How to choose seats on an airplane: life hacks

Aircraft seat classification
The more expensive the ticket, the higher the class, and hence the comfort. As a rule, there are three classes in the cabin of a large liner: first, business and economy. The first is the most comfortable, often with sleeping places. These are the best seats on the plane, which can be prohibitively expensive.

If you often fly medium-haul liners, you should pay attention to the business class. It is cheaper, but is equipped with high-comfort seats with a large distance between the rows and increased legroom. The passenger can take a comfortable position, use Hi-Fi entertainment systems and other amenities.

Ordinary tourists fly in economy class, which provides a basic level of comfort. There are closely spaced rows of standard-sized seats, optimized legroom and a meager range of extras. Everything is designed for a standard passenger, but everyone's physiology is different. Someone has long legs, someone is overweight, and someone has special needs that hardly fit into aviation standards.

In order to feel worthy during the flight, it is worthwhile to determine in advance which seats are best to book on the plane. The Seat Maps website can help you with this. For example, if you want to select seats on an Citilink Airbus A320, then go here https://seatmaps.com/airlines/qg-citilink/airbus-a320/

Seats with a porthole
If you want to see more or, conversely, sleep, the best option is window seats on the plane. Just remember that the walls of the salons in the area of ​​the portholes have a curvature and there may be less space for the shoulders than in other places. Nevertheless, this choice of seat on the plane has a lot of advantages:

- Good lighting ─ if you plan to read, this is ideal.
- Freedom ─ no one will bother you, because no one will "squeeze" through your place, and your elbow at the porthole will not bother anyone.
- Great mood ─ the wonderful view of clouds, stars or landscapes below will not let you get bored.

This place has only two drawbacks:

- it will be more difficult to get into the toilet without disturbing the neighbors;
- you will have to reach for on-board food.

Closer to the aisle
Aisle seating gives you more space on one side. It will be easier for you to get up, you will be the first to start getting out after landing. These are undoubted advantages.

On the other hand, you will have to get up every time your neighbors try to go to the toilet or stretch. In addition, your outstretched legs will get in the way of the food carts that will constantly roll down the aisle of the stewardess. Perhaps these are the most restless places.

Place in the middle
The least preferred is the middle seat, especially in salons with a 5-seat layout. You will have to ask one of the passengers to move every time you want to stretch your legs or use the toilet. Food You will receive food last, you will have to reach for it. In flight, you will not see anything, and after landing, you will be among the last to leave.

Such seats on an airplane are always sold out last, because few people want to sit sandwiched between two strangers for several hours. To avoid such situations, book your seats in advance. Of course, if you do not fly in a friendly company, in which no one interferes with anyone, by definition.

Near the emergency exit
To book a seat at the exit, study the cabin map of the liner when checking in for a flight on the airline's website. You will see such chairs in a wide gap between the rows next to the emergency exit icons.

On such a chair, you will get significantly more legroom and will be able to leave the plane faster in case of emergency. But you won't be allowed to keep hand luggage under them, you won't have an entertainment system monitor on the back of the front seat, and there will be a slight draft from the escape hatches all the time.

In addition, the chair near the emergency exit is a little narrower than the others, and the table for it is located in the armrest, which is why it is more flimsy than the standard folding one.

The conclusion is that these are not the best seats on the plane, but they have their advantages, especially for tall passengers, and also in terms of safety. At the same time, if you are traveling with children, pregnant or physically unhealthy, you should not book them, because in any case the flight attendants will ask you to change seats.

The safest places in the tail of an airplane
The rear of the cabin can be excessively noisy if the aircraft's engines are located in the tail section. In addition, this part of the aircraft is more prone to chatter than others, and boarding and disembarking in the case of using one ladder requires more time and effort.

On the other hand, there are usually a lot of free places and more chances to settle down with more comfort. But the most significant plus of such places is their relatively high safety. According to statistics, more than half of the passengers who survived plane crashes were sitting in the tail of the liner. These are the safest places on the plane.

What to do if you got the wrong place?
If you are still unlucky with a seat, then after landing there is still a chance to take the most comfortable seats on the plane. Of course, if there are suitable free seats.

After the flight attendant's phrase "Boarding is over" sounds on board, you have five minutes to take any free seat. No need to be shy, flight attendants always treat this with understanding, especially with a good reason. The main thing is not to hesitate, otherwise smarter passengers will get ahead of you.

In extreme cases, you will always have time to take a seat according to the purchased ticket. However, a much better solution is to pre-book a seat on the plane. You can choose the most convenient when buying a ticket or during check-in for a flight. Agree, it's much calmer.