United Airlines CRJ-700 Seat Selection Guide (2026)
✈️ Quick Verdict
Aircraft: Bombardier CRJ-700 — 70 seats, 6 United First + 64 Economy
Layout: First 1-2, A | C D (rows 1–2) · Economy 2-2, A B | C D (rows 7–23, no row 13)
Version lottery: No cabin lottery — United flies a single CRJ-700 layout. There is a Wi-Fi lottery: see below
Best seats — First: 2A — a solo seat with its own aisle, one row back from the galley
Best seats — economy: row 18 (18A, 18B, 18C, 18D) — Economy Plus legroom at the exit and it still reclines · 8A, 8D, 9A, 9D for a window with the extra pitch
Seats to avoid: row 17 — standard legroom, restricted recline, no discount · row 23 — does not recline, lavatory behind · 22B, 22C, 22D
Economy Plus: 16 seats — rows 7, 8, 9 and 18
IFE: None — no seatback screens and no streaming recorded · Wi-Fi: Starlink on roughly half the fleet, ground-based Intelsat ATG on the rest
The trap: row 17 pays nothing and gets nothing
The CRJ-700’s overwing exit sits between rows 17 and 18. Row 18 is behind it and gets the legroom — United sells those four seats as Economy Plus, and they carry the extra legroom with no recline restriction. Row 18 is the best row in the cabin and it is worth what United asks for it.
Row 17 is in front of the exit. It has ordinary economy legroom, it is not Economy Plus, and all four seats carry the note that the seat may not fully recline because the exit row behind requires a clear path. You pay standard economy money for a seat that is standard economy in every way except that it does not go back.
This matters because 17 and 18 look almost identical on a booking map. One is marked as a paid upgrade and one is free, which reads as “18 is better, 17 is fine”. In fact 17 is worse than row 16, row 15 or anything else in the standard cabin, and it is the row most likely to still be free when you check in.
United First: rows 1 and 2
Six seats over two rows in a 1-2 layout — a single A seat on the left of the aisle and a C/D pair on the right. That single seat is a genuine solo: 1A and 2A both have direct aisle access with nobody to climb over.
2A is the pick. 1A is the same seat one row further forward, but row 1 sits against the forward galley: 1C and 1D both carry a galley note for noise and bright light during meal preparation, and 1C additionally has a partial bulkhead covering 45% of the seat frontage, which leaves extra legroom on the left side only. Row 2 has none of that.
For two people travelling together, 2C and 2D is the better pair — same reason, one row clear of the galley.
Economy Plus: where the sixteen seats actually are
United puts its sixteen Economy Plus seats on this aircraft in two separate places: rows 7, 8 and 9 at the front of the economy cabin, and row 18 at the exit. They are not the same product in practice.
| Row | What the seat map shows | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
| 7 | Bulkhead. Extra legroom, but 7B and 7C lose their underseat storage and take the tray table in the armrest | Good for legroom, poor for storage |
| 8 | Pitch around 35 inches — two inches more than typical for the cabin. Nothing else flagged | Best Economy Plus row |
| 9 | Same 35-inch note as row 8, nothing else flagged | Equal best |
| 17 | Not Economy Plus. Standard legroom, recline restricted by the exit behind | Avoid |
| 18 | Extra legroom at the exit, full recline, all four seats rated green | Best row in economy |
Row 7 is the bulkhead and behaves like most bulkheads: the legroom is real, but 7B and 7C have nothing under the seat in front because there is no seat in front, and their tray tables live in the armrest, which makes the seat itself narrower. 7A and 7D are the two to take in that row — they keep the window and are rated green.
If you want the extra pitch without the bulkhead compromise, rows 8 and 9 are the answer, and 8A, 8D, 9A and 9D give you a window with it.
Standard economy: rows 10 to 16, and 19 to 21
This is the quiet part of the aircraft, with nothing flagged against any of it. Rows 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 19, 20 and 21 are unremarkable in the best sense — no window problems, no galley, no lavatory, full recline.
There is no row 13. The numbering runs 12, 14. That is worth knowing if you are counting rows forward from your seat number.
