Programs: NZ Silver & Koru, QF Bronze, UA Member, Velocity Red. (Just a smidgeon of status!)
Posts: 289
I am usually found in ecomony.
I always try for an aisle, any aisle, as I am tallish (6'2" and slightly claustrophobic).
So:
1) Aisle preference is paramount (on long haul usually go for middle block of seats)
and try to max distance from lav on long flights
5) Distance from the lav
and try to choose an empty seat next to me
4) Neighboring seat currently unoccupied
the rest typically do not concern me
2) Extra leg room (such as an exit row)
3) Close to the front of the plane
6) Seat able to recline
7) Having a seat in front of you for underseat storage
8) Engine noise
9) Other?
Just curious what other FT's have as priorities when picking where they sit. Please rank in order of importance:
1) Window/Aisle preference
2) Extra leg room (such as an exit row)
3) Close to the front of the plane
4) Neighboring seat currently unoccupied
5) Distance from the lav
6) Seat able to recline
7) Having a seat in front of you for underseat storage
8) Engine noise
9) Other?
For me, it would probably be 1, 7, 2, 6, 3, 4, 8, 5.
(Couldn't find another thread like this by searching and thought this could be fun.)
The most common one for me to fly is TATL AA 777 Y class.
For this the order is:
1 – Having the seat next to me empty (but this is hard to guarantee in advance...so I then go on to the next qualifications and hope I get the seat next to me free.)
2 – Window seat. I am a broad person and I can lean against the wall and not disturb the person next to me, and there is that extra bit of storage between the bottom of the seat and the wall..
3 – As far back as possible (I want to be one of the last ones served – I don’t understand why everyone wants to be up front and get their meal first...)
4 – With a powerport.
5 – Ideally the seat in front is broken and can’t recline – but this also is hard to arrange in advance!
3 – As far back as possible (I want to be one of the last ones served – I don’t understand why everyone wants to be up front and get their meal first...)
My mom always wanted to be as far back as possible as she was convinced it was safest in a crash.
Why do you want your meal last? I can only think of negative reasons:
1) Least choice of meals
2) If you're going to sleep after, waiting for everyone to get served = get to sleep later. (of course, for two-meal TATL or transpac flights, that also means more time before breakfast or the pre-landing snack, but I usually sleep through those unless the FA wakes me to ask me to unrecline.)
Of course, that's only an issue in Y - in premium classes where the cabin is smaller, in many cases the meal comes in courses, and on AA in particular FEBO applies the timing is going to be less of an issue.
If you've got connections or are going someplace where the immigration/customs lines can back up, being up front also means being off sooner. For domestic non-stops, it's much less of an issue except in the rare cases where I can get away with just a carry on bag since it's a case of "hurry up and wait at the carousel."
__________________ My Blog|'It's difficult to get a man to understand something if his salary depends upon his not understanding it.'
I like sitting as close to the front of the plane as I can for a number of reasons, including exiting and getting through Customs/Immigration before the pack gets there, but one of the things I most disliked about sitting in the back of the plane on longer flights was during meal service, the people who were up front would have finished eating and would start lining up for the bathroom in the back right about the time the people in the back of the plane were eating their meal. When you're sitting in an airplane seat and someone is standing in the narrow aisle right next to you, which parts of the standing person's body are just a few inches away from you and your meal, and right in line with your face? It's kind of like wanting to be the lead dog on a sled team, because if you're not, the view in front of you doesn't change.
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Last edited by youreadyfreddie; Oct 6, 09 at 12:14 pm.
Just curious what other FT's have as priorities when picking where they sit. Please rank in order of importance:
1) Window/Aisle preference
2) Extra leg room (such as an exit row)
3) Close to the front of the plane
4) Neighboring seat currently unoccupied
5) Distance from the lav
6) Seat able to recline
7) Having a seat in front of you for underseat storage
8) Engine noise
9) Other?
For me, it would probably be 1, 7, 2, 6, 3, 4, 8, 5.
(Couldn't find another thread like this by searching and thought this could be fun.)
I get airsick, sometimes in smooth flights..but I have found that sitting in the aisle seat right over the wings greatly reduces the motion experienced. So, my first priority is 1, aisle seat, followed by location over the wings.
My third priority is 2, legroom. Considering that there is an emerg exit over the wings, I go for that row or the one behind it, as emerg row seats don't recline.
