Everyone knows first class is way, way better than coach. Now, that superiority has been quantified. On his blog Vizual Statistix, Seth Kadish has put data on seat space from more than 100 airlines into one chart. Using data from Seat Guru, the chart plots seat pitch — the distance between your seat back and the one in front of you — against seat width — the distance between armrests. Click the image below to be taken to an enlargeable version.
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Source: Vizual Statistix
Interestingly, business class and first class have a variety of definitions, in terms of seat size. While economy is clustered at the far lower-left (i.e. smaller) end, business and first class are scattered broadly up and down the rest of the spectrum.
One other thing this chart tells us is that first and business class are more about leg room than ass room. While there are clearly a range of seat widths, the clustering of the dots along a horizontal line shows that luxury seats are more focused on giving people more room to stretch out.
