When traveling, always try to check in online before you actually leave for the airport. You can print your boarding pass at home, and hopefully pick the right seat for your tastes. Where are the best seats on the plane you may ask? Well, going to sites like http://www.seatguru.com can help you decide. You have to know however, what kind of plane you’ll be riding on, and what the seat arrangement is like. That can get a little bit time consuming. So there are some general rules to follow:
1. Seats at the bulkhead (the bulkhead is the very first row, with a wall in front of you) have lots of legroom, but if you don’t board in the first round of people, you’ll most likely lose out on that valuable overhead space. The problem with these seats, is there’s nowhere to put your things! There’s no seat in front of you to stow your small luggage. Also, if you sit near here, be prepared for a screaming baby. This is where they put the bassinet!
2. Seats in the aisle are optimal, but come with the problem where you tend to get placed in the later boarding groups. You also lose out on the ability to grab overhead space.
3. Seats against the window are great for long trips, so you have something to lean on when you sleep. and you get to put your things overhead first most of the time. But you’ll be locked in – so you can’t get to the bathroom as easily. The under seat area is cramped because planes are curved, you just get less space to stow your stuff.
4. Seats on the emergency exit are excellent. I love these seats because there is so much room you feel like you’ve been upgraded to a higher class! But, they want strong people who are prepared to save the plane in case it crashes. The bright side of things is that if the plane is actually crashing, I doubt anyone would be mentally ready to open a door anyhow, but if you did have to open it: at least you’d be first out!
4. Middle seats. They statistically have the highest amount of trash in the middle pocket. I have no idea why, but that’s the case. Also they have no arm rests. The good thing about them is that you have slightly more space under the seat than the window seat would have.
The bad news:
According to a recent NY Times article, (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/09/travel/09prac.html?ref=travel) these choice seats are now getting high price tags.
It’s really up to you how important it is to sit at the front of the plane. In my opinion, if you have a connection in a big airport that you need that extra time to get off the plane and get to your next flight, it is 100% worth it to upgrade to an aisle seat toward the front of the plane, just don’t take the bulkhead so that you have that underseat area to stick your things.