Ever been pleasantly surprised to find that your plane is nearly empty following a grueling delay?
One passenger found himself in this lucky scenario on a recent JetBlue flight from Florida to New York, which allowed him to enjoy “the most legroom” and a quieter flight. The passenger, Oliver, who did not share his last name with Newsweek, posted an image of his spacious seating in a post on Reddit under the username NugsOrBust.
The flight, which lasted just under three hours, took place on March 19 and was flying from Orlando International Airport to LaGuardia Airport in New York City.
Oliver, who is a 23-year-old analyst for a financial institution, told Newsweek that the flight was scheduled to leave around 6 p.m. local time but it got delayed to around 11 p.m. local time. “Due to the delay, mostly everyone booked on the flight had transferred to an earlier flight or a flight for the next day, so there were only 11 passengers on board,” he noted.
Oliver/Reddit user NugsOrBust
The image, titled “Best (free) Seat in the House,” shows the passenger in seat 25A, an exit row seat, on an A321 Airbus aircraft. His legs are seen stretched out in front of him, with a large space shown between the bottom of his feet and a jump seat that was folded up against a wall.
A near-empty plane, such as in the latest Reddit post, is not likely to be common, with air travel seeing continued strong growth in the post-COVID-19 pandemic era. Globally, air traffic in November 2023 was reported to be at 99.1 percent of November 2019 (pre-pandemic) levels, according to the latest report from the International Air Transport Association in January.
Apart from the inconvenience, not having enough legroom on a plane can have an impact on health, noted a January 2019 study published in the International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics.
The study, conducted among Spanish adult plane passengers, explained: “The increase of economy class airline seats is necessary because immobility on airplane flights can develop different pathologies, such as deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism known as economy class syndrome.
“The increase in size (body mass and stature) and changing proportions of the human body over the past few decades should be considered in the ergonomic design of economy class airline seats,” the study added.
The study’s findings reported “a minimum legroom between 68.1 and 70.1 cm, and seat width between 50.2 and 52.3 cm.”
The study suggested that “an international law should regulate a minimum SP [seat pitch—the distance between two rows of seats], LR [leg room] and SW [seat width] for commercial airplanes.”
Oliver from the latest Reddit post told Newsweek that he flies back and forth between Orlando and New York City about one to two times a month and this was the first time he’d flown in a plane with this layout for this route.
He said: “During my check-in for the flight, I had selected seat 25A as it has the most legroom of all seats and it was free to reserve. I’m a bit taller at 6’4” so I appreciated the extra legroom…
“Additionally, JetBlue was flying the A321, which is one of the larger planes that isn’t typically used for this route, so there was plenty of spare room onboard,” he added.
In a caption shared with the post, he noted that the pros of the latest flight delay included there being only 11 people on the plane and receiving “a $75 credit for the inconvenience,” while the cons were arriving at LaGuardia Airport at 2:20 a.m. local time and “having to commute 1.5 hours with the crackheads on the bus.”
When it comes to choosing seats on a plane, Oliver said he typically just aims to “shoot for whatever seat is free to reserve and closest to the front to be able to deboard as quickly as possible.”
He also occasionally uses tools such as the website SeatLink.com which provides an overview of the seat selection on an aircraft. “I tend to go for whatever is the best free option,” he noted.
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Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.