I AM GETTING WIDER but the seats I get on airlines seem to be getting narrower. Fortunately, there's an app for that.
I use Seat Guru to help avoid the most cramped spaces aboard flights. And I try to check into trans-Atlantic or trans-continental flights five or more hours prior to takeoff to see if my pre-booked seats can be moved to places on the aircraft where I get more shoulder room. I've discovered that it's the shoulder room that gives me greater comfort, not the width of my seat cushion.
Most of the travel magazines publish their league tables of seat comfort by measuring "pitch" which is the front-to-rear space between rows. Pitch is defined as the distance between any given point on a seat to the identical point on the seat in the next row forward or to the rear. Side-to-side space is generally measured by the width of the seat cushion but that doesn't consider the width of the armrest or the attachment points of the seats to the floor of the aircraft. These are points raised by George Hook on "The Right Hook" during drivetime in Ireland today.
As a middle-aged man, I value shoulder separation when seated on public transport or aboard airplanes. Width between the midpoints of the armrests gives a quick view of shoulder-to-shoulder measurements. I need shoulder separation of 24 inches to feel comfortable aboard a passenger jet.
And as my profile photos show when viewed on my Facebook timeline, I have grown wider every decade of my life. I am no longer comfortable aboard narrow-body jet aircraft that hold six passengers abreast.
On long haul flights, I need a minimum of 34-inch pitch in my row of seats. Only a very few ordinary economy class seats meet that standard. That's why I look at ways to move up in the seating charts by checking in early (and paying a fee). In my experience, the closer I sit to the pointy end of the aircraft, the better chance I get of getting an armrest at least four inches wide. Sometimes, the premium economy seats come with separate armrests plus a small table between adjacent seats. This kind of configuration provides far more than an inch or two more of shoulder room.
Most of the time, you don't get an option about the kind of aircraft you'll sit aboard while flying. In my experience, the widest seats are generally in Boeing 777s, followed by the Embraer 190 series, then by most Airbus models, MD80s. Then you have the Ryanair 737s, older 747s and older regional jets. The worst seating I've had came aboard 777s with ten people across and Airbus aircraft with nine people seating across.
Ed Perkins -- "How to find the most comfortable airline seat" in USA Today, February 25, 2010.
SeatGuru is the leading app for checking out where to sit.
My Seat Finder App is also good.
SeatMaestro, based in Europe, provides information on 141 airlines, including many small Asian and European lines.