Air France Boeing 787-9 Seat Selection Guide (2026)

Air France flies 14 Boeing 787-9s in a single 279-seat configuration — 30 Business, 21 Premium Economy, 228 Economy. There is no version lottery to worry about, which means the whole job is picking the right seat inside one known map. Two things catch people out before they even start: the centre block is D, E, G — there is no seat F on this aircraft, and row 30 is the only exit row.

Flying Air France's other long-haul types? See the A350-900 guide and the 777-300ER guide.

The Version Lottery: There Isn't One

There is a single configuration. One payload covers all 14 aircraft: 30 Business, 21 Premium Economy, 228 Economy, 279 seats, rows 1 to 45. No sub-fleet variant is published. Whichever of the 14 frames you draw, the seat map is the same one.

Two structural quirks are worth internalising before you look at any seat map, because they will otherwise trip you up.

Seven row numbers do not exist: 9, 13, 14, 26, 27, 28 and 29. The cabins run Business 1 to 8, Premium Economy 10 to 12, Economy 15 to 25 and 30 to 45. There are also four partial rows — row 1 has only 1A and 1K, row 25 has no centre seats, and rows 44 and 45 are centre seats only.

Business — Rows 1 to 8, 1-2-1

Thirty Safran Cirrus 2C08 seats in a reverse-herringbone pattern. Every seat has direct aisle access, a retractable bi-folding table and secure stowage for small personal items. They are 20" wide, 16 sq ft per seat, 180° of recline into a 6'-7" flat bed, with a verified bed length of 78.7". There are no privacy doors in any cabin on this aircraft, Business included.

One honest caveat on how we know this cabin is 1-2-1: it does not come out of the coordinates. The four Business columns sit at essentially uniform spacing, so no aisle-detection heuristic can locate the aisles and the geometry check returns a single block of four. The 1-2-1 reading rests on three non-geometric things — the A / E G / K letter scheme, the reverse-herringbone seat description, and an aisle-access record of 30 of 30 seats, 100%, with every one of the thirty carrying the comment "Direct aisle access with no one to climb over." That is conclusive for the passenger question — nobody climbs over anybody — but it is not a coordinate-confirmed layout, and this guide does not claim one.

Row 1 — the trap

Row 1 is the front row and has only two seats, 1A and 1K. It looks like the prize. It is split.

1K is the only red seat in the Business cabin, and it sits directly across the aircraft from a green one. If the seat map offers you row 1, take 1A and leave 1K.

Rows 2 to 8

Every remaining Business seat is rated, and 26 of the 28 are green. The exceptions are 5A and 5K: both carry a poor window status with zero aligned windows. The seat itself is fine — you simply do not get a view from it. If the window is why you booked the window side, skip row 5.

4A, 4K, 8A and 8K are the four best seats in the cabin — green, and the only "great" window ratings in Business. Direct aisle access is not what separates them: all thirty seats have it, so the window is the only axis on which Business seats here differ.

For the centre pair, every centre seat in the cabin is green — 2E and 2G, 3E and 3G, 4E and 4G, 5E and 5G, 6E and 6G, 7E and 7G, 8E and 8G. In a reverse-herringbone cabin the centre pair is the couples' choice, and all fourteen of them rate clean. 2E additionally carries a bassinet position — useful if you are travelling with an infant, and worth steering past if you are not. It is rated green either way.

No cabin on this aircraft has a personal gasper vent recorded — not Business, not Premium Economy, not Economy. In Business the armrests adjust two ways, up and down, on the aisle side only.

Premium Economy — Rows 10, 11 and 12, 2-3-2

Twenty-one Safran Airgo FX fixed-shell seats across three rows, with lumbar support, a footrest and an individual goose-neck reading light. This cabin deserves more attention than it usually gets, because it is small, structurally simple, and the rating layer covers only a third of it.

The 2-3-2 layout is coordinate-confirmed — seven columns with two clearly wider aisle gaps. Seven seats per row: A B / D E G / J K. Three rows × seven = 21.

What the fixed shell actually means

This is a fixed-shell product with 130° of recline described as "forward articulation." The seat slides forward inside its own shell rather than tilting back into the row behind. Nobody drops into your knees, and you cannot drop into anyone else's. On a long-haul flight that removes the single most common source of premium economy friction.

The trade is that the armrests do not adjust in Premium Economy — while they do in Economy. That is an unusual inversion, and it is recorded as-is. If you are travelling as a couple and were counting on lifting the armrest between you, do not.

Other specifics: 19" wide, 8.3 sq ft per seat, a 12.1" HD touchscreen, 110V universal AC plus two USB-A, a six-way adjustable headrest, a footrest, and no gasper vent.

