Zee Michaelson Travel
A Travel Podcast. The Zee Michaelson Travel Podcast is devoted to the travel industry. Produced by Collage Travel Media Network, a company that produces Podcasts, Streaming Radio, Travel Expos and Travel Advising. Your guide to travel is Zee Michaelson a Travel Advisor and Jay Lawrence your concierge of podcast travel. Episodes are about 30-minutes about everything and anything you want to know about travel. Travel tips and more. Guest Travel Advisors. We work closely with travel vendors to bring you the latest information. Zee Michaelson Trave Podcast. And check out https://live365.com/station/-a03518
Zee Michaelson Travel
The Ultimate Guide to Surviving Economy with Sufficient Legroom
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Have you ever unfolded yourself from an airplane seat, feeling like you've just spent hours in a sardine can? Buckle up, as Jay and I take to the skies, armed with a tape measure, ready to reveal the truth about legroom on JetBlue and beyond. In a world where every inch counts for comfort, we're navigating the nitty-gritty of seat pitch and what it means for your knees. You'll hear firsthand whether JetBlue's 32-inch promise stands tall or falls short, and whether splashing out for those extra inches is your ticket to high-altitude happiness. Plus, get the scoop on seat selection strategies that could transform your travel experience from cramped to comfortable.
The journey doesn't end there—prepare for a panoramic view across the airline landscape. From Southwest's passenger-pleasing policies to Japan Airlines' economy class throne, we measure up the competition's legroom offerings and share insider tips, like how to navigate your travels with the maps.me app. Discover upcoming cabin redesigns that might give your legs a little more room to breathe, and why even a single inch can make a world of difference. Think the economy is all about the squeeze? Find out which airlines are redefining the rules of the game.
As our flight path comes to a close, I extend an invitation to join our globetrotting community. Share your favorite travel tales and tips with me, as we celebrate the journey as much as the destination. With anecdotes that stretch beyond the tape measure, I'm here to fuel your wanderlust and ignite your travel dreams. Tune in weekly for more than just travel tips—we're crafting an atlas of adventures, one episode at a time. So, let your next trip take flight with insights from yours truly, Zee Michelson, your co-pilot on this odyssey of discovery.
Welcome to the Zee Michelson Travel Podcast. This podcast is devoted to the travel industry. Zee says let your imagination run wild and start dreaming about where you want to go. And dream big, reach for the stars, and if you only get to the moon, at least you enjoyed the trip. Your guide to travel is Zee Michelson, a travel advisor, and sitting at the controls is Jay Lawrence, your concierge of podcast travel. Now here's Zee.
Speaker 2That's me, that's me, that's me, I'm Zee.
Speaker 3Hopefully that would be me the controls with the concierge of podcast travel.
Speaker 2I'm Jay Lawrence. Jay Jay Jay.
Speaker 3Yes.
Speaker 2Jay and Zee, we love that initial thing we got going.
Speaker 3Yeah, I understand. We're going to be flying today.
Speaker 2Well, kind of we're kind of flying.
Speaker 3Okay.
Speaker 2But I want to let everybody know that we're brought to you by Collage Travel Media Network.
Speaker 3Yes, with how many radio stations do they have?
Speaker 2There's two radio stations collagetravelradiocom.
Speaker 3Collagetravelradiocom.
Speaker 2And Zemaxradiolive.
Speaker 3Zemaxradiolive plays the music of the 60s, 70s and 80s.
Speaker 2It does, it really does.
Speaker 3Music you grew up with music. You'd like to hear again.
Speaker 2And it's a great memory. Yeah, we love memories. That's what it's all about when we're traveling.
Speaker 3Someone came up to the other day. Of course we must say that we are on those radio stations.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 3Well, you know, I was listening to the 60s and I just loved hearing those old songs and so it's good.
Speaker 2Yeah, they get surprised when they see us and they're like you're on the radio. Yeah, we are.
Speaker 3Yeah, we've got a face for radio, so we're pretty good.
Speaker 2And we're always talking. So that's kind of where we shine, yeah, and speaking of talking, yes, today's topic you know that I read a lot of magazines, a lot of trade magazines, a lot of articles on traveling, and I know more and more people are getting really upset with the leg room on airlines.
Speaker 3Oh yeah.