On aircraft like the ERJ or SAAB 340 I will attempt to get the single seat aisle so nobody is beside me..on other aircraft I will tend to take the seat that online shows nobody beside it..but that can change
I also try at all costs to avoid families and children. They scream, they get sick, and parents have this habit of seat poaching. This is not particularly easy to do, but with online seat selection you can sometimes identify where groups are..if you see an entire row of occupied seats with other empty rows around it, it's a good bet it's a family, so I will not sit directly in front or behind that group.
I look for the single occupied window seats and then pick the aisle in the same row, leaving only the middle which is less likely to be chosen up to flight time.
Exit row window (even if it doesn't recline)
Bulkhead window
Exit row aisle
bulkhead aisle
Exit row middle (one of two cases where I will take a middle seat)
bulkhead middle (the other case where I will take a middle seat)
seat with next seat unoccupied (lateral space)
seat near front of plane
window seat
aisle seat
premium cabins:
obviously the single seats in the 1-2-1 config in intl F or some intl J flights
center block of 1-2-1 if i must
those single seats you see on the Embraer 170
bulkhead window seat
bulkhead aisle seat
window seat
aisle seat
for 747, nose section is really cool, i think what i'll do is do something like ORD-HKG-SIN someday in Intl F and then for the HKG-SIN segment, go up to the upper deck and ask someone to switch (i imagine most will say yes) so i can experience the upper deck once. or i'll just try LH F.
Why do you want your meal last? I can only think of negative reasons:
1) Least choice of meals
2) If you're going to sleep after, waiting for everyone to get served = get to sleep later. (of course, for two-meal TATL or transpac flights, that also means more time before breakfast or the pre-landing snack, but I usually sleep through those unless the FA wakes me to ask me to unrecline.)
The reason I like to get served my meal near the last is:
It takes them say roughly 45 minutes to get the food and drinks served. Immediatly when they are done serving they go back and pick up the trash, which only takes about 20 minutes to do. Now it only takes me about 20 minutes to eat off the tray what I am going to have, so if I am in the front I am sitting there with the dirty stuff for a long time before they come pick it up - if I am sitting in the back they are getting around to picking it up just as I am getting done.
As far as running out of stuff, I make about 3-4 TATL round trips a year and almost always sit in the back. Only once have they ever ran out of one of the choices on me...and I'm not such a picky eater that the other choice was a problem.
When you're sitting in an airplane seat and someone is standing in the narrow aisle right next to you, which parts of the standing person's body are just a few inches away from you and your meal, and right in line with your face? It's kind of like wanting to be the lead dog on a sled team, because if you're not, the view in front of you doesn't change.
Ewwww.
Regardless, if I'm on a long haul AA 777, I'll be in 31A/J if at all possible; those seats are so much better than anything else AA has in coach (except maybe 1A on an ERJ) it trumps any question of location further forward.
__________________ My Blog|'It's difficult to get a man to understand something if his salary depends upon his not understanding it.'
Just curious what other FT's have as priorities when picking where they sit. Please rank in order of importance:
1) Window/Aisle preference
2) Extra leg room (such as an exit row)
3) Close to the front of the plane
4) Neighboring seat currently unoccupied
5) Distance from the lav
6) Seat able to recline
7) Having a seat in front of you for underseat storage
8) Engine noise
9) Other?
For me, it would probably be 1, 7, 2, 6, 3, 4, 8, 5.
(Couldn't find another thread like this by searching and thought this could be fun.)
1 - window
2-extra leg room (though 1 & 2 are very close to each other)
6-especially on longer flights
4
3
5
7
8
Underseat storage for me is very low - I would rather have an exit row seat than have underseat storage in front of me.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by amlothi
Just curious what other FT's have as priorities when picking where they sit. Please rank in order of importance:
1) Window/Aisle preference
2) Extra leg room (such as an exit row)
3) Close to the front of the plane
4) Neighboring seat currently unoccupied
5) Distance from the lav
6) Seat able to recline
7) Having a seat in front of you for underseat storage
8) Engine noise
9) Other?
1) Avoiding middle seat
2) Seat able to recline
3) Window preference
4) Extra leg room (such as an exit row)
5) Close to the front of the plane
6) Neighboring seat currently unoccupied
7) Engine noise
8) Having a seat in front of you for underseat storage
Distance to lav isn't important--other than not wanting to be at the back of the bus near them!
Fortunately, it never comes to it (as I usually book cheap fares well in advance, there are always window or at least aisle seats available), but I ordered them the way I did to reflect that I would take a non-reclining non-exit row window over a reclining exit row middle. Or, rather, this:
