Here’s a scenario that I am pretty sure a lot of you have been through at least once.
You’re sitting in the terminal waiting patiently to board the plane. You had arrived at the airport earlier than recommended in anticipation of long check in lines. Sure enough, you breezed through check in and the security check faster than you expected. Now you’re going to have to sit in the terminal and wait for what will seem like an eternity. To add insult to injury, there’s someone sitting right next to you yakking your head off about stories that you could care less about. As time slowly counts down, you sit with your fingers secretly crossed in your pocket, hoping that this chatterbox will be sitting on the opposite end of the plane. Of course, the odds were against you the moment you wished that. They made the announcement to board the plane. Look, there he is right behind you in line. And guess what! His seat is directly next to yours and he hasn’t even finished half of his story that seems to be pointless.
Do you wish there was a way to avoid scenarios like this? If only you were only so lucky. You can, however, find out before hand which seats are best for your particular situation before you purchase your plane ticket.
Lets say that you are 6’5” and you know that you will definitely be flying on an American Airlines Boeing 757. There is a way to find out which seats allow extra legroom without having to sit on an angle on that particular type of aircraft. That would be seat 8B in economy. Maybe you realized that you’re not as agile as you were 20 years ago and hoisting your grandson up in the air last week was a bad idea. The doctor ordered that you sit in a reclining position to alleviate some stress from the pulled muscle in your lower back (I’m not a doctor and never pulled a muscle). Well, don’t sit in seats 6A, B, or C or in seats 25A, B, C, D, E, or F if you are booking a flight on a US Airways Boeing 757 in coach class. Since there is a wall behind those seats, your ability to recline will be limited compared to seats 5A, B, or C or seats 24A, B, C, D, E, or F.
You can get a whole rundown of good seats, poor seats, seats that you should be aware of, plus other detailed information at www.seatguru.com. At the site, you’ll see a listing of popular airlines as well as each model flown in their fleet. Also, there are instructions on how to use this web site.
Unfortunately there isn’t too much that you can do about choosing who sits next to you. You can at least make it a semi comfortable plane ride depending on what seat you plan to sit in. Therefore, right before you call your travel agent to book a flight on a Continental Airlines Boeing 767 via expedia.com, you can at least tell them you don’t want to sit in seats 45A, B, K or L if you have big hips. The widths of those seats are reduced due to the curvature of the plane. And for the talkative person next to you, the only thing I can tell you is that you should have never made eye contact with them.