Speaker 2Yeah, my, I know my knees just make you into the row Right. So, of course, while doing my reading, I've seen that there are supposed to be some airlines that really have some more leg room, really yeah. And I was surprised by some of it. So yeah, so it's, it's interesting, so let's get into it, let's get into it.
Speaker 3I was gonna. This is one of those airlines where you have to stand up and hold the belt.
Speaker 2Like a train. Yeah, I don't know if that's coming, but I think it is.
Speaker 3Yeah.
Speaker 2But let's talk one of the airlines.
Speaker 3Okay, okay.
Speaker 2Everybody's heard of.
Speaker 3JetBlue, I've heard of yes.
Speaker 2It's a low cost airline but apparently has leg room of 32 inches and the airlines call it a seat pitch.
Speaker 3A seat pitch, okay, can you explain that for me, which?
Speaker 2means you should be able to place your laptop on your lap and do work. Now, while I was reading these articles, I'm out there with a measuring tape measuring my my length of my leg to my knee. Just to see my length of my leg.
Speaker 3And what do you got I?
Speaker 2have 16 inches.
Speaker 3And they're saying you should have 32.
Speaker 2They're saying seat pitch, so I'm thinking that's also including the seat. So I'm going to be silly one day. I'm going to be taking my tape measure on my next flight. I'm going to be measuring the seat and my knees at the same time and see what happens.
Speaker 3You got to measure your rear end Right. Right, how much space does that take your keister?
Speaker 2Yeah, so the seat length and then the knee length, I think, is what they call a seat pitch Okay. So I am going to be doing my homework, but JetBlue also has the TV screens in the back of each seat.
Speaker 3Which I love.
Speaker 2It allows you to watch some of the TV shows and movies. They also have free Wi-Fi on the flights.
Speaker 3Yeah.
Speaker 2Now, if you want more than the 32 inches, they do have a 38 inch seat.
Speaker 3But you pay more for that. I bet.
Speaker 2But you do pay more for these seats. But the more you pay, the more you get like early boarding. So that's another good thing.
Speaker 3Oh yeah.
Speaker 2You pay a little bit more, you get a little bit more room, you get more room to sit longer. Right and you know it's kind of like the first class from years and years and years ago. Yeah, there really is no first class in JetBlue.
Speaker 3No.
Speaker 2Yeah, so you would get the 38 inch seat pitch, so that that kind of went. Yeah, I can't figure this out, because I've been on JetBlue and when I got on JetBlue I'm just just barely getting in there with my knees. You know, my knees are pretty much up against the next seat.
Speaker 3Did I tell you did I fly JetBlue? I can't remember. You did in the past.
Speaker 2A long time ago. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3I was on one of those 32 inches.
Speaker 2Yeah, where are you going to put your knees? Now, all of these planes do have different seating arrangements.
Speaker 1Do you want?
Speaker 2to be in the front by the bulkhead. Do you want to have the aisle seat? And that too can cost more money, but I don't know. So you know, I've been on JetBlue and, yes, it's been very basic. My lap is 16 inches from hip to knee, so I really do think they're measuring the entire seat and then your knee.
Speaker 2I think that's what they call the pitch. But, like I said, I'm going to be carrying around my little tape measure next time I get on the flight, because I got to measure that. Yeah, I'm very into measuring it up. So now next up.
Speaker 3Okay.
Speaker 2Southwest, everybody knows Southwest yes.
Speaker 3It's a great airline.
Speaker 2Yeah, it's based in Dallas. I hear nothing but good about this airlines.
Speaker 3Yes.
Speaker 2It offers. It offers a 32 inch pitch seat as well, and most of the other planes do, but not all the planes offer the 32 inches.
Speaker 3Oh no.
Speaker 2Some of their fleet only have 31. Oops.
Speaker 3I'm trying to measure my one inch. That one inch, that would kill you Now.
Speaker 2Southwest Airlines is the world's largest low cost carrier and Americans largest domestic airline by passengers carries. Southwest does offer more perks, which is really good. You can check two bags for free, which is really cool, and there is no charge or change fees if you have to change a ticket, so that's really good. So that's something you would have to pay if you change your ticket, if there's a price differential. So if you were flying on a.
