Struggling with more leg room flights to New York

usignuolo

We are going to NYC in October to see our son. My OH is a large man and would like some extra leg room. The BA economy flight for the dates we want is £444 while their premium economy for the same dates is £2270 (just £80 less than full Business Class and no that is not a mistake.)

Someone suggested I try premium economy or the equivalent on American Airlines or United as they tend to be a more basic version with just more leg room. That would be fine but when I look up AA websites for the dates I need, it just returned me to a page of the BA flights (presumably a code share) with a couple of other flights inserted for no airline was given and which were classified unavailable.

I then looked up United which appeared to suggest you have to book onto the initial economy flight and then wait to see if a premium seat is released, which of course it may not be.

I feel I am going round in circles can anyone help.

angelil

The easiest way we've found so far to get round this is to upgrade to the emergency exit row, which has tons of extra legroom for a fraction of the cost of upgrading to business or premium economy. On AirFrance, for instance, it's £100 return. Some airlines may even do it for free, who knows? When you select your economy seats, try selecting seats in the emergency exit row and see what happens. Obviously only those who could actually assist in an emergency can sit there. It's worked for us so far though

bagand96

If all you want is extra legroom; BA allow you do reserve this when you book (for a charge). Not entirely sure how much it is, all I can find on their website is FROM £50.

https://www.britishairways.com/travel/ba6.jsp/paid-seatingprime/public/en_gb

However if you do a dummy booking and take it through to entering names, you can do it on that page, that'll tel, you if it's available and how much.

lcbjcomc

Flew United economy plus last year and you can book the seats prior to completing your transaction on their website go all the way through and when the seat maps come up you can see the economy plus seats. There is normally around 10 rows of seats

They are brilliant on a transatlantic flight, my husband is 6ft 4 and he felt the room was adequate even with the seat infront reclined

jacques_chirac

Is he large in height and/ or width? If the latter, it is worth calling BA to ask about buying an extra 'comfort seat'. You don't pay the full amount for the extra seat, however the down side is you will not be allocated an exit row.

If height, as already mentioned you can pay to reserve an exit row seat.

opinions4u

Google seat guru to see the plane map and identify the best seats.

As I understand, the best BA ones are only available to Bronze Executive Club members and above - until 14 days before the flight when they become first come first served at £50 per person per flight. Upgrade options may also become available at this stage.

Did you check out Virgin?

stoneman

Bare in mind that if he is "big" as in width that exit row seats will be narrow in comparison to normal economy seats because the video screen and tray table are stored in the armrest which has to be wider to accommodate them. Also the armrest will not be able to be moved out of the way like regular seats. If he is tall then avoid bulkhead seats, they will have a wall in front of you that stops you from stretching your feet out.
If you were looking on the AA site for Premium economy seats then you would have only been presented with the BA flights because AA planes do not have Premium economy cabins.
With BA you can only prebook exit rows from between 14-4 days before the flight, but Gold card holders can have them when they like so you might find that you have bought your tickets and when you go to book those seats they have already been taken.
I could be wrong but Virgin have seats with extra legroom for sale at point of purchase

photome

Delta/ KLM flights have seats with loads of extra legroom that can be booked as soon as you have booked flight called economy comfort, price varies but would be about £50 extra to NY.

As stoneman says be warned that these extra legroom seats are narrower as the armrests have the tables and don't move although some of the bulkhead economy comfort seats have loads of legroom, I have had a bulkead seat where I couldn't reach the "wall" in front of me and even the worlds tallest man wouldn't have done

Teahfc

If he requires the extension part of seat belt will not be able to sit in a emergency exit seat, no matter how fit or unfit he will not be allowed.

usignuolo

No he is not super sized he is 15 stone and 6foot 1" with long legs. Needs more leg room or he invariably gets in a row with the person in front reclining their seat (he puts his knees on it at this point...sigh)

Have tried the various options suggested but struggling. Delta and United apparently offer extra legroom seats but not until you have booked the flight first (you can view seating when booking on line but not actually select it until you have booked) and there is no indication which is reserved for "Premier" customers - some seems to be. So you could book flight and still not get the extra leg room seats. Plus there is no indication how much it costs.

Anyone actually booked any extra leg room seats recently to NYC and can tell me how to do it and how much it costs, on United or Delta.

Still struggling to understand why BA economy for the date we want is £444 but the Economy Plus is £2270.....does not seem to be any particular pressure on flights or hotels in NYC the week we are going.

photome

usignuolo wrote: »

No he is not super sized he is 15 stone and 6foot 1" with long legs. Needs more leg room or he invariably gets in a row with the person in front reclining their seat (he puts his knees on it at this point...sigh)

Have tried the various options suggested but struggling. Delta and United apparently offer extra legroom seats but not until you have booked the flight first (you can view seating when booking on line but not actually select it until you have booked) and there is no indication which is reserved for "Premier" customers - some seems to be. So you could book flight and still not get the extra leg room seats. Plus there is no indication how much it costs.

Anyone actually booked any extra leg room seats recently to NYC and can tell me how to do it and how much it costs, on United or Delta.

Still struggling to understand why BA economy for the date we want is £444 but the Economy Plus is £2270.....does not seem to be any particular pressure on flights or hotels in NYC the week we are going.

I did put in my original post that for NY a Delta economy comfort seat would be about an extra £50/£60 each way, it depends on distance and type of aircraft as some don't have EC.

Do a dummy booking find out what type of aircraft and if the have EC you could book it as soon as you have booked the flight, they shouldn't all be taken if you are booking far enough ahead.

I have never had any problem and there are stil a few available on my delta flight in october