Because the cabin is 2-2, there is no middle seat anywhere on this aircraft. Every seat is either a window or an aisle, and two people travelling together get a pair to themselves with no third passenger. On a 70-seat regional jet that is the single biggest comfort advantage the type has over a mainline narrowbody.
The back: rows 22 and 23
The CRJ-700’s only economy lavatory is at the rear, and it makes the last two rows the ones to avoid.
Row 23 is the worst row on the aircraft. All four seats are rated red: the seat does not recline because the wall is directly behind it, and the lavatory is immediately adjacent. 22B, 22C and 22D are also rated red for lavatory adjacency; 22A is a step better, rated amber for lavatory traffic rather than for sitting against the door.
If you are assigned row 22 or 23 and the flight is not full, almost any move forward is an improvement.
Wi-Fi: the real lottery on this aircraft
There is no cabin lottery on United’s CRJ-700 — one layout, one seat count. What does vary is the connectivity, and the gap is large.
Starlink is fitted to roughly half the aircraft of this type and is rated best-in-class at 40–200 Mbps. The rest carry Intelsat ATG, a ground-based system. Ground-based air-to-ground Wi-Fi is an order of magnitude slower than Starlink and does not work over water or outside the coverage footprint.
There is no way to tell which one you have from the seat map, and no way to tell from the booking. If connectivity matters for the flight, plan for the slow one.
There is no in-flight entertainment of any kind — no seatback screens, and no streaming service to your own device either. Download before you board.
Quick picks by traveller
| You are | Book |
|---|---|
| Travelling alone, want the best seat on the aircraft | 2A in First — solo seat, own aisle, clear of the galley |
| Travelling alone in economy | 18A or 18D — exit-row legroom, reclines, window |
| A couple | 2C/2D in First, or 18C/18D in economy — a pair to yourselves either way |
| Paying for legroom | Row 18 first, then rows 8 and 9 |
| Tall and not paying extra | Rows 10 to 16 — standard pitch but no compromises. Skip row 17 |
| Want to get off fast | Rows 7, 8, 9 — front of economy, and 7 and 8 are Economy Plus |
| On a budget | Anything in rows 19 to 21 — free, unflagged, and clear of the lavatory |
How United’s CRJ-700 compares to its stablemates
United flies three CRJ variants and they are genuinely different aircraft to sit in. The CRJ-550 is the same airframe as the CRJ-700 with only 50 seats in it — the most spacious regional jet in the fleet, and the one to pick if you have the choice. The CRJ-200 is a smaller, older 50-seat aircraft with a much tighter cabin.
The CRJ-700 sits between them: 70 seats in the CRJ-550’s fuselage, so the cabin is fuller but the 2-2 seating and the absence of middle seats carry over.
Frequently asked questions
Which is the best seat on United’s CRJ-700?
2A in United First — a solo seat with its own aisle and no galley noise. In economy, 18A or 18D: exit-row legroom, a window, and a seat that still reclines.
Is row 17 an exit row?
No. Row 18 is the exit row. Row 17 is the row in front of it, which means it takes the recline restriction without getting the legroom. It is not sold as Economy Plus and it is the row to avoid.
Are there any middle seats on the CRJ-700?
None. Economy is 2-2 and First is 1-2, so every seat on the aircraft is a window or an aisle.
Where is row 13?
It does not exist. Economy runs 7 to 12, then 14 to 23.
Is Economy Plus worth paying for?
Row 18 is. It has the exit-row legroom and full recline and is rated green across all four seats. Rows 8 and 9 are also good value at around 35 inches of pitch. Row 7 is the bulkhead, where 7B and 7C lose their underseat storage and get a narrower seat because the tray table is in the armrest — take 7A or 7D if you are in that row.
Does the CRJ-700 have Wi-Fi and entertainment?
No entertainment at all — no screens and no streaming. Wi-Fi is split: Starlink on around half the aircraft and ground-based Intelsat ATG on the rest, and you cannot tell which you will get in advance.
How many seats does United’s CRJ-700 have?
70 — six United First and 64 economy, including sixteen Economy Plus seats in rows 7, 8, 9 and 18.