Originally Posted by
senatorgirth
2-4-2 is a much more user friendly layout for two people traveling together, perhaps the most common flying pattern (after solo travelers, of course). The four in the middle is perfect for families of four (again, quite common family arrangement). 3-3-3 means couples have to nudge elbows with strangers and families of four are broken up. And as others have pointed out, with 2-4-2 no one is more than one seat from an aisle. 2-4-2 is, hands down, a much better layout. Why Boeing continues to crank out jets that don't have such a design is beyond me--Airbus simply makes a more comfortable product.
And until very recently, the 2-5-2 configuration found on some airlines' 777s made a lot of sense as well, since the middle seat in the row of five wouldn't usually be filled until the load factor exceeded 88%. These days, of course, many 777 flights are filled to 100% (at least the ones I've been on).
Many people complain about that middle seat (in the row of five) yet when you look at it objectively, it's really no worse than a window seat in a group of three (in terms of accessing the aisle). Both require that you crawl over two other people.