I dont blame you!

Zoom "extra leg room" seats looks like the way to go for you at 36" for $60 each way, unless you pay for premium Air Canada

http://www.flyzoom.com/index.cfm?fus...SeatingOptions

To fill in some of the gaps;

Faulty spare part fitted to aircraft, and when questioned it was approved by management as they had to keep to the schedule.

Regular vibration of jet engine combined with bad fit of the faulty part resulted in a fuel line breaking in flight.

Fuel leak on one side of aircraft caused a weight imbalance that the pilots noticed...he pumped fuel from the heavy side to the light side to correct this...not a problem except that he was unknowingly feeding more fuel into the leak.

Plane ran out of fuel...miracle bit of piloting got it down in the Azores without loss of life.

Air transat management fined $250000 (largest ever fine in Canada?) for safety lapse in approving the aircraft for flight with the known deficiency of the spare part. There is a reason aircraft designs take so long to approve and shouldnt be messed with on the spur of the moment by people who dont necessarily know what they are doing. Still, I wouldnt rule out flying Air Transat on those grounds alone, it was a hell of a bit of flying to get it down safely when all is said and done, and I wouldnt wonder if other airlines have done worse and got away with it through dumb luck.

That's quite a good deal at $60! However, flying from/to Birmingham limits choice to Air Transat only.... otherwise it's back to the original question of whether it's worth 2 hrs extra in the car....

I try and tell myself it's *only* 7 hrs, but that flight back from NYC seemed to last a lifetime.....