Online booking of flights is not only convenient and fast; it allows passengers to reserve their specific seats. Unsure what option to choose? Here are five basic factors to consider when selecting aircraft seats.
One: Window seat
Unless the passenger worries about air sickness or needs frequent trips to the lavatory, the window seat is prime real estate in the aircraft. The following reasons might give pause, moving the selection click to Aisle:
- Unilateral decreased legroom. The first time I flew on American Airline’s Boeing 757, I delighted in my seat assignment by the window. With carry-on stowed overhead, I stretched my short legs under the seat in front of me. That’s when I discovered the window seat had a unique problem.
The sleek, narrow fuselage pressed against my left elbow and leg. My foot found no spot on which to rest with sole flat. The plane’s curve ate up both arm and foot space.
By the time our Los Angeles flight landed in Miami, my elbow ached from banging against the fuselage, and I had a cramp in my left calf. For the many hours of the transcontinental flight, I alternated turning my left lower leg and foot away from the fuselage with balancing the bottom of the left shoe on the thin rail used to secure the passenger seats.
Happily, the connecting flight to Guatemala employed a Boeing 767 which had no such one-sided discomfort.
- Unilateral extreme cold. The nonstop flights between Paris and San Francisco travel up and over the North Pole. Those sitting in the window seat experience the minus-78 degrees. Upon request, the flight attendants give passengers extra blankets with which to layer the shoulder and arm near the fuselage. A bit of a shock when the sleeping head slips off the pillow and against the icy fuselage, though.
- Scary stuff outside. After boarding the fixed-wing, twin-engine plane flying between Conakry (Guinea) and Freetown (Sierra Leone), I thought only the tray tables and seat backs would provide a challenging flight between the two West African capitals.
I settled into the aisle seat. My colleague gasped as she glanced out her window. Our missionary friend who’d taken this national carrier weeks earlier hadn’t exaggerated.
The aircraft had no rubber left on the wheels of the plane. The lumpy leather bands limped along, the plane shaking and vibrating, as the speed increased for take-off. It felt like Russian roulette whenever the craft sped down the runway or decreased altitude, preparing to land.
After 9-11, an equally scary site appeared just outside the Boeing 737’s window. As the Southwest flight crossed into California, F-15 fighter jets escorted us to the Sacramento airfield.
Two: Aisle Seat
The main positive factor of an aisle seat is fairly obvious—easier to get out when the plane lands or when nature calls.
Getting out of the aisle seat may be even easier than previously understood if the seat is in the right row. For example, the first five rows of Southwest planes have a little release lever under the armrest of the aisle seat. Move that and the armrest lifts up, making it possible to turn towards the aisle and just stand straight up. No need to bend or twist one’s back at all.
The release on some planes is a push-button, but the feature is available in the rows used for wheelchair passengers. I usually check under the armrest whenever seated in the aisle. It makes it a breeze to get out without any stress to back or knees.
The following considerations tip the aisle seat to the negative:
- On long flights, the passenger seated on the aisle need to get up to let the others in the row out. Often this is for more than just the lavatory. Passengers are advised to get up and move around to exercise the legs. Long flights also have beverages available at the back of the aircraft, instead of the attendants passing through with the beverage cart.
- In-flight knocks and bumps. Obviously, those passengers strolling the narrow aisles bump into the shoulders or heads tilted a bit into the aisle when trying to sleep. Fortunately, not all three hundred take their doctor’s advice to get up and walk around every hour, but those seated in the aisle take dozens of knocks throughout the long flight.
- On-the-tarmac head trauma. This may be more a problem for those of us flying into and out of Africa. Quite literally, the moment the wheels touch the tarmac, passengers jump up and yank articles out of the overhead bins. Elbows and baggage swing into everything near the aisle. Doesn’t matter that flight attendants scream at them to sit down and keep their seat belts fastened until the plane arrives at the terminal, etc. I’ve learned to duck and lean to the inside of the row as soon as the wheels of the plane stop bouncing on the tarmac.
Three: Leg-room
Regardless of the length of the passenger’s legs, stretching them out during those long flights is preferable. It’s a fallacy to believe that the aisle seat offers more leg room.
The first row in each section of the cabins appears to include a lot more leg room. After all, there’s no seat back in front of that row, right?
Think about it. The open space also provides the best avenue for passengers and flight attendants to move inside the cabin.
After only one flight in those maximum-legroom seats, we resolved never to do that again. On the other hand, we completely avoided any possibility of deep vein thrombosis (blood clot) from inactivity during the flight. Our leg muscles got a workout—stretching out and springing back quickly to avoid tripping another passenger or being stepped on by a passer-by.
Leg room can be decreased by any of the following:
- Too many seats. Checking on the number of seats the flight offers in economy signals the potential problem. The airline decides how many seats to hook into those rails on each plane of the same model.
When reviewing the specifications for the seating, look for the pitch. That’s the distance from one point on the potential seat to the same point on the cushion in front and behind it.
- Seat back. On the old Boeing 747s, the seat ahead of me tipped so far back that I felt like a dental hygienist. Even with my legs stretched out, my knees hit the seat. No way could the feet be brought to rest with soles on the floor.
The newer 747s have shell seats. The passenger’s seat slides forward with negligible tip of the seat back intruding on the space behind it.
- Passenger’s carry-on. This may only be a problem for those of us traveling into Africa. No such issue presented on flights going into Central America, Europe, Asia, or the Middle East.
