One of the things that doesn’t often cross people’s minds when until they get to their aircraft, already tired and stressed and not looking forward to a flight of perhaps 12 hours or more, is when on earth they are going to sit.
For those of you who have some experience, skip the next paragraph or three, I’ll have some decent info by the end of the post, trust me.
First, you may not have realized it but airline seats are numbered and assigned by a pattern. In almost all modern airliners the very first eat in the front left corner of the aircraft (where you normally enter and exit) is row 1, seat A. The seats are lettered acros the aircraft (as viewed from where you’d sit, looking forward) from A , the left side window seat, to some other letter designating the right-hand side window seat in that row.
The rows go from the very front, 1 to the very rear, as high as 68 or 70 in very large aircraft like 747′s. You don’t have to memorize all this info, like everything else on the internet, there’s a great source called, of all things, SeatGuru.com Seat Guru has most everything your heart could desire in their information and recommendations, except they don’t cover all the airlines that fly to the Philippines. They do cover some, like Northwest and Cathay Pacific, so take a look before you select your seat. The choices vary widely, even on the same airline. If you don’t know the type aircraft you’ll be on, and your ticket isn’t positive, go to the airline’s own website or call the airline direct and ask.
Browse through Cathay’s 747′s and Northwest’s. Notice how every seat on Cathay has a power plug for your laptop and not a single one on Northwest does. Fares themselves vary greatly, and making yourself comfortable on a long trip can often be determined by the airline you choose.
Notice that sometimes there’s no row 1 .. the space might be taken up by a closet or galley. Notice also that the letters often skip. If there is no seat where a letter should be, then the airline will often skip it in the sequence. Also, so far as I know, you will not see a seat with an “I” or and “O” letter .. too easy to confuse with the numerals 1 and 0.
If you like window seats as I do on shorter flights, you have more choices the larger the plane. However, when I travel trans-Pacific I don’t like being ‘stowed’ three deep at the end of the row and disturbing everyone else when I need to go to the CR or just stretch. Best bets on 747′s (the most likely choice of steed) is a ‘D’ or a ‘G’ seat near the middle of the cavin. The smoothest ride is over the wing and a ‘D’ seat will get out before a ‘G’ in a given row because ‘D’s are on the left (exit) side. ‘C’ and ‘H’ are good choices too, but there will always be at least one more pax (passenger) to climb over you on his/her way to the loo.
When I travel with my spouse or a companion I care to talk to, a like a little-used 747 quirk called the ‘twosomes’. On most airlines they start at about row 65. The left hand seats are ‘A’ (window) and the ‘C’ seats are aisle. On the right side it is the ‘H’ aisle and ‘K’ window. These are cozy, just two seats together, and the window seats have a huge amount of space next to them for storage during flight. You will also board first on most airlines, since they fill from the rear. Disadvantages: hard to see movie screens, noisy, and in turbulence the tail of the aircraft often moves about more. Plus, you boarded first, right? So everyone else on the aircraft gets off before you.
Talk to me more about your fav seats.