Speaker 2Tuesday and it was 150, but now you have to fly on a Thursday and it's 180,. You have to pay that 30 dollar difference.
Speaker 3Yeah, I'm trying to add up. How many rows do you think there are 30 rows? Are there 30?
Speaker 2rows. It depends on the size. It's the size of the plane 30.
Speaker 3Okay, I'm just thinking. Okay. So 30 rows, one inch that gives them another row, I mean another row of seats, probably Probably by that one inch, that one inch will give them another six or eight passengers, yeah.
Speaker 2So there's, there's a lot, there's a lot of changes, because those seven, 37, 37,.
Speaker 3That's what they fly right 737s.
Speaker 2They fly a bunch of different ones.
Speaker 3It's all the same plane. It's all the same.
Speaker 2You can say it's all the same, but it's not because the ones going overseas are different.
Speaker 3Well, not Southwest.
Speaker 2Southwest does go overseas.
Speaker 3No, yes it does.
Speaker 2I just I just told you, jay, I just told you that it is now it's. The Southwest is the world's world's largest low cost airlines.
Speaker 3Yes.
Speaker 2World's largest. It wouldn't be able to tout that if it didn't go overseas, yeah, wow. Yeah, so now, now my daughter flies Southwest quite frequently.
Speaker 3Yeah.
Speaker 2She likes Southwest Right. I have also heard that their new plane seats are getting smaller, so that's a scuttle. But right now so in the year 2025, they have this new seat design. I'm not sure. When I seen the pictures of it it kind of looked like frontier airlines. Now I've been on frontier airlines. It's kind of like. You know I was fine with it. You know it is tight. My knees do hit the seat, you know, just like all the others, yeah, but the seat was fine. But I wasn't flying for more than a few hours, right. If I had to fly for eight to 12 hours, that would be very uncomfortable. So it looked like that. But we'll see what happens in 2025.
Speaker 3Well, you know, back in the day when I was in television production, right, we did a television show on a company that manufactured those seats, I believe it, and I can't remember who that company was, but they were showing how they could compact everybody in a little bit more, A little bit more.
Speaker 2They take that one little inch out, or you know? Just that one little thing. Now we're going to have some more, but I think let's get into a travel tip.
Speaker 3All right.
Speaker 2Travel, travel, travel. What are you?
Speaker 3tipping me this today.
Speaker 2Well, I've heard about this app. It's called mapsme. It's not Google Maps. This is an app and it lets you download a map of the country you're visiting for free, while using your Wi-Fi, you know, and later it can function as a GPS and even recalculate without without cell signal. Hmm, so that I thought was pretty cool. I haven't used it yet, but if somebody out there has done this, I'd like to hear from you because I want to see if it really works. It's called mapsme. It's an app. You download it onto your system, you know, while you have Wi-Fi, and then, while you're traveling around that country that you wanted to see, you have a GPS and everything, whether you have a cell signal or not.
Speaker 3Now, that's the important thing.
Speaker 2Yes, that's really, really good. So that's my travel tip of the day.
Speaker 3Well, we'll just, we'll just go with that then.
Speaker 2I will, okay. While we're traveling to all these different countries, we're going on planes.
Speaker 3You're making me I'm like claustrophobic here, thinking about being on an airline for more than two or three hours at a time.
Speaker 2Now, this, this next one, okay, this next one shocked me and didn't shock me all at the same time. How's that? Okay? Japan Airlines, jal. Yeah, if you're going to Asia, japan Airlines has a seat pitch of 33 to 34 inches. Wow, that's their normal Wow. And this is based on which plane you get on. Of course, like I said, all the planes are different, but still, this has the most generous leg room offered by any other global airlines. Wow, the seats themselves are 18 to 19 inches wide, wide. So not only do they have the width, they have the length. All right, and you know you're thinking Japan Airlines. Now, the Japanese people are not known for their height.
Speaker 2Yeah, that's what I'm thinking, you know, and they're not known for their, you know their width yeah. They're. They're fairly average size and they're very tiny, and but their their airlines thinks about other people, which I kind of like.
Speaker 3Yes.
Speaker 2And Japan Airlines even won best autonomy class in 2023 by the Sky Tracks World Airlines Awards. Oh wow, so that's really good too. So this is telling me that these seats are in the economy class.
