Southwest Boeing 737 700 Seat Map

Picking a seat on Southwest's 737-700

The seat to chase on this jet is 15A. It sits in the exit row, and because 14A doesn't exist on this airframe, there is no seatback in front of it at all — you get the exit-row pitch plus an entire missing seat's worth of floor to stretch into, on a plane where the standard measurement is a tight 31 inches. Nothing else in this 3-3, 27-row single cabin comes close.

Economy (rows 1–27)

The cabin is uniform slimline seating, 17 inches wide, 3-3 the whole way back, with pitch ranging from 31 inches in the bulk of the aircraft up to 38 in the stretched-out rows. There's streaming entertainment to your own device and paid Wi-Fi, but no in-seat power or USB anywhere on the type — charge everything at the gate, because a two-hour movie will cost you a chunk of battery, and there's no tablet holder built into the seatback either.

The picks. After 15A, take the rest of row 15 — 15B, 15C, 15D, 15E and 15F all carry exit-row legroom, and 15F is the starboard mirror of the star seat. The trade-off is that 15A and 15F sit over the wing, so your window is mostly a view of flap track fairings; if photography matters more than legroom, this isn't your row. Row 1 is the other extra-legroom zone: 1A through 1F have nobody reclining into them and generous floor space, but the bulkhead means no underseat stowage for takeoff and landing, and the forward galley, closet and lavatory sit immediately ahead, so expect footsteps and door noise. Frequent flyers on this aircraft consistently rate row 1 highly anyway — the retrofitted seats are better padded than the pitch number suggests.

For an ordinary seat that just works, aim for rows 2–8 on the window. You're ahead of the wing, so 2A, 3A, 4A, 5A, 6A, 8A and their F-side counterparts give clean, unobstructed views forward of the leading edge, and you'll be off the jet in the first wave. Rows 2–6 in particular are the fastest deplaning seats that don't come with a bulkhead penalty. Aisle sitters should know that on this cabin the aisle seats have noticeably narrower underseat space than the window and middle positions — the seat leg and the video box eat into it — so a fat backpack fits better at 4A than at 4C.

What to avoid. 7A and 7F are the classic trap: they're drawn as window seats, but the fuselage wiring runs behind the fascia there and the actual window is misaligned forward, leaving you leaning into your neighbour's row to see anything. Southwest itself now flags these as limited-visibility. Skip them unless you're indifferent to the view.

Row 14 is the other one to dodge. Sitting directly ahead of the exit, 14B, 14C, 14D, 14E and 14F have limited recline — 14A doesn't exist, which is precisely why 15A is so good — and you get the tight 31-inch pitch with none of the compensation.

The back row is genuinely poor. 27A, 27B and 27C back onto the rear lavatory, and 27D, 27E and 27F onto the aft galley, which means queueing passengers at your shoulder, cart clatter, and restricted recline for the entire flight. The rear lav on these aircraft is small and well-used; the only argument for the last few rows is that on a lightly loaded flight the back of the cabin fills last and you may end up with a spare seat beside you.

One structural note worth planning around: rows 9 through 18 sit over the wing. Ride quality is the smoothest back there and engine noise is manageable, but window views are largely blocked — 9A, 10A, 11A and their opposite numbers are fine seats with a poor outlook. Tall travelers in rows 8 and 9 have been vocal about the 31-inch pitch feeling brutal; if you're over six feet, row 15 or row 1 is the only real answer on this airplane.