A few months ago, Flytrippers shared that WestJet (which acquired Sunwing) was reconfiguring some of its Boeing 737-800 and 737 MAX 8 aircraft. Many don’t want to hear the hard truth, but it does objectively mean that travelers have more options. You might not like the cheapest option, but you do have more options. A video showing that cheapest option is now going viral, due to the lack of legroom.
Those cheapest seats offer the least legroom on any Canadian aircraft (and they no longer recline). This is surprising to many who clearly don’t fly a lot elsewhere in the world, but it’s the same legroom (and lack of recline) you’ll find on many other airlines.
It’s also just 1 inch less than on some planes operated by Air Canada or Flair, or even other existing WestJet planes. Yes, 1 inch makes a big difference, especially given how tight economy class already is.
But some people don’t care at all and are glad to have cheaper options, even if that’s not the case for you. Thankfully, no one is forced to book these new WestJet seats if they want more comfort.
Here’s the viral video and a teaser on how to check the legroom if you care about that.
The viral WestJet video shows a couple seated in the cheapest seats on board WestJet’s newly reconfigured 737s that have slightly less legroom than before, and it’s very tight.
@amanda_rae.13 @WestJet ♬ original sound – amanda_rae.13
The passenger who took the video said to CTV News that her dad is 6 feet 3 inches and her mom is 5 feet 11 inches. There’s no mention of their weight, which would also provide more context for the video.
Some argue that size is not important and everyone should have enough space, and that’s very noble. But there are people who weigh 350 pounds, so where do you draw the line?
It’s certainly a delicate topic. The average height in Canada is 5 feet 10 for men and 5 feet 4 for women.
If it’s not okay to punish bigger passengers (by forcing them to pay more by having some seats that are too small for them), why is it okay to punish smaller passengers (by forcing them to pay more by having only seats that are too big for them)?
Is it okay to offer tighter seats as an option?
Having way more space than necessary for most people would mean wayyyy fewer seats, and so wayyyyy higher prices, of course.
Some would be fine paying more for others (those are great people, congrats). But others don’t want to pay more for others, or maybe they can’t.
What’s not subjective is that fewer seats would make travel less accessible to those who aren’t as well-off financially. The fact of the matter is that less space does mean lower prices, and that’s not even debatable if you understand airfare pricing and how this very peculiar industry works.
As I said when I was recently interviewed by many media outlets about the data undeniably showing that flying is cheaper than ever before in history (relative to the cost of living), I’d personally much rather have cheaper flights than flights whose prices had gone up like the prices of everything else went up.
You do always have the option of paying a bit more for a bit more legroom, and even in that case, the price in constant dollars is not higher than before, due to the incredible government-spending-induced inflation.
Here’s the potential good news if you don’t like this new cabin: WestJet had actually paused reconfiguring its planes (way before this video went viral).
So the negative response from customers might actually stop this from being expanded further. To be continued. As of now, they have reconfigured 21 aircraft, which is just 14% of their total fleet.
Is WestJet’s new legroom safe?
The passenger who made the video uses the argument of safety in addition to comfort. Even if it’s probably not intentional, it’s a clever way to go viral: scaring people always excites a lot of people and attracts attention (see: the media).
So many people are so afraid of everything; we’ve seen this very clearly after 9 years of creating travel content. It’s human nature, sadly.
But the “these seats aren’t safe” argument isn’t really one, because they’ve been around for years on many airlines worldwide and have been approved by all the relevant authorities worldwide. And tested by all the airlines that have installed them, including WestJet.
There’s a reason commercial aviation is by far the safest mode of transport on Earth.
What is it like to fly with WestJet’s new legroom?
While I haven’t flown WestJet’s newly reconfigured planes yet (I don’t fly WestJet often at all), on my 600+ flights, I’ve been on many aircraft with that same legroom. It’s less comfortable, of course.
That said, some flights have way more legroom and are actually way worse, because of people who recline their seats. So no recline is a positive for me, honestly.
But yes, this limited legroom is very tight (I’m about 6 feet tall). I’d even say that those WestJet seats do look even tighter than how I usually feel, but it’s hard to judge from such a cropped and short video. Is it an illusion?
I doubt WestJet would be lying about the actual numbers!
For me, it’s certainly tolerable for short and medium-distance flights. And I don’t really find it much worse than when there’s an extra inch on Air Canada, Flair, and many other airlines. Both legroom amounts are terrible.
I love cheaper flights. And having more options is always better than not even having the options.
How much legroom do the new WestJet seats offer?
There is no such thing as a “legroom” metric per se. The seat pitch is the official metric for the space passengers have. It’s the distance between seats, the entire space from one seat to the seat row in front.
And WestJet’s new seats have a 28-inch seat pitch.
The most common seat pitch is 30-31 inches for narrowbody aircraft (the ones typically used for short-distance flights).
In case you are wondering, 28 is the lowest possible worldwide. So Canadian aviation is now #1 (although it’s a #1 tie) in something other than high taxes!!!
Again, 28 inches is really not that uncommon worldwide, but it’s indeed new to Canada. And many Canadian aircraft already had a seat pitch of 29 inches, which is certainly better… but not that much better.
Should I compare legroom when booking flights?
There are 100+ tips to travel for less in our free ebook (and it’ll be updated soon; you’ll receive it automatically if you already downloaded it and stayed on our email list), and one of them is to always simply choose the cheapest airline, of course. If you want to travel for less.
I did that for years, allowing me to take 10+ trips a year to visit 75+ countries and fly 600+ flights. But now I do like a bit more comfort sometimes, as that’s the big downside of having started flying in luxurious business class lie-flat pod seats with points: it’s very addictive.
So if you are willing to pay a bit more for a bit more comfort, you obviously have to compare airline options more carefully. Like any product, competitors offer different specifications, of course.
And actually, even if you savvily don’t want to pay more, many airlines often offer very similar prices, so it’s good to compare them even then.
While rare, it’s also worth knowing that there can sometimes be what the industry calls an equipment change, a change of aircraft, or a plane swap. So you may end up on an Air Canada plane with 29 inches of seat pitch, even if the plane that was initially supposed to operate the flight had 31 inches of seat pitch.
That’s another reason many travelers prefer not to ever pay any extra fee for more legroom, or even for a specific seat (you can always get auto-assigned a seat at check-in 24 hours before your flight, as we shared when Air Canada had a special promo for free seat selection).
How can I see the legroom on my aircraft?
We’ll share a guide with the legroom on every Canadian airline very soon. Join the 150,000+ savvy Canadian travelers who receive our free newsletter to get it first (along with so many travel tips and deals).
In the meantime, you can use a simple tool called Seat Maps to check out any airline’s cabin layout and seat specifications. I’ll share more details on how to use it in the guide.
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Summary
The viral WestJet video shows the very tight legroom on the Canadian airline’s newly reconfigured Boeing 737-800 and 737 MAX 8 aircraft. While a seat pitch of 28 inches is indeed the lowest in Canada, it matches what’s offered elsewhere, and it’s just 1 inch fewer than many other Canadian aircraft. You always have the option to pay more for more space, and it’s still not more expensive than before, when taking inflation into account.
What would you like to know about WestJet legroom video? Tell us in the comments below.
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Featured image: WestJet legroom (photo credit: @amanda_rael13 on Tiktok, edited by Flytrippers)