Speaker 3Oh yeah.
Speaker 2Yeah, so it's like wow.
Speaker 3Yeah, it's not like flying first class.
Speaker 2No, and you know what else Japan Airlines does Know what else they have flight meals in flight meals. Is that a shocker or what? You get a meal and most of the times now you can't even get a bag of pretzels for free.
Speaker 3No no.
Speaker 2So they do all of this. And to top it all off, this one is great there are only eight seats across instead of the standard nine, so there's more room on JAL.
Speaker 3Okay, but this is a big plane too, because you're even eight seats, so it's probably three, three, right it's usually that's so, then there'd be three in the middle. No, only standard, yeah.
Speaker 2Right, so they're probably two, two and four or something like that yeah. So they're giving more room for with more room for legs, more room, more room. So if you go into Asia and you're thinking of going to Japan, think JAL yeah. Yeah, think JAL, because that might be a way to go.
Speaker 3Customer satisfaction is what I see.
Speaker 2Yeah, satisfaction and comfort, yeah, and before you, you know, because of course if you're flying first class or business class, they have all those pods and everything else and those are the other planes, but we're just talking regular seats.
Speaker 3Speaking of pods.
Speaker 2Yeah, so you're going in a pod, are we? Are we sending you somewhere in a pod, jay?
Speaker 3I'm just no, I, I, I. It just looks so weird the pictures I've seen. I'm sorry I've not been on one with a pod.
Speaker 2Right, because they are pricey. They are pricey, yeah, but they are comfortable from everybody. That I know, because I know a lot of travel advisors and sometimes they're traveling so much they get a lot of extras given to them so when, when I'm talking to them, it's like how, how is that? You know, because I'm very close to phobic.
Speaker 3Yeah.
Speaker 2But they say it's great, it's comfortable, it's relaxing. They don't have to knock into people all the time.
Speaker 3Yeah.
Speaker 2So it's like, yeah, wow, pods, yeah, I would, I'm, I'm going to one of these days get on one of those pods Are there?
Speaker 3are there a two for pods or are they all single?
Speaker 2It's a single, Basically single, but if you're traveling with someone, they kind of face each other.
Speaker 3Oh really. You're separate, but you're together Kind of to look at them all the time. You gotta look at them again.
Speaker 2That meant there's so many different types too based on the planes. Each plane, each style of plane, will have a different layout.
Speaker 1Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2Yeah, so I even seen planes that have beds on them, real beds.
Speaker 3Oh yeah.
Speaker 2Which is like whoa yeah.
Speaker 3Yeah, now is there one airline that you've found. That's been comfortable.
Speaker 2That I found, I would say, alaska Airlines was pretty comfortable, and that's the next one I'm going to talk about.
Speaker 3Oh really.
Speaker 2Yeah, um, I don't know why. I found it comfortable because it only had a 31 to 32 inch seat pitch, mm-hmm Um, but their premier class is 35 to 40 inch seat pitch. So I'm thinking maybe when I flew it I didn't realize I was on the premier class.
Speaker 1Oh.
Speaker 2You know, and sometimes that happens you get bumped up and you don't realize that you're being bumped up because the plane is. You know, it doesn't have that first class, middle class kind of thing going on yeah. Um, but yeah, all of their premier. You get a complimentary cocktail as well. No, yes, didn't you fly not too long ago to go visit your son?
Speaker 3and he upgraded you. He upgraded me. What line were you on then, delta?
Speaker 2That was Delta Airlines. Yeah so they upgraded you and you didn't realize that you could have a cocktail at six o'clock in the morning.
Speaker 3Right. Well, actually I understood that I could. Right, I just chose not to. You could have had a mimosa, I know I could have. I probably a Bloody Mary would have been better for me that too.
Speaker 2Yeah, that's it. But you know you have to take advantage when you can. Your son upgraded you and paid all that extra money and you didn't need a lot yeah.
Speaker 3I didn't get the premier beer. It's he kept asking me about. You know, when I used to fly a lot and we'd get on the air, I would ask for a Bloody Mary mix.
Speaker 2Oh, Just the mix, just the mix. So you had, you could have had a V8.
Speaker 3Right, oh yeah, that was comfy, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2But now even drinks on the airlines, any kind of drink, soft drink, even water they're charging for on the line. And that's kind of sad.
