Q. I’m six-feet one-inch tall and will be flying from New York to San Francisco soon. Which airline should I fly on? JetBlue, Virgin American, Delta, US Air, United, or American?
A. I assume you’re asking because you’re concerned about legroom and you’ll be flying in economy. JetBlue will give you the most space for your legs. Their standard seats on all their flights offer 34 inches of space between seats (“pitch” in airline parlance) and their “even more room” seats offer 38 inches, along with priority TSA lines and boarding, for an additional fee. United’s PS Service, which flies exclusively between JFK and both San Francisco and Los Angeles, also offers extra legroom in economy class (34 inches). I find Virgin America’s economy class cramped in comparison at 32 inches. The only downside to JetBlue, really, is that they don’t yet offer WiFi on board (it’s coming later this year), whereas United, Delta, American and Virgin do. Delta’s JFK terminal (until they rebuild it) is so confusing that I tend to avoid them for now. US Air doesn’t fly JFK to the West Coast nonstop. If you like to fly on larger aircraft, American is the only airline serving the route with wide-body jets. But I’d go with JetBlue unless you can’t live without WiFi. You can check out seat maps and seat pitch at Seatguru.com.