Jin Air

Jin Air is Korean Air's low-cost subsidiary, flying from Seoul across Korea, Japan and South East Asia, with longer leisure runs layered on top. The parentage is the interesting part: this is a budget carrier that inherited full-service bones, including one of the few Boeing 777s operated by a low-cost airline anywhere.

That history shows at the seat map. The 737-900 kept a real two-by-two business cabin from its Korean Air days, unusual hardware for a budget carrier, while the 777 flies as one vast economy cabin, ten abreast, with an extra-legroom zone at the front sold under the airline's own branding, currently Jini Plus. One is a genuine cabin, the other a zone, and the difference decides what your fare actually buys.

The 737-800 and 737 MAX 8 fly the same single-class map, a three-by-three economy nose to tail, with the MAX offering the newer, quieter airframe. The 737-900 is the fleet's quiet overachiever: a small two-by-two business cabin up front, and an economy pitched a little more generously than its -800 siblings.

The 777-200ER is the outlier, a widebody in a dense three-four-three fit from front to back. Its forward rows carry substantially more legroom at the same seat width, sold as an extra-legroom product rather than a separate cabin, and that distinction is exactly how to judge the price.

Economy across the 737s is standard low-cost fare: slimline seats, tight pitch, catering from the cart, fine for the two-to-four-hour sectors the network is built on. The -900 softens the formula with its slightly roomier rows, enough to notice on a longer leg.

The 777 is a different kind of flight, a big twin filled with holidaymakers, and the trade is straightforward: the front zone buys knee room, not shoulder room, since every row shares the same ten-abreast width. The -900's business cabin, meanwhile, is a proper recliner product in a two-row cabin, a small pocket of the parent airline's world at a budget fare.

On the 777, decide your zone before your seat: the extra-legroom rows at the front earn their fare on the longer leisure runs, and if the price does not appeal, the forward economy rows are the calmer, quicker-exit end of a very long cabin. A window or aisle keeps you off the middle pair of the four-seat centre block, and the deep rear rows sit among the galleys and the queues they generate.

On the 737-900, the business rows are effectively matched, so it is a straightforward call on fare rather than seat. On the single-class -800 and MAX 8, the over-wing exits carry the legroom and the front rows clear first, while the tail is the long walk and the loud end.