Unless you’re very rich and can afford a private plane, we all know that getting from point A to point B by air these days can be an awful experience. Not only that, but trying to mitigate the awfulness even a little takes more and more time, and that makes even our vacations an exercise in working to have fun. But mitigate we must if we are to remain sane, and so we turn to other people who’ve done some of the heavy lifting for us.
One way to make your flights more bearable is to choose airlines and seats that don’t require you to stow your knees against your chin.
“Yahoo Travel took a look at U.S. and international carriers’ seats and service to find the most tolerable coach experiences.” Virgin America fares well. “In addition to unique mood lighting, Virgin’s planes have a roomy (or at least roomier than average) 32-38 inch seat pitch, which is the distance between one point on a seat to the same point in the seat in front of it—a measure of legroom. By comparison, some low-cost carriers pack you in at 28 inches of seat pitch.”
Other airlines on the domestic-carrier A list are JetBlue, Hawaiian Airlines, and American. “American even figured out the reclining vs. knee space heated issue: When their seats recline, the bottom slides forward so the person in back of you doesn’t need a Knee Defender.”
