jphripjah

Will be flying Seattle to Seoul in economy class on Asiana in second week of January with my wife and 18 month old child (infant in own seat).

I believe the airline will provide a car seat for the child if I request it.

The seat configuration on this Airbus A330-300 is 2-4-2.

For seat selection, would you choose:

1. Two seats on the side/window for wife and baby, then my seat right across the aisle (36ACD) (there is no B)
2. Three seats together in the 4 seat middle section of plane (36DEF), risking that someone sits in G and then my wife or I are stuck sitting in a middle seat next to a stranger for 12 hours
3. Three seats in the 4 seat middle section of plane, but stagger so we take the two aisle seats, something like 36DEG, leaving middle F seat open, thinking it's unlikely the airline assigns that unless plane is full, and if they do assign it, I can just switch with that passenger and give them our second aisle seat, so we'd be in same situation as option 2, above.

I have tentatively chosen option 1, 36ACD, thinking that if the kid is in a car seat then we don't really need to aim for "spreading out" over four seats and that it's imperative for my own mental health to at least have an aisle seat. If my wife doesn't like this, we can switch off as to who sits next to the kid.

I'm interested in the opinions of others.

LAX2Anywhere

I’d choose option 1, for the reasons you state.

jrl767

car seat notwithstanding, always, always, always take a window/aisle pair in 2/4/2 when traveling with a child ... in my case I'd take the window directly ahead or behind; as you indicated, you're opting for the aisle across (could also go +/- a row, or the C seat in front/behind, if necessary)

wrp96

Option 1 slightly altered. Child in window, parent (you in Aisle as you've indicated you need to be), with other parent in seat in front of child in car seat. This means if there is an issue with the child in car seat kicking the seat in front that you or your wife are the only ones affected. But you are both still near the child to help each other out.

jphripjah

Why? Maybe there's something I'm missing. I thought it was kind of a close call to maybe try to get three seats together in the 4 seat middle section so we could sit on either side of him. Especially if we didn't have the car seat I might lean that way, so he can stretch out over two seats and sleep.

Another option might be to roll the dice, book only two adult seats, saving the $700 I'm paying for the child, and then book two aisle seats in the 4 configuration and hope the middle seats remain empty and we get all four seats. That's not a risk I'm willing to take though, drawing a full flight and having to hold him in our laps for 12 hours would be hellish, he's way too big and squirmy for that.

pinniped

I would always go Option 1 - ACD. I would never want the middle four.

36AC and 35A or 37A isn't bad either, if one spouse prefers window.

obscure2k

Option 1

jrl767

because *nobody* will be in a middle seat ... and in all honesty, even on a 767 which is 2/3/2, I'd say the same thing

this is an excellent consideration
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CDTraveler

Because sitting next to a car seat for an international flight is Not Fun. The upper part of the seat is often wider than the base, which means the person sitting next to it may end up having to slightly lean away from it for a long, long time. When one side of it is next to wall, nobody on that side ends up with a crick in their neck or a sore back.

JY1024

Let's move this over to the Travel with Children forum for further input from the members/experts there. Thanks. /JY1024, TravelBuzz Moderator

pinniped

I'm not up on the latest rules on car seats....but I seem to recall when our kids were little the car seat had to go in a window seat. The FA wouldn't let you install it in a middle or aisle seat.

It's been 10+ years for us....is that not still the rule?

ft101

Don't do this. It's similar to two passengers taking aisle and window in a block of three hoping the middle remains empty which is pure and simple selfishness as discussed many times here on flyertalk.

yno

there have been many discussions about car seats here and recently it was again said that car seats must be in a window seat for safety reasons: the car seat is attached to the seat, so blocking passage.

One question to OP: never heard of an airline providing a car seat. Are you sure they would provide if you request?

pinniped

How is it remotely selfish if both (adult) passengers have the ability to select those seats?

My wife likes window. I like aisle. Sometimes we book aisle and window. We both have an elite status that usually lets us select those seats for free, even when on separate PNRs (which we sometimes are due to paid/award or two separate awards).

If another passenger books the middle, so be it. We sometimes stay where we are and sometimes offer that passenger a better seat than what they booked.

When someone is between us, we generally don't interact during the flight...talking over the person throughout the flight would be pretty rude. But we mostly read books...the middle person might not even be aware that we know each other.

For what it's worth, in the threads I've seen about this over the years, most of Flyertalk is okay with this.

CDTraveler

Rubbish. There is nothing wrong with a party of two traveling together to select window and aisle in a block of 3 seats unless you spend the flight leaning across someone in the middle seat to talk to your companion. Also, probably a good portion of pax on any given flight hope they have an empty seat next to them and there is nothing wrong with that. Taking action to prevent someone from sitting next to you, however, is wrong as you don't control any seat you didn't pay for.