The right seat for you

SEAT PITCH

This is the distance between seats, broadly regarded as legroom. For fully-flat beds in business and first class, seat pitch is not really applicable, as there tends to be so much space between them that the only limiting factor is the length of the bed.

SEATS WITH A SMALL RECLINE

Recline is particularly important if you are hoping for a decent night’s sleep. Some carriers have introduced fixed-shell (FS) seats that recline into a hard plastic surround, rather than the space of the person behind you. For standard seats, airlines take the measurement in the following ways:

ENTERTAINMENT

As IFE systems become more sophisticated and are upgraded from simple multichannel offerings to interactive systems that allow for AVOD (audio-video on-demand), economy passengers benefit from the same range of choice as in business or first class thanks to installation taking place throughout all cabins.

SEAT WIDTH

This is measured when the seat is fully upright, and is usually taken as the space between the armrests – so from the inside of one armrest to the inside of the other.

It can also be the seat cushion width or even the distance between the outside of the armrests.

SEATS WITH A LARGE RECLINE

In business and first class, the options for reclining seats are typically cradle-style (CS), angled lie-flat (AF) and fully-flat (FF). However, some airlines are going further – Etihad, for example, offers a separate double bed in its ultra-luxurious first class cabin, the Residence, on its A380.

Recline is measured in a number of ways. When it comes to angled lie-flat seats, it may sometimes be expressed as 180 degrees, the same as fully-flat beds. As this can be misleading, we have identified the seat types and exact angle of recline of each product. Meanwhile, beds of 176 degrees can feel fully-flat, but are expressed as angled lie-flat.