It’s Official: American Is Cutting Economy Legroom By Up To Two Inches

By: Ben Schlappig

Published: May 3, 2017

63 comments

As if the US legacy carriers couldn’t get any worse…

Yesterday I posted about the rumor of American installing 174 seats on their upcoming Boeing 737 MAX orders, which would represent a capacity increase of 14 seats over their current (already tight) Boeing 737s. I speculated that American would eliminate a row of first class in order to accommodate this, and even then it would be a very tight fit.

American-737-MAX

Well, it looks like we now have our answer, and it’s very bad news for customers. CNN Money is reporting that American will have over 170 seats on their 737 MAX aircraft. The good news is that American is allegedly keeping 16 first class seats, and is also keeping their extra legroom economy cabin (that’s at least good news for elite members).

However, American will be reducing seat pitch (the distance between each row) for three rows from 31″ to 29″, and for the remainder of the cabin will be reducing seat pitch to 30″. On top of that, American will be shrinking the size of some of the bathrooms on the plane.

First of all, I’m not sure exactly how American can make the lavatories on the 737 any smaller — they’re already tiny.

Second of all, I thought fitting in 174 seats while taking out a row of first class would make the cabin tight. However, fitting in roughly that many seats while not reducing the number of first class seats is even more puzzling. I can’t even begin to imagine how tight the economy cabin will be.

American has 100 of these 737 MAX aircraft on order, and will be taking delivery of their first one later this year.

There’s no denying that the quality gap between the legacy airlines and the ultra low cost airlines has been shrinking over the past few years, though at least the legacy airlines have still offered a bit more legroom. Even that advantage is going away now, as American is going to have similar legroom to what you’ll find on Spirit or Frontier. Of course they do all this while using the marketing tagline that they’re “going for great.” Really? Perhaps they should revise it to “going for every last cent.”

And to think that American used to have these advertisements about their economy legroom:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TW-SRV_Z8Vk

The article also reports that United is apparently also considering reducing legroom to 29″.

It’s a sad day for the legacy airlines. Hell, let’s just call it a sad decade…

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VX_Flier Guest

May 4, 2017, 4:47 pm

As an AA elite, my disgust for AA doesn't have to do with the airline researching whether it makes business sense to provide discomfort to their customers. My disgust with AA has to do with the fact that AA is forging ahead with this terrible business plan DESPITE the outrage from customers and Congress' warnings to the US 3 this week. It's ridiculous how incredibly arrogant the AA Executive Management are, especially after they were hauled before a bipartisan committee.

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Marcie Guest

May 4, 2017, 9:34 am

Why aren't people marching about this ? They're marching about everything else....this is horrendous ! Economy is already like a can of sardines.

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Rupert Guest

May 4, 2017, 12:19 am

Every time the US3 reduce service/legroom/perks/... there is an outcry - and then the majority of travelers go back to buying the cheapest fare without any consideration for the hard product or service... The airlines are not evil - they are businesses that give their customers what they are asking for: The majority want cheap fares above all, a few are willing to pay for Economy+/Premium Economy/Business Class, so the airlines are differentiating their product offerings and will keep doing it to maximize profits...

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schar Guest

May 3, 2017, 10:41 pm

AA First Class or JetBlue...thats all thats left. When in economy, (im 6'1), I always stretch my leg in the corridor. If theyre gonna keep making seats tighter, sorry not sorry I will stretch my big ass leg in the corridor. I need to breathe, yall.

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Dan Guest

May 3, 2017, 8:58 pm

I gotta be honest, at 6'1" and a non-elite, I fly whoever lets me pre-book "extra legroom" seats at a reasonable price. I remember back in the day when you couldn't reserve those seats in advance unless you were an elite or a full-Y fare... and I learned to watch upgrade windows and snag those seats as elites got upgraded. I fly all over the world, and I don't mind Ryan Air and Air Asia -- I buy the bundled fares that give me access to that seat with extra legroom. When I price out a ticket, the question isn't who gives me the most legroom in a standard coach seat, but who lets me sit in the exit row for the cheapest total price. (EasyJet and AirAsia make it easier with their bundled fares, as I always check bags on those flights. Less so in the US.) I actually do appreciate the ability to buy the extra legroom seats. Remember, AA tried MRTC several years ago, and people weren't willing to pay for it. I'm willing to pay for extra legroom, other people aren't. This aspect of unbundling (for better or for worse) gives those the willingness and ability to pay more the opportunity to do so, and those that don't wan't to pay for it, don't have to. AA and UA had two different approaches; UA's approach won, and AA's didn't. The market really did speak.

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