Get extra legroom in economy with American's Main Cabin Extra
By John Walton, March 2 2012
American Airlines is adding extra-legroom seats in economy, which Qantas Frequent Flyers holding Platinum and Gold status can snare at no extra charge.
Main Cabin Extra, as AA is calling it, will be regular economy seats with an extra four to six inches of legroom at the front of the economy cabin, in a layout akin to United's Economy Plus offering and Delta's Economy Comfort.
Need a refresher on how those extra-legroom economy seats differ from premium economy? We've got you covered with our guide to all eleven (yes, eleven!) classes of airline travel.
You'll first find Main Cabin Extra on flights with American's new Boeing 777-300ERs (if you're not up front in AA's new Cathay Pacific-style business class seats, that is), from "spring 2012", which usually means any time up until June.
AA plans to roll out the seats across its whole fleet in due course.
If you're flying on a full-fare economy ticket (one of the expensive, flexible ones), you'll have access to Main Cabin Extra. The seats are also available for a fee of US$8-108 depending on the length of your flight.
However, AAdvantage Platinum or Executive Platinum frequent flyers will be able to reserve them for free, as can Qantas Frequent Flyers.
An AA spokesperson tells Australian Business Traveller: "All Emerald and Sapphire members will have complimentary access, and Qantas and other oneworld airlines will have the same access to Main Cabin Extra as the equivalent AAdvantage elite status members."
Aviation journalist and travel columnist John took his first long-haul flight when he was eight weeks old and hasn't looked back since. Well, except when facing rearwards in business class.
15 Apr 2011
Total posts 580
This is good news!! It's always been a perpetual battle between the lure of QFF points and seat comfort travelling within the US, and this will go a long way to fixing that!
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