Getting the best seat on the aircraft……….in economy!

A report by Jane E Fraser in The Sun-Herald says there’s no question that the best seats on a plane are up the front, with champagne, silver service and a cosy doona on a nice flat bed, but if you’re not one of the lucky souls who fly first or business class on overseas jaunts, it helps to know how to go about getting a good seat in economy.

Anyone who has endured a cramped middle seat, a vomiting baby or paralysing toilet fumes knows how much difference the right seat can make on a long flight.

Not everyone agrees on what the best seat is, but there are a few key factors to consider when booking your next trip.

First, if you are not pre-seated and turn up at the airport with the minimum amount of time before boarding, you are pretty much guaranteed a dodgy seat, so ask your travel agent to pre-seat you at the time of booking or ring the airline in advance to get a seat allocation.

Your last chance is at the airport, as you check in, so whatever you do, ask nicely, because airline check-in staff have heard every request, complaint and far-fetched story you could ever come up with and you are most likely not the first to be asking that day.

A polite “I don’t suppose there’s any chance of getting a window seat?” is going to be a lot more successful than “You’d better not put me near the toilets again.”

So what is it that you should be asking for?

The golden rule is to be as far forward in the aircraft as possible, with the further back you go, the noisier it is, the bumpier it is and the more likely you are to be the last served with drinks and meals.

Also, the closer to the front you are, the faster you can get off the plane – and into the never-ending immigration queue.

Some aircraft taper off to pairs of seats at the back of the plane – some couples like to get these, to avoid having a third person sitting with them, but I’m not a fan.

There are always toilets at the back of a plane, and where there are toilets there are smells and queues of people who want to lean on your seat as they wait for the toilets.

The nirvana of economy seating is usually the emergency exit row where you have no seats in front of you, although you often find that the space in front is where fidgety passengers choose to stretch their legs and chat.

Getting the exit row is not much better odds than winning the lotto, but it never hurts to ask. Don’t carry on about your really long legs – airlines are actually not keen on having long legs blocking the exit or tripping up their crew.

Make sure you understand the difference between an exit row and a bulkhead, as a bulkhead seat has a wall in front of it and comes with pros and cons. You will not have another passenger reclining their seat into your space, but remember that bulkheads are usually where families with young children are placed, due to the location of baby bassinet attachment points.  A reclining passenger might not seem so bad in comparison to sitting next to a sugar-fuelled child.

When it comes to window seats versus aisle seats, the travelling public is fairly evenly divided (I have never yet met anyone who wants a middle seat).  I usually prefer aisle seats so I can get up and down whenever I like and don’t feel so squashed in.

However, if I am taking an overnight flight and want to sleep, I might request a window, so I have somewhere to rest my head and don’t have people climbing over me or a food cart crashing into my elbow.

If you’re a take-a-sleeping-tablet-and-wake-up-in-London sort of person, a window seat is definitely preferable. If you feel strongly about getting the right seat, there are websites that show seating plans for almost every aircraft, so you can see in advance which seat to ask for.

Not every plane is configured in the same way, so what is a good seat on one aircraft is not necessarily so on another. If you get on board and your seat is a disaster, it cannot hurt to ask a flight attendant – nicely – if there are any other seats available.  Don’t bother asking for an upgrade – it is not going to happen.

The final piece of the puzzle is how to avoid sitting next to an obnoxious person, but I haven’t figured that one out yet!

Useful websites include: –

http://www.seatguru.com

http://www.seatexpert.com

www.airlinequality.com

A TravelMole report from The Sun Herald by Jane E Fraser