I think I hate flying. I don’t hate traveling. Just the flying, and all that comes with it. The security lines, the agony of boarding, and the most uncomfortable seats you’ll ever pay several hundred dollars to be trapped in for several hours. Anything you can do to make your time in the air even slightly better is worth it.
Enter your new best friend: a Google Chrome extension for in-flight leg extension. This utility was designed for the singular purpose of ranking your various flight options by the amount of leg room each provides. You can still take other metrics into consideration, like flight time, layovers, and price, but all else being equal, you might as well take the flight where you’ll have the most room to stretch out.
This hack was brought to our attention by Zachary Burrabel, via TikTok. In his video, he shows off how the extension Legroom for Google Flights, once installed in Chrome, automatically adds this info to the search results. The extension even extends to business class, so you can see which seats allow you to lie flat, and which are upright-only.
How to use Legroom for Google Flights to stretch out on your next trip
I tried out the extension for myself, and it seems to work as advertised. Once you add it to Chrome, head to Google Flights and search for the trip you’re interested in. Once the results pop-up, you’ll see your legroom next to each option. As you can see from my results, the extension will highlight the better options with green numbers, average options in grey, and the worst options in red. (Legroom for Google Flights confirms Spirit’s seating arrangements are, ahem, less than ideal.)
The great thing about this extension is that it’s a “set it and forget it” situation. I’m sure the next time I go to book a flight, I won’t be thinking about the legroom, only to be pleasantly surprised when I see these green, red, and grey metrics pop up in my search results. Is 33 inches of legroom still a tight squeeze? Of course. But it sure beats 28 inches.