

Ask HN: best seats on a plane - swah

I just booked a flight which had the following pattern of available seats: http://bit.ly/d1IXh4.<p>What are the factors people consider when choosing their seats?
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jamram82
I flew every week for last 3 years. So here are my truths from trenches

\- Avoid seats in the middle. Period. Exception - exit row or front row seats

\- Select seats which do not have seats in front

\- Do careful consideration before taking emergency exit seats. The door is
more than 50 pounds. You need to unlatch it , twist-turn to get the door
inside or throw it out.

\- Do not take seats beyond the half way of the plane. The more you go behind,
more you hear engine noise and longer it takes to disembark

\- Avoid seats near toilets. You need to put up with stink or people standing
in your legroom

\- Take aisle seats if the wheels-2-wheels time is more than 3 hours

\- For frequent flyers - note down the sun direction if you are taking window
seat. It will help you choose left window seat or right window seat. You do
not want to face the sun all the way during the flight. You selected window
seat for a view, it is stupid to close down the windows.

\- If flying red eye, choose window seat because you can rest your head
against the window.

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noonespecial
<http://www.seatguru.com/>

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ryanto
close to the front of the plane, but not the front row. this makes de-boarding
the plane very quick. reason to avoid the front row is because there is no
seat in front of you to store your bag/laptop under. they'll make you use the
overhead bin which can be a hassle to get to.

window. this has absolutely nothing to do with view and everything to do with
being able to control shade. you'd be surprised at how many people will not
block the sunlight. bonus points for picking the window on the sun side of the
plane.

exit row window can be a very bad seat. sometimes they don't have army rests
on the window side.

extra leg room seats generally come with an extra price (this includes exit
row). not worth it to me, could be worth it to you.

first class. if your airline has first class ask how much an upgrade costs
when you check in. i use to fly las/msp 2 times a month on north west. the
upgrade was 49$ and there were always seats available. now a days all the
'good' airlines don't even bother with first class.

saving time is huge. your time is generally worth much more than the cost.

fly when there will be less delays, redeyes.

boarding quickly, exiting quickly. don't waste 20 minutes standing in line to
board the plane. it's much better to sit in the waiting area on your laptop
and be the last to board when there is no wait. this can be a problem if you
need overhead bin space. exiting quickly is all about being near the front of
the plane.

dont check bags. just buy your shampoo/liquids at your destination. think of
this as cost vs time.

avoid change overs/stops.

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petervandijck
\- Emergency exit row = more leg room. Those are usually taken though.

\- Isle seat if you are not interested in the view.

\- Window seat if you are.

\- Front of plane lets you get out faster.

\- Must: ask for a baby bassinet _in advance_ if flying with a baby.

\- On really long trips don't take the seat next to the bathroom. Then again,
on fully booked planes those may be the seats where you have a whole row for
yourself.

In your case, as others have noted, 23 window seat looks like the winner.
Weird that it's still available.

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smcnally
I fly a couple of times a month. I travel lightly and my preference is the
front of the plane. Getting off the plane, post-arrival, can take an addl
20-30 (maddening) minutes.

I also prefer the aisle Though window seats mean being disturbed less by
others needing to get up

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xstaticdev
Easily a Row 23 window seat. More leg room and don't have the person in front
of your leaning their seat back into your personal space.

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sz
12A looks like the obvious choice. No seat in front of you (I had that once
and it was better than flying first).

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petervandijck
I think you're looking at the image the wrong way round. (It's rotated in the
_wrong_ way so not really your fault.)

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sz
I think you have it the wrong way. Every plane I've ever flown on (>100)
starts numbering at the front, and you can see the wings are clearly swept
downward.

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Gibbon
I prefer sitting near the center of gravity of the plane, if at all possible.

~~~
rdamico
Why?

