I take my airplane seating assignments very seriously. After all, I do a lot of “long-haul” travel where I am confined to a seat for 8+ hours. In today’s post, I will be defining the different seating options and their pluses and minuses. In a future post, I will follow-up with how to secure your optimal seat. After these two posts, you will be fully prepped to select the best seat in the plane for yourself!
Aisle Seats: People covet these seats for the freedom to get up as you please and the ability to turn the plane’s aisles into extra legroom (pending that the meal cart isn’t out!). While this is nice, you have to consider that you will typically have 1-2 other people next to you so you will need to get up to let them out (unless you’re the mean person I sat next to last year from Paris-Delhi who practically refused to let me out of my seat!). Additionally, one other downside is that you may occasionally get bumped by the beverage cart or a person walking by.
Window Seats: Another popular seating selection, people opt for the window seat as you get something to lean on, the ability to sleep uninterrupted for extended periods of time, and a view! Downside is that it can be tricky to get out if your neighbors are sleeping.
Exit Rows: Tall people, rejoice! While you do get a few more inches of legroom, you also get the responsibility of potentially assisting the flight crew and sometimes less than optimal seats. You see, on most medium-sized planes in the US, there will be two rows of exit. The second row fully reclines but the first row typically has a very limited recline since the airline wants a clear path in the event of an emergency. Be sure to check with the airline directly to confirm their layout. Also, per Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulations, you must be at least 15 years old to sit in these seats.
Bulkhead Rows: These seats are the ones that have a wall directly in front of them. In some cases, you get a little more legroom and your meal is usually one of the first out since you’re at the front of your seating section. While this seems great, consider that the tray table is usually in the arm of your chair (versus the back of the seat in front of you) so you can sometimes notice a very slight difference in the width of your seat. Also know that on long, international flights, many airlines have bassinets that plug into the wall for infants. So, if you’re not a fan of babies, you may want to avoid this child-friendly section!
Got a follow-up question? Send it to [email protected] or post a comment here.
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A wonderful tool for selecting a specific seat on a specific flight is http://www.seatguru.com. Just select your airline and the aircraft you will be flying on (can be found on your reservation) and the SeatGuru provides details on all seats, specifically those which are not standard, whether for better or worse, including details on seat recline, legroom, proximity to lavatories and galleys, seats that tend to be chilly due to venting, etc.
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