Travel with Children - Best Seats for Family and Child on ANA's new International Airplane

Hi All... first time poster.

My wife and 2 year old are traveling from round trip to the US from Japan on ANA's new airplane in a few months. The seat arrangements are 2-4-3. We currently have 3 seats together on the window side of the aircraft as far front as we could get it. My wife is wondering if we should be sitting in the center section with 4 seats and just hope that that fourth seat remains unoccupied. Currently the flight is pretty empty, but I am not sure how it will be as we get closer to the travel day.

I think we are over thinking it a bit, but it is our first time traveling for 12 hours on the plane with a toddler.

Any suggestions or advice? Should we move to the center section or is it better in the window section?

Thank you in advance.

Welcome to FT psprof!

I know nothing about this plane, but my preference would be to keep the seats on the side. There's no guarantee the empty seat in the middle row would remain that way; my recent flight experiences have been that planes are flying pretty full.

On the side is a bit more privacy.

Hi All... first time poster.

My wife and 2 year old are traveling from round trip to the US from Japan on ANA's new airplane in a few months. The seat arrangements are 2-4-3. We currently have 3 seats together on the window side of the aircraft as far front as we could get it. My wife is wondering if we should be sitting in the center section with 4 seats and just hope that that fourth seat remains unoccupied. Currently the flight is pretty empty, but I am not sure how it will be as we get closer to the travel day.

I think we are over thinking it a bit, but it is our first time traveling for 12 hours on the plane with a toddler.

Any suggestions or advice? Should we move to the center section or is it better in the window section?

Thank you in advance.

Welcome to FT, psprof!

You are not overthinking it, this is FT after all where details matter. One other scenario to consider is getting the two seats on one side and the aisle seat directly next to it. Gives you two aisle seats and one of you can relax while the other one minds the little one. And maybe the space next to you remains free also.

Welcome to FT, psprof!

You are not overthinking it, this is FT after all where details matter. One other scenario to consider is getting the two seats on one side and the aisle seat directly next to it. Gives you two aisle seats and one of you can relax while the other one minds the little one. And maybe the space next to you remains free also.

Personally, I would book the section of three and stick with that. Empty seats are not something to bet on these days. Without knowing more about your route and dates, it's hard to generalize. Keep in mind that seating charts are notoriously bad indicators of load, especially on Asian carriers were seats in economy are often not assigned for most until checkin.

Also, I would only do what the poster suggests above if you would be willing to swap the aisle seat for window if some poor person does get assigned to it. IMHO, it would be just plain rude to pin that person in between the window and your child while you or your spouse sits comfortably across the aisle.