American Airline's Leg Room Promise Comes Back to Bite

Four years ago when American Airlines decided it would remove seats from all the planes in its fleet to make more legroom, it launched a big "More Room Throughout Couch" ad campaign touting it to the world.

Now, years later, the revenue strapped airline has been forced to put all the seats back in thus reducing legroom. Not a very smart decision once it made that initial promise. Competitor United Airlines is jumping on this opportunity launching a $20 million campaign poking fun at American Airline's reneging on its earlier promise of more legroom.

One of United Airlines ads says, "Fly American and you could kick yourself. Literally." United launched the campaign to make sure the public understands American no longer has more legroom than United.