Speaker 3Yeah.
Speaker 2You know, I remember traveling my first flight. I was about 12 to 13 years of age. I was flying from New York down to Tampa to go visit my grandmother, mm-hmm, and when I did that it was great, you know, and everybody dressed. Then Everybody dressed to be on the plane. Oh yeah, yeah, it didn't look like you were in your pajamas. No.
Speaker 3No.
Speaker 2So I was in a pair of dress, slacks and heels, and you know I was going to go visit my grandmother and I got food and a drink and it was all included and I wasn't in first class, it was, you know, the regular autonomy class back then Right. Mm-hmm, and it was Delta by the way, oh, by the way oh. Yeah, delta. By the way, I used to love Delta. Ah, trivia, trivia, trivia time. So, speaking of airlines, here's the trivia question what is the oldest commercial airlines still in service today?
Speaker 3Well, it's definitely not, pan Am.
Speaker 2No, because they're not in service anymore.
Speaker 3And it's not Braniff.
Speaker 2No, they're not in service either, mm.
Speaker 3I was going to say Ozark, no Frontier, Frontier. But they went and came back.
Speaker 2Yeah, they're pretty new too.
Speaker 3Yeah, so I have TWA American.
Speaker 2TWA is not available anymore.
Speaker 3American's still around. Okay, and Delta, delta's still around. And what's the third one? There's three major airlines In the world. Think World, this is World.
Speaker 2Yeah, Think World.
Speaker 3Oh, think the world, think the whole world. Oh, I'm sorry, it's the German airline.
Speaker 2Lufthansa.
Speaker 3Lufthansa.
Speaker 2Well, you are close.
Speaker 3Oh yeah.
Speaker 2KLM.
Speaker 3KLM, that's Dutch right. Klm, that's the.
Speaker 2Dutch airline Celebrated its 100th anniversary not too long ago, a retaining its status as the world's oldest airline that still operates under the original name. It has transported more than 35 million passengers this year alone. Wow, yeah. So KLM, they're the old ones and they're still going strong, well they are Good for them, good for them, yeah.
Speaker 3Well, you were mentioning Delta, Now what are their seats like on Delta?
Speaker 2Delta is the last on my list right now. So, let's take a look at Delta, because Delta has a really good reputation out there.
Speaker 3Yes.
Speaker 2Delta is pretty similar to the others, the other American United.
Speaker 3Oh, united was the one I was thinking of. Yeah, the American.
Speaker 2United and when it comes to leg room they're all kind of similar Uh-huh. But the Atlanta based carrier does have a slight edge.
Speaker 3Why is that?
Speaker 2While the standard seat pitch in the economy class on American and United is generally 30 inches on a narrow body, with some exceptions that's not always the case with Delta.
Speaker 1Hmm.
Speaker 2Seat map, because each aircraft has a different seat map right. So, while some planes have a 30-inch pitch of legroom, the majority of planes offer a slightly more generous and I love when they say more generous of 31 inches and planes like the new state-of-the-art Airbus a 220. You can enjoy up to 33 inches.
Speaker 3I'm looking at my your fingers yeah. I'm looking at an inch and I'm looking at three inches right.
Speaker 2And of course, you pay more for Delta's comfort class, which can offer up to four extra inches of legroom plus priority boarding, complementary snacks and alcoholic drinks and that's the way I fly. Yeah, you got to pay that little extra. You know, if you want more comfort, pay a little extra.
Speaker 3I fly comfort plus. That's the way to go.
Speaker 2Well, that's what. That's what your son put you on, didn't he? No upgraded you even higher. Yeah, oh, he must love you a lot.
Speaker 3Yes, he did. Yeah, because I booked comfort plus and then he.
Speaker 2That's why I didn't think anything about it, you know, and then he just upgraded you.
Speaker 3Yeah, I had to sit up to the front of the airplane. Well that was nice.
Speaker 2You see, when my daughter wants me out in Colorado, she pays for me.
Speaker 3Oh, that's good.
Speaker 2Mom you coming out. I bought you a ticket. Wow, she doesn't put me in comfort class.
Speaker 3You need to talk to her right, you gotta upgrade me honey but you fly on that airline. It's direct flight too, yeah.
