Emirates offers 3 x 4 x 3 seating on their 777 aircraft with a 34-inch Pitch and a 17" width, while Continental offers 3 x 3 x 3 seating on their 777 with a 31-inch Pitch and a 17.9" width.

A. Vote for either a 34-Inch Pitch and 17 Inch Width or

B. Vote for a 31-Inch Pitch and a 17.9-Inch Width.

I guess it all depends how robust the passenger may be...

Personally I would go for the larger seat pitch, although 17" width does seem little tight.

BTW - some of the Emirates 772s have 33" seat pitch. Make sure you are not on one of those if you decide to go with them. OTOH you will have some of the most beautiful FAs in the world serving you

How much are the tickets and where are we going?

And what are the respective schedules, connections vs nonstops, layover times?

If the two seats were on the same flight at the same price, then I would choose A.

Assuming everything else is equal (and it never is) I would choose A.

I would also choose A. Gotta have the leg room.

This may be relevant to this thread. Look at this design. Absolutely genius:

http://www.thompsonsolutions.co.uk/ts_economy.html

I guess I have not answered the original poll question.

Well, I really don't know what is better. First, I'm pretty short with short legs, so I find myself reasonably comfortable on CO's 777, even on ultra-longhauls like 15.5 hours EWR-HKG.

3-4-3 seating on a 777 shouldn't be too bad. It is a little tighter than same seating on a 747, but not by too much. However, I can still remember how narrow seats are on CX's L1011 with 3-4-3. No amount of legroom will compensate for the narrowness of the seats. It's impossible to use the knife and fork during meal time when there's someone beside you, especially when there are people on both side of you.

Another problem with 3-4-3 seating is not technical, but... well, I don't know exactly what it is. Let me just say this. Once an airline configures its 777 as 3-3-3, it'd very unlikely they'll put another seat in the row. But if they do 3-4-3 with 34" pitch, it doesn't take that much work to make it 3-4-3 with 31" pitch...

Anyways, I guess with my short legs, I'll vote for "B" then.

And this issue is actually more important with the upcoming 787. Initially Boeing sees it as a 8-abreast plane. Besides the standard 2-4-2 seating, their mock up has a 3-2-3 alternative too. But from what Boeing is saying, the majority of their customers are ordering them as 3-3-3, with something like 17.2in width.

I just hope the airlines will consider that Thompson seat design I linked to in the last post. That'd make both passengers and airlines happy.

I think this is really a tuffy. If there were a small person sitting next to me, I would choose A. However, if a tall, wide person were next to me, I would choose B.

I would normaly go for extra pitch, but these 2 airlines don't really cover the same areas, so if you were comparing routes where Emirates 777 operate and look at their route competition, e.g Dubai-Singapore then Singapore Airlines service and comfort with 3x3x3 would win hands down.
The Emirates 10 across on the 777s I can tell you is a real tight squeeze!!
But their 330/340 have the same as others i.e 2x4x2 which is just fine.

The Emirates A330 economy seat is 31" by 17.5" The A340 is 32" by 17.5"