What’s Extra Legroom on a Flight Worth? Check the Perks Package
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Here's your Money Briefing for Thursday, August 18th. I'm Daniela Cheslow for The Wall Street Journal, filling in for J.R. Whalen. Do you ever wonder when you're booking a flight if it's worth it to pay extra for a little extra legroom? Airlines are putting a premium on more square footage for feet, and they say passengers are up for it.
We're hearing from travel companies that people that didn't go anywhere for two-plus years during the pandemic are ready to splurge. And for some people, that's first class. Other people can't do first class. So this is kind of a step up in between economy and first class.
But not all seats with extra legroom are created equal. Our travel columnist Dawn Gilbertson has written a guide for finding the best deals on roomier economy airline seating. We'll talk with her about it after the break.
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If you bought a plane ticket recently, you may have seen seats advertised like Economy Plus or Comfort Plus or Main Cabin Extra. They're a step above reserving a particular seat on the plane, and they're becoming more common across the industry. But if you do decide to shell out for them, what do you actually get for your money?
What is the episode about and who is hosting the Money Briefing?
It's not a simple question. Dawn Gilbertson, travel columnist for the journal, created a guide to help decipher all the different perks. She joins me now to talk about it. Hi, Dawn. Hi. You booked extra legroom seats on every airline for a hypothetical weekend trip in mid-September. What'd you find? What do extra legroom seats cost?
The prices definitely vary. It depends on the route, of course, the day of the week, et cetera, et cetera. But in general, I found a trip, say, from New York to Charleston, South Carolina on JetBlue. That was probably the cheapest one I found, and it was about $22 to $25 each way for this extra legroom seat. But they definitely go well above $100.
What can you expect to get for that money?
Is it just about extra legroom or are there other perks? Well, I mean, for many people, obviously, especially tall people or people that just want comfort or travel a lot. The extra legroom is the big draw for sure, but some airlines offer other perks. Some of these sections offer complimentary alcoholic beverages. Bottom line for travelers is you're not going to get the same perks on every airline.
Which airline did you find was most generous with its added perks and which one was most stingy?
Let's start with the stingiest, which kind of gave me the idea for this column, and that would be United, which kind of surprised me, but United, I flew from Phoenix to Newark in May, and the extra legroom seat was $120. It was seat 20C. That was not for the ticket. That was for the seat, mind you. And I was really surprised to find... that you don't even get early boarding with that price oh i was in group four and i on the way back i didn't pay for that extra legroom seat and i was also in group four so that surprised me you know there were no alcoholic beverages i mean i didn't need them but there were none on this flight but delta and american and alaska all of them in addition to offering extra legroom when you pay this price you get priority boarding
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