Pitch — 40" declared, about 38" derived

Pitch is declared at 40". The row spacing in the coordinates, calibrated against Economy's declared 31" pitch, works out to about 38.2". The same calibration produces a plausible figure for Business, so the scale is not obviously wrong. The source does not reconcile the two figures and neither does this guide — expect somewhere between 38" and 40", either way a full seven to nine inches over Economy.

Row 10 — the only rated row, and all seven are green

10A, 10B, 10D, 10E, 10G, 10J and 10K are every one rated green. They are the bulkhead row and they share four characteristics: no underseat storage because of the bulkhead in front, extra legroom, extra-generous bulkhead legroom of 79cm (31in) to the wall, and a tray table and video screen in the armrest because there is no seatback ahead.

31 inches of clear floor to the wall is a genuinely large amount of space, and the row rates green in spite of the storage and armrest penalties. Row 10 is the pick of the Premium Economy cabin. The cost is real, though: everything you want in flight goes in the overhead bin, and the tray and screen live in the armrest, which narrows your usable width.

Four of the seven add a partial bulkhead with extra legroom on the left side — 10B, 10D, 10G and 10J. And four carry bassinet flags: 10D is a bassinet position, while 10B, 10E and 10G are flagged as near one, with potential noise from infants.

If you want row 10 without an infant next to you, 10A, 10J and 10K are the three seats with no bassinet flag of any kind. What separates 10A and 10K is that they are the only two Premium Economy seats with a recorded window status at all — an "average" window each.

Rows 11 and 12 — unrated, not bad

Neither row 11 nor row 12 carries a rating. This matters, because anyone reading the colour layer alone will see two-thirds of the Premium Economy cabin as blank and assume the worst.

• Row 11 — 11A, 11B, 11D, 11E, 11G, 11J, 11K — has no rating and no comments at all. Nothing has been flagged against it. It is a normal 2-3-2 premium economy row with a fixed shell in front of it that cannot recline into you.
• Row 12 — 12A, 12B, 12D, 12E, 12G, 12J, 12K — all seven carry a near-bassinet flag for potential infant noise from ahead, and nothing else. No rating.

Practically: row 11 is the quiet row. If you want Premium Economy with no bassinet exposure and no bulkhead storage penalty, row 11 is the one to ask for, with 11A and 11K as the window picks — on the understanding that no window alignment is recorded for any row 11 seat, so the view there is unrecorded rather than confirmed good. If a confirmed window matters more than quiet, 10A and 10K are the fallback: an "average" alignment each, and the only Premium Economy seats with a window status at all. Row 12 is the same seat as row 11 with infants seated ahead of you.

Economy — Rows 15 to 25 and 30 to 45, 3-3-3

228 Safran Z300 seats in 3-3-3, coordinate-confirmed from the column spacing. A B C / D E G / H J K. 31" pitch, 17.3" wide, 118° recline, 5.2 sq ft per seat, an 11" touchscreen, 110V AC plus a single USB-A, a four-way adjustable headrest and no gasper vent.

There are two physically separate Economy cabins, split by a mid-cabin galley and lavatory block. The forward cabin is rows 15 to 25; the aft cabin is rows 30 to 45.

Armrests move on every Economy seat except rows 15 and 30 and seats 41 to 43 in ABC and HJK. And note one small trap at the back: the overhead lockers above seats 43J and 43K are reserved for crew use — book 43J or 43K and your bin is not your bin.

Forward cabin, rows 15 to 25

Row 15 is the bulkhead row, and six of its nine seats are rated: 15A, 15B, 15C, 15H, 15J and 15K. They carry the same bulkhead package as Premium Economy row 10 — no underseat storage, extra legroom, 79cm (31in) of clear floor to the wall, and the tray table and video screen in the armrest — plus bassinet flags. 15A and 15K are bassinet positions; 15B, 15C, 15H and 15J are flagged as near one. 15C and 15H are the standouts: bulkhead aisles with only a partial wall ahead, which makes them the roomiest seats in Economy.

15D, 15E and 15G — the three centre bulkhead seats — carry most of the same comments but no green rating, and they do not carry the extra-generous bulkhead legroom flag. The two outer triples are rated and the centre one is not. Read that as unrated rather than as bad, but the six outer seats are the ones with an explicit endorsement.

Rows 24 and 25 are the worst block on this aircraft — 15 red seats between them. All nine of row 24 and all six of row 25. They sit against the mid-cabin lavatory bank that separates the two Economy cabins. Row 25 is a partial row: 25D, 25E and 25G do not exist.

Everything between rows 18 and 22 is unrated with no comments — ordinary 31" Economy, and none the worse for it.

Aft cabin, rows 30 to 45

Row 30 is the second bulkhead row and the only exit row on this aircraft, and it is the one to think hardest about. Doors L3 and R3 sit immediately ahead of it — that is where the legroom comes from, and it is why the door eats into 30A and 30K. Standard exit-row conditions apply: nothing at your feet for taxi, take-off and landing. Every rated seat in the row is be-aware, and the reasons differ by side.

