I have been traveling some for my new job. I have taken a few flights recently on different airlines. Today I am flying on Southwest Airlines. I haven’t been on a Southwest flight in quite some time, and I forgot how much I love this airline!
Most of my flights have been short, and other airlines use very small planes for those short flights. The last couple of planes I have been on have only two seats on each side of the aisle, and the seats are SO SMALL! Southwest Airlines’ entire fleet of planes are Boeing 737s, some of the fleet is made of the older 737-700s (31″ of legroom), while the rest of the airplanes are the 737 MAX 8 and 737-800s (32″ of legroom). There are three seats on each side, and there is so much more head and legroom.
I thought I would do a bit of research to see if I could find out how much legroom you actually have with the different airlines.
The airlines that fly in the US with the most legroom in the economy section are:
- JetBlue: 33-34 inches
- Southwest Airlines: 32 inches
- Alaska Airline: 32 inches
- Hawaiian Airlines: 31-32 inches
- American/United/Delta: 30-31 inches
The plane being comfortable is only a small reason I love Southwest. The absolute best thing about the airline is the people that work for them. On my last few flights with other carriers, I felt shuffled through. Southwest has great pilots and even more amazing flight attendants. They are funny and not afraid to crack jokes. It really makes a big difference. Today I am not feeling my best, I think I am coming down with something. As I was boarding I was dreading how my head was going to feel during the flight. As I entered the plane, one flight attendant was on the microphone saying some crazy funny stuff, borderline off color at times, but really funny. I actually laughed out loud, along with most other people on the plane. I immediately felt more relaxed and as I sit on the plane right now, I am not thinking about my head, how lousy I am feeling, or the fact that traveling for work kind of sucks.