Long haul flights to SE Asia: leg room

Scruff

Being a tall bloke, leg room is an important consideration on long haul flights.
What airline that fly to destinations in SE Asia, from a connecting flight in london\europe have the best leg room?

cold_filter

Are you going economy?? If you are your pretty screwed. I am 6"4 and I flew from frankfurt to singapore then to christchurch... utter hell.

I know some airlines have premium economy. On my last trip to NY virgin upgraded me i think you get an extra 7 inches of leg room! Makes all the difference though

BuffyBot

http://www.cheapflights.co.uk/travel-tips/legroom.html

shrapnel222

i found thai airlines had good enough leg room compared to others. or get there really early and get an emergency exit seat

Scruff

between waht you say, the link buffybot posted and what i found on ebookers.ie it seems thai airlines have the best that can be expected in economy. Will have to see if they have reasonable prices to justify those extra inches but the thought of being stuck in a ryanair size seat (30") for 12 hours doesnt really bear thinking about.

/edit
motherofjebus! a quick check on the BA flights and the price of a economy was €595 one way and jumped to €1298 for premium economy. deep vein thrombosis here i come!!

BuffyBot

Thai are generally good. 34" of leg room and pretty good service.

eragon

BA have 34 inches too and you can choose your seat online when booking so you can get a bulkhead or emergancy row if available. If it all fails on the day sit in crew seat at the back with the seat belt fastened; they won't move you if the seatbelt sign comes on; and take a sleeping pill. Rest your head on a pillow on the bussle and nod off. Or be very polite when you check in and volunteer to upgrade if they need to. You'd be surprised how well this works!

DO0GLE

Flew with Aer Lingus to America last year and found the leg room to be very good compared to other flights I've been on. You could fly to Dubai with Aer Lingus and get a connecting flight to SE Asia depending on where you are going. Try ebookers for a connecting flight.

BuffyBot

eragon wrote:

BA have 34 inches too and you can choose your seat online when booking so you can get a bulkhead or emergancy row if available. If it all fails on the day sit in crew seat at the back with the seat belt fastened; they won't move you if the seatbelt sign comes on; and take a sleeping pill. Rest your head on a pillow on the bussle and nod off. Or be very polite when you check in and volunteer to upgrade if they need to. You'd be surprised how well this works!

BA offer 31", not 34".

You can't choose your seat when booking, only when checking in 24 hours before hand (unless you happen fall under their exclusions), and emergency/bulkhead rows are not always assignable online.

I would not recommend anyone try and make themselves comfortable in a crew seat without express permission from the crew. And by all means be polite a chack in, but don't be surprised if you don't get upgraded. It's rare (not unheard of) that that works (unless you're a frequent flyer program member, which ups your chances considerably).

Darren

I've never flown Thai. I've flown to and all over Asia with airlines including BA, Qantas, Cathay, Bangkokair and others. I am 6'4" and the 'Oneworld' seats are very tight. I did a Hong Kong - Sydney sector on Cathay one time stuck in the middle seat between a beautiful Japanese girl who didn't speak a word of English and a drunk Aussie. 9 hours of misery!!

The 34" seat is a no brainer for a tall person.

Scruff

here today, gone tomorrow. should have reminded myself of that saying yesterday. only mad expensive flights with Thai air now.
thank god the missus is small, i can claim most of her leg room too.

dryle

did you try singapore airlines they had more than thai iirc

BuffyBot

Malaysia Airlines also have 34" and get a lot of good reviews

Darren

At a push you could see what sort of prices Emirates and Etihad are offering via the middle east. Don't know what the seat pitches are but I enjoyed flying with both.