30B, 30C, 30H and 30J are the quiet picks of row 30 — they get the extra legroom and the armrest-mounted tray, without the door intrusion that hits 30A and 30K or the lavatory traffic that hits the centre three. Note that 30C is the one of the four flagged as being near a bassinet position, so it is the least quiet of them. Bear in mind that row 30's armrests do not move, and that these are still exit-row seats — the floor at your feet has to stay clear on the ground.

Row 31, immediately behind, carries one flag and no rating: 31D and 31E are marked as near a bassinet position ahead. That is the only non-window comment anywhere between rows 31 and 41.

The rest of the aft cabin is almost entirely a window story.

35A and 35K are rated green with "great" windows and no comments at all — the two best pure window seats in Economy. 42K is the third. 42A has the same "great" window on the left, but a lavatory sits behind it, which is why it rates be-aware and 42K does not.

The back of the aircraft is where the ratings collapse.

Rows 44 and 45 are centre-only — D, E and G, three seats each. There is no 44A or 45K. Combined with 43A, 43B and 43C being red and 43J and 43K losing their overhead bin to the crew, the last three rows of this aircraft are almost entirely compromised. The one exception is 42K, which is green with a great window despite sitting one row ahead of the red block.

Cabin Features

Quick-Pick Summary

Frequently Asked Questions

Does the Air France 787-9 business seat have a door?

No. Privacy doors are recorded as No for all three cabins, Business included. What you get is a Safran Cirrus 2C08 reverse-herringbone suite with direct aisle access — 30 of 30 seats, 100% — that converts into a 6'-7" flat bed.

Which Air France 787-9 seats should I avoid?

Twenty-two seats are rated avoid: 1K in Business, all nine of row 24, all six of row 25, 43A, 43B and 43C, 44D, and 45D and 45E. Every one is flagged as immediately adjacent to a lavatory behind — noise, odours and queuing traffic. Separately, 41A and 41K are not rated avoid but have no window at all, so treat them as unbookable if a view is the point.

What is the best premium economy seat on the Air France 787-9?

Row 10. All seven seats — 10A, 10B, 10D, 10E, 10G, 10J and 10K — are rated green with extra-generous bulkhead legroom of 79cm (31in) to the wall. 10A, 10J and 10K carry no bassinet flag, and 10A and 10K are the only two with a recorded window status. If you would rather not lose your underseat storage, row 11 has no rating but also no flagged drawbacks at all.

How much pitch does Air France premium economy have?

It is declared at 40". The coordinate spacing, calibrated against Economy's declared 31", derives about 38.2". The two figures are not reconciled in the source, so treat it as 38–40" — either way a large step up from Economy's 31".

Why is there no seat F on the Air France 787-9?

Air France skips the letter F on this aircraft, on top of the usual aviation skip of I. Economy runs A B C / D E G / H J K, Premium Economy A B / D E G / J K, and Business A / E G / K. It is not an error in the seat map — the centre triple genuinely is D, E, G.

Which row is the exit row on the Air France 787-9?

Row 30, and only row 30. Doors L3 and R3 sit immediately ahead of it, which is where the extra legroom comes from. The catch lands on 30A and 30K, where the door extends into about 80% of your seat width, 35cm (14in) ahead, and the window sits behind the seat. If you want the legroom without the door, take 30B, 30C, 30H or 30J; the centre three — 30D, 30E and 30G — pick up lavatory traffic instead.

Are rows 11 and 12 in premium economy bad?

No — they are simply unrated. No colour is attached to either. Row 11 has no comments at all. Row 12's seven seats all carry a near-bassinet flag for potential infant noise from ahead, and nothing else. Absence of a rating is not a warning.

Which Air France 787-9 seats have no window?

41A and 41K. Both are recorded as having no window at the seat position — wall panel only. They sit in the aft cabin among ordinary-looking window rows, so they are easy to book by accident. 42K one row behind has a great window, and 35A and 35K are the best window seats in Economy.

Comparable Guides

• Air France A350-900 Seat Selection Guide (2025) — the newer long-haul type in the same fleet
• Air France 777-300ER Seat Selection Guide (2025) — the widebody workhorse alongside it
• KLM 787 Seat Selection Guide (2025) — the same aircraft in the other half of the group
• British Airways 787-9 Seat Selection Guide (2026) — the closest European comparison
• SWISS A220-300 Seat Selection Guide (2026) — the short-haul contrast, 2-3 with no seat B
• Qantas A220-300 Seat Selection Guide (2026) — a 10-seat recliner business cabin at the other end of the premium scale

← See all aircraft seat guides