Choosing a good seat in the cabin is almost as important as choosing the right hotel room or the right resort on vacation. But, unfortunately, passengers do not always have the option of choosing a seat to their liking. Today, more and more companies offer only a paid choice when you buy a ticket or check in online, especially if you’re flying on budget airlines. Asking for a specific seat when you check in at the airport counter is also problematic, since the systems automatically allocate the remaining available seats sequentially. But if you’re flying with an airline that allows you to choose seats when you buy or check in online, here are some tips for making your flight more comfortable and interesting:
Seats at the emergency exits.
These are traditionally thought to be the best seats on an airplane (not counting business class seats, of course), and they really are. There is much more space in front of the seats and as a result you can stretch out your legs. However…
On almost all airlines, these seats are now paid for. In some cabin layouts these seats have no individual entertainment system, and the entire flight you’ll have to watch airline ads and a map of the flight on a common screen. You’ll say that’s a small thing. On short flights it really does not matter, but for long flights having a multimedia entertainment system is very important. After all, to sleep on the plane in economy class, even with legs outstretched, very difficult, so the whole flight to watch movies and listen to music.
Window seat (porthole)
The seats by the window are good not only because you can admire the opening views of the clouds passing by, but also because you can lean against the wall, which will greatly facilitate your sleep. So if you can, choose those seats.
The middle of the cabin
If we talk about the landing areas in the airliner, the middle of the cabin (closer to the wings) is the least shaky during takeoff and landing, on the air pits. Not to say that this is fundamental, but if you’re afraid to fly and every creak of plastic in the cabin horrifies you, it’s better to choose the middle.
The front of the plane
Usually in the front of the cabin is the business class seats, followed by economy. If you need to get off the plane quicker than everyone else (for example, if you have a short stopover or if you don’t want to stand in line for a visa or passport control) it makes sense to choose seats at the front. Also, the feeding starts at the first seat.
The tail of the plane
The tail of the cabin is statistically considered the safest seat. According to physics, in the event of an accident, fuel from the wings (yes, the fuel tanks of passenger airliners are located in the wings) by inertia splashes forward and catches fire. But let’s not say any more sad stuff, because an airplane is the safest mode of transportation.
The good thing about the tail is that in wide-body aircraft with more seats in a row, their number in this part of the cabin is reduced, and if you are flying with two or a family, you can take the whole row by yourself. Another good thing is that the automatic seating is at the beginning of the cabin and if the board is not completely full there is a chance to be in that part of the cabin among the empty seats. And what does that entail? That you can take any row and lie down. Just do not “slow down” and take a row immediately after climbing up, because there are a lot of smart guys like you 🙂
But keep in mind that the last row can be the worst – the seats in it are usually against the back wall and almost can not recline.