Speaker 2I fly on frontier going straight out to Colorado. Frontier yeah, like I said, it's not. It's not a bad airlines. I mean you don't get anything extra, but you know it's an easy flight. I think it takes four hours to get from Orlando to Denver Mm-hmm, easy peasy. I don't have to change planes, I can just sit there, read my book and go.
Speaker 3that's the thing, yeah, direct flights, direct flights.
Speaker 2I love direct flights, I'm into it. I'm into a direct flight.
Speaker 3That's my. My only concern with Delta is I don't have a direct flight.
Speaker 2It has to go through the hub Atlanta from here.
Speaker 3Oh yes, who wants to go to Atlanta? Everybody. What is it? There's some joke about going through Atlanta. If you die, you're gonna go through Atlanta.
Speaker 2I think like that now when I went overseas. Yes when I went overseas, on the way over, we took Virgin voyage, virgin overseas, you know. So we took Virgin overseas and it was okay, uh-huh, but then aisles were very, very narrow. So I always like an aisle seat.
Speaker 3Yes, I feel.
Speaker 2I'm a little claustrophobic right. But the carts were constantly hitting me. Oh yeah, or the shoulder or the head, it's like that's too narrow. But then on the way back we wound up on Delta and the seats were a little bit wider, or should I say the aisle Wider, so I didn't get knocked in the head.
Speaker 3It was an inch wider and that made all the difference a little bit more. Those carts are the funniest things for me, because they're so narrow. No, they're so narrow, you know, and they go down those if it, if the plane tilted one way or the other, it seems like the cart would tip over right, but it won't go anywhere.
Speaker 2It won't because it can't tip, because it's so narrow and the seats are right there.
Speaker 3Yeah, you may get a carton of coax on you, but they usually keep everything underneath in the little drawers.
Speaker 2Yeah, yeah, wow, but yeah, so that's kind of what's going on in the airline world, so see pitch.
Speaker 3Maybe someone has a story they'd like to share with you about, you know, putting their knees around their neck.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 2I know, you know, my husband sends six foot two right and he's, you know, he's not a skinny man, no, and he. You know, when we go on a plane he always winds up sitting in the middle, you know it's because you want the aisle. I want the aisle, and there are some times that we never even get to sit together.
Speaker 2Oh yeah, you know, because sometimes he'll order the ticket for himself and then I'll say, oh yeah, I'll go with you too, and then I'll order my ticket. We're never sitting together, which is fine. We're on the same plane, you know. He winds up sleeping, I wind up reading. That's how it is. So, there you go, there you have it. Some of the airlines in their seat pitches.
Speaker 3So the word seat pitches just kind of made me laugh there. Like I said, I'm going to take my seat pitches right.
Speaker 2Gonna gonna bring my tape measure with me.
Speaker 3Yeah.
Speaker 2And really figure out what that pitch means.
Speaker 3But could you get it through TSA?
Speaker 2Yeah, because my tape measure is is cloth, cloth in vinyl. It's those round ones that you use to measure your waist, and oh okay.
Speaker 3Okay, Cause I've just got the cause. Someone gave me a tape measure the other day and it's one of those metal things you know, like construction tape measure.
Speaker 2Yeah, mine is. Mine is for when you're losing weight and want to measure your waist and your hips.
Speaker 3Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, I got that one Okay.
Speaker 2Well, like I said, there's so much traveling to do, so little time to do it in. So tune in every week for more travel info and insights and just plain old fun. Please follow me and like me on Facebook. I really would appreciate it. Do you have a favorite location or perhaps an interesting travel tip? I'd really like to know. Just email me at Zee Michelson at genemailcom, and Zee is spelled ZEE.
Speaker 2I'm very excited to let everybody know that my podcast can be heard on all of your favorite podcast players. Feel free to give me a review. I'd like to hear what you have to say and any ideas. Thanks for listening today. Traveling truly opens up the world to you. You learn all about the different cultures and lifestyles and, of course, food. Then you realize we really are truly the same. So dream, dream big, reach for those stars and if you only get to the moon, at least you made the trip. If you're looking for great places to travel to, feel free to visit my website. That's Zee Michelson Travelcom. Zee is spelled again ZEE. This is Zee Michelson making your travel dreams come true.