Airline Survey - how we work it out

AIRLINE AND AIRCRAFT The majority of the planes in this survey, being long-haul, are wide-bodied (i.e. have two aisles on board). There are exceptions to this, however, such as the Boeing 757 used by Continental to the US, and the same aircraft set up as an all-business class service by Eos.

SEAT CONFIGURATION This refers to the way the seats are arranged across the aircraft. On many airline websites it is possible to see the seating configuration on the different craft on the fleet. At first you might feel this is a little too much detail to go into, but you may change your mind once you are halfway into a long-haul flight and realise that you are going to be kept awake all night by a stream of passengers heading for a nearby toilet or the clatter from the galley.

SEAT PITCH The distance between seats, measured from a fixed point on one seat to the same point on the seat in front of it. The exact point differs from airline to airline, and note should be made that new seats have thinner cushions, and so offer more room despite the seat pitch measurement remaining unaltered.

SEAT WIDTH Far more complicated than you might imagine. Airlines obtain seat width either by measuring the seat cushion, or between the armrests, or in some examples, from the outside of one armrest to the outside of the other (using the justification that the seat cushion is this wide).

RECLINE Can be measured in a number of different ways, as shown opposite.

INDIVIDUAL ENTERTAINMENT It is common now, but still by no means universal, to have individual screens in the seat backs rather than communal ceiling-mounted screens. Having your own screen means you can control which channel and programme you watch. Most systems run on a continuous loop so if you want to start watching a particular movie you have to wait for it to come round to the beginning again.

ABILITY TO START STOP This is the next stage in sophistication for in-flight entertainment, and one that is only gradually being introduced across the airlines. Known in the industry as AVOD (Audio and Video on Demand) it means the ability to stop, start, rewind and pause your entertainment so you can pause the film you're watching to have a meal or go to sleep.

POWER SOURCE There are two types of power source on board: those which require special adaptors and generally only retain the charge in your laptop (rather than boosting the charge), and those which are like mains power, meaning that they will recharge your laptop or mobile phone. Often these do not need a special adaptor.

HOW AIRLINES MEASURE THEIR SEATS
For those in business or first class, the options for reclining seats are broadly cradle, angled lie-flat or fully flat. The measurement of the degree of recline is taken in a number of ways - most controversially when it comes to angled lie-flat and fully-flat, which both refer to their angle of recline as 180 degrees, so it's important to look at the code (no 6 for angled lie-flat or no 9 for fully flat) to see what style of seat it is.

SEAT WIDTH
Seat width is measured (in cm) between the armrests when the seat is fully upright. The measurement is usually taken as the space between the armrests - so from the inside of one armrest to the inside of the other - or can be the seat cushion width or even the distance between the outside of the armrests. The optimum seat cushion width, based on passenger feedback, has been found to be around 50.8cm - 53.3cm (20-21 inches); BA's Super Club seat in the mid-eighties was one of the widest seat cushions, at 61 cm (24 inches), but most people found they slipped around in the seat and had to be given cushions to prop on either side of them. An example of bigger not necessarily being better.

SEAT PITCH
Seat pitch is the distance between the back of one seat and that of the seat in front, broadly regarded as legroom. For the fully flat beds in business and first class seat pitch is given as N/A (since there is usually a lot of space between seats and the only limiting factor is the length of the flat bed).

ENTERTAINMENT
As In-flight Entertainment Systems (IFE) become more sophisticated and are upgraded from simple multi-channel programme offerings to more interactive systems which allow for AVOD (Audio Visual on Demand) and games, so economy class passengers often benefit from the same range of choices available further forward in the plane.