a “high-density” 777, which only has 17″ seat width. I just rode that 14 hours from San Fran to Hong Kong and it was torture: even three “normal” sized males couldn’t sit next to each other without twisting side ways (average shoulder width is 18.25″ for males). On the other hand, the normal density 777 they fly from New York to Hong Kong is quite comfortable

A good resource for finding out seat dimension is https://www.seatguru.com/ . You can put in any specific flight and they will show you the layout of the plane and the seat sizes. Try to get 18″ or larger, although that’s not easy to find these days.

You can also throw money at the problem and buy a better ticket. The ticket types have become confusing as well: there is “Basic Economy”, “Economy”, “Economy Plus”, “Premium Economy”, “Domestic First”, “International Business”, “Business/First” “First” etc. Again, https://www.seatguru.com/ can help to cut through the marketing babble and get to actual seat dimension. Typically anything “Premium, Business, First” gives you wider seats. “Plus” may give you more legroom but only the same width.

Finally: I do fly a lot and a I see a lot of people of size in planes and they do manage mostly fine. With a little bit of preparation and practice you can find out what works for you.

Credit:stackoverflow.com‘

About me

Hello,My name is Aparna Patel,I’m a Travel Blogger and Photographer who travel the world full-time with my hubby.I like to share my travel experience.

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