Delta and American Airlines Swear Their Coach Seats Won't Get Any Smaller

There’s a desperate sliver of hope for coach travelers with bruised knees from tiny airplane seats. The CEOs of both Delta and American Airlines have pledged that their shitty cheap seats will not get any shittier.

Why did they pledge this? The Wall Street Journal somehow got these airline CEOs to sit for interviews in coach seats in their respective airlines. Both of these guys are 6’3″. Delta and American both make cheap seats that give you less room than JetBlue and Southwest. The CEOs, who fit but with knees in “kissing distance” of the seats in front, did not apologize for the tight seating.

Delta’s CEO Ed Bastian said his airline used to shrink seat sizes when it was losing money, but that “we’re not making those decisions any longer.” He said Delta has settled on 31-inch seat pitch, meaning the length from one seat to the same spot on the seat in front of it will stay at 31 inches.

American has skinnier seats with 30-inch rows, but CEO Doug Parker said it won’t make any seats smaller than that. He also said that his airline hasn’t “done anything that makes the main cabin product less desirable than it was before,” and that if customers complained enough about the seating arrangements, he’d reevaluate. Hm.

Both CEOs were clear on one thing: If you want a seat whose legroom doesn’t disappear when the guy in front of you reclines or you stash items in the pocket, you’re gonna have to pay more for it. Not being penned in like livestock is a privilege, okay?

The WSJ also asked the CEO of United to hop into coach, but he declined to participate. Wonder why?