I have a question for you frequent flyers who use Seat Guru to choose seats. I'm going on a 767-300 AA flight from Madrid to Dallas soon. The Seat Guru map of that plane shows that of the two exit rows, Row 20 and 21, Row 20 is red (bad) and Row 21 is green (good). All the Row 21 seats are booked for my flight, so my question is -- is it really better to go with a "regular" non-exit row seat than to take the Row 20 seat? The pop-up box on seat gurur says there is limited legroom and reclining. But is that in comparison to the other exit row or in comparison to the regular seats? Thanks, Laurie

http://www.seatguru.com/airlines/Ame..._767-300_B.php

I made the mistake of getting a seat like that on an AA overseas flight because I thought an exit row would be better. In those days I wasn't yet a Fodorite and I had never heard of seatguru so I didn't know what I was getting. Legroom was tight even for a shorty like me (5'3) and it barely reclined at all. I wanted to move to another seat but the flight was full.

So to answer your question, think of it this way--if there is limited legroom and barely a recline, then what is the advantage of being in an exit row seat? Get a regular seat.

"But is that in comparison to the other exit row or in comparison to the regular seats?"

Just to make sure we are on the same page, this is NOT in comparison to other exit row seats, it's in comparison to other coach seats, exit row or not. The legroom and recline were less than a regular seat. I wanted to move to a regular seat but there weren't any as the flight was full.

Sad to say, all the coach seats on AA's 763s are pretty lousy, so get an aisle seat in the middle 3, hopefully with nobody in the middle seat, and plan on doing some walks to stretch your legs. The combination of limited legroom and recline <i>and</i> not being able to raise the armrest if there's nobody next to you (or they don't mind) makes row 20 pretty unpleasant, even by 763 Y standards.

Not trying to re-plan your trip, but if it was me I'd be looking at possible alternate routes where you could ride on AA's 777s, which are way more comfortable in coach than the 763s. Those would involve flying via London most likely.

Thanks, guys I will change the seat!

I hope it's OK with the OP but I would like to piggyback this question as I am also flying on the same type of plane soon.

I will be on flight 66 on March 29, then flight 67 returning April 6 if anyone would care to look at the seating chart on aa.com. There are a few seats in green that are called premium seats for an extra $34. I am happy to pay this for a more comfy seat but seatguru doesn't show these seats as being any better. So why is AA charging more and calling these premium seats?

Note: You may use the OP's link to seatguru if you would like to do that.

Thanks in advance.

P_M - It appears AA charges extra to book window and aisle seats in advance unless you are elite. They don't have more room.

http://www.aa.com/i18n/urls/seats.js...seatsfooter5_8

AA's "preferred" coach seating tends to be closer to the exits so you can be the first to wait around for your bags to appear at the turntable.

OK thanks Gardy and ky.

Since my bags rarely arrive when I do, I'm never very anxious to go to the baggage claim. With my bad luggage luck I could save some time by skipping the wait at the carousel, instead I should just go straight to the claims desk to file a missing bag report.