For some unknown reason, the one carry-on rule is often ignored for African passengers.
We’d been assigned to two seats of the five in the center section of the cabin. The lady next to us had already stowed a bag or two overhead, but that enormous shopping bag didn’t fit. She put it between her knees, which tipped her knees into the leg space of passengers on each side.
Fortunately, today’s passengers can reserve seats online. When traveling into Africa, we always choose the rows with only two seats on each side of the cabin.
Many long-haul aircraft have two-seat rows on each side of the cabin, usually with four seats in the center. Even those with mostly three seats along the side have a few of the two-seat rows available.
Note: Recently, some airlines added an extra charge for the two—seat option. Though dismayed at this change, on the long flights into Africa, the extra $20 is more than worth it.
Four: Seat Comfort
In addition to leg room, the comfort factor has numerous variables. Though some high-tech amenities are included in modern aircraft, the following are basic features every passenger considers in choosing a seat:
- Seat size. The width of the seats can vary, depending on location in the cabin. Not all seats in Economy Class are created equal.
To prevent sitting in the narrower seats, avoid choosing a seat next to the lavatories. Convenient, undoubtedly, but the seats are narrower.
Avoid sitting in the first row. The seats are narrower in the first row of each Economy Class section because the tray tables must be stored in the armrest between the seats. All other rows have a tray table that flips down from the seatback.
Side Note: Be aware of cultural norms. For example, the flights on Indian airlines traveling from Mumbai to cities around India have passengers seats built for the smaller Asian frame. It felt a little like sitting in the elementary school chairs. On our flights, the seatbacks didn’t recline, due to the design, not malfunction. Even so, the seats were comfortable.
- Seatback. With one exception, knowing the angle of the tip of the seatback won’t assist in the selection in Economy Class. Unless the back is wearing out, the angle‘s the same in each row.
Exception: The seatbacks in the row located immediately in front of the lavatories don’t actually recline. So, even if the narrower cushion size isn’t an issue, if one has a back problem, being unable to vary the angle of the seatback may make this a consideration.
Note: I’ve been on commuter flights with malfunctioning seatback issues in America, as well as Third World countries.
Probably the worst experience happened on the abovementioned fixed wing aircraft from Conakry to Freetown. The seatback absolutely refused to lock in the upright position.
The flight attendant suggested I just pull and hold it into position until the plane reached cruising altitude.
Her suggestion didn’t take into account that I was already pressing my tray table against the seatback to keep it in place. Picturing my body twisted to pull on the seatback while pushing on the tray table may cause the reader to wonder about the length of my seatbelt.
Unlike the much-too-short belt on the Guinea national commuter flight where the plus-size flight attendant suggested I hold the two ends of the belt and stop worrying about the three-inch gap, the Sierra Leone carrier had belts of the normal length. The issue with them had to do with faulty closure.
Since both hands already had tasks to perform on take-off and landings, I didn’t concern myself with the seatbelt that refused to stay closed.
Five: Cabin Temperature
In general, the cabin temperature will be cool enough that passengers sensitive to cold may want to have a sweater handy. The one exception I’ve discovered to this overall rule is when passing over the Sierra Desert. Even the in-flight air conditioning can’t compete.
When choosing a seat for a flight over six hours, be aware that most of the long-distance aircraft have pockets of temperature differences. On one flight, while panting and wiping sweat off my brow, the attendant informed me that my seat selection had not been the best.
The advice given long ago holds true on the aircraft flying us all over the globe today. I experienced the confirmation earlier this month.
We’d reserved seats in the temperate Row 37 weeks earlier. When doing the online check-in the previous day, the seats chosen still indicated confirmed.
The excited young lady at the Air France counter beamed the joy of her good news. We’d been upgraded to Premium Class, assigned seats in Row 15.
Though Premium Class has upgraded amenities, the rows are still a part of the Economy Class cabin. The temperature guidelines still apply.
We spent most of the thirteen hours our bodies occupied those seats cocooned in blankets over our long sleeves. The cold A/C intermittently blasted directly on us.
Guidelines:
Coldest temps in Economy Class: Rows numbered in the teens and twenties.
Temperate seats: Usually in the mid-to-high thirties.
Warmest seats: The forties have warmer air, with hot air blasts intermittently.
That said, we’ve also traveled on aircraft that had fairly uniform atmospheric temperature inside the economy cabin, but it’s not much fun to discover the guidelines applied when a passenger is freezing or sweating through a long flight.
Conclusion
On short flights even a bad seat selection is tolerable. For those over six hours, passengers enjoy the privilege of choosing the seat at the time the flight is booked.
Traveling Economy Class, the above five basic factors to consider when selecting aircraft seats have made the many hours as comfortable as they can be in such a restricted space.
If you’d like to check on how to choose your seat, I discovered a fun website to give you some practice for that next flight. Seat Guru has hundreds and hundreds of aircraft models, airlines and even flight numbers to bring up the right seat map.
After the map is on the screen, the ranking for each seat is color-coded–green, yellow, and red. Just click on the seat and the screen will fill with that particular seat’s good and bad points. The rating is based on reports by passengers who’ve traveled in that specific seat.
In these last two posts, I’ve tried to provide a bit of flavor for those yet to experience air travel, as well as offer helpful information for those contemplating a summer flight or two. If I’ve not answered your specific question, please, feel free to let me know. I’d be happy to attempt an answer, illustrated by an experience.
