Hey forum users!
Assuming you're one of those travellers who enjoys the window seat for the views, is there a best practice for understanding which side of the plane to sit on for an upcoming flight? What were some of your highlight views?
Thanks! :)


If there are any aviation photography fans out there, maybe you have some tips?

It's difficult to plan for a particular landmark to be on the left or right of the aircraft. If it's close enough to be really visible, then flight path variations due to wind and weather can easily move it from one side to the other. Sometimes there are interesting views out one side when landing, such as Windsor Castle on the left on an eastbound approach to Heathrow or Mount Rainier also on the left in a westbound approach to Sea-Tac - except that it's on the right for northbound landings, and there's no way to predict which it will be early enough to pick a seat - but not often (at least at the airports I usually fly to).

I usually prefer a seat (iall else being comparable) on the shady side of the plane to avoid glare. That's the north side for east-west flights in the northern hemisphere.

Hey Efrem! Thanks so much for being the first person to reply to my message! That's a shame! What about for the take-off leg of the flight? It might be easier to gauge which direction the aircraft might take-off in, based on what other aircraft are doing that day?

Planes generally take and land into the direction of the wind. Winds can shift very quickly. Taking off from Miami if you take off to the East you get a beautiful view of downtown Miami on the right and if you go out to sea Miami Beach. If you take off to the West you get the area out to the Everglades, far less eventful. So, there's really no way to "preplan." Of course, some takeoff/landing patterns can have great views on both sides. Or both have views of industrial parks. The right question would be which airports offer great views all around.

Maybe but by waiting until day of to gauge it may be too late to switch seats (unless you're on an airline with open seating like Southwest) and even then, winds can shift rapidly. I've been at airports multiple times and seen arrivals & departures swap directions because of the winds changing direction, driving a change in the takeoff and landing directions and there are so many variables that in many instances it's really a case of making a guess and hoping for the best odds in many circumstances and for some places or things I want to see it seems like I always guess wrong like trying to guess what side of the plane to be on for coming into DAY to try to see my house/town. In some cases, the odds of it working out are higher than other locations. It's even more difficult to try to plan to see anything en route because your flight path can depend on even more variables.

Your question may be better answered if you can provide specific airports or specific routes you're asking about.

For example:
-HNL: I always try to go with the left side of the aircraft going into and out of HNL. Most of the time you land on Runway 8L at HNL and that means getting a good view of Pearl Harbor on landing though if you're on the right side and coming from the US Mainland or Maui or the Big Island and are on the right side, you'll at least get a good view of Honolulu and Oahu while on downwind. When you takeoff from 8L or 8R, you get a great view of Waikiki and Diamond Head as you depart. That said, I've also had a couple 4R arrivals and the views aren't as good in that scenario when on the left side and I had one 26R arrival at HNL so that was a bit of misfortune but my last few flights to HNL have all been 8L arrivals and 8L or 8R departures.
-DCA: I usually go with the left side of the aircraft flying because if you land on Runway 19, you'll get a great view of Washington, D.C. as you land. For flying out of DCA, I go with the right side usually because if you takeoff to the north on Runway 1, you again get a good view of Washington, D.C. as you takeoff. The winds are variable enough that it's all a crap shoot
-SAN: I always try to get a left side window seat because you usually land on Runway 27 and you get a great view of downtown San Diego as you land. I'm less picky flying out of San Diego but lucked out on my last trip because we took off to the east on Runway 9 and when I upgraded to FC, the only seat left was a window seat on the right side and I got to see downtown again due to taking off to the east, which isn't as common for San Diego.
-LAX: I usually go with the right side because most of the time you're arriving and taking off to the West at LAX. When landing to the west, if you're on the right side of the aircraft, you get to see downtown LA and the San Gabriel Mountains. That said, over the nighttime hours at LAX, aircraft land to the east (coming in from over the ocean instead of coming in from over the land) and on occasion winds dictate landing to the east at LAX, though I've never experienced this.
-SEA: The winds varied so much at SEA that it wasn't worth trying to plan around and I would see things I wanted to see regardless (well, if it wasn't cloudy, which it often is in SEA) and there was enough to see in any direction that it didn't matter as much to me. If landing to the south (coming in over downtown), being on the right side allowed for seeing much of downtown, Puget Sound, and the Olympia Mountains while being on the left side allowed for seeing Lake Washington, Bellevue, Lake Sammamish, and the Cascades as well as Mt Rainier while approaching Seattle from the east.

Again, your best bet if you're looking for more specifics is to ask about specific airports/cities and others can chime in with their experiences and insight.

Hey EXP100! Thanks for your feedback! That is a good question actually! I'd say LAX has never disappointed on take off. The last flight I had into LAX was remarkable, we flew along the coastline from Santa Barbara and LA, over Malibu, inland towards downtown LA before doing a 180 and pulling up onto final approach towards the west. It was a glorious!

I’ll agree with ATOBTTR’s summary (except it was more of a thesis :p )

basically it’s helpful to know what you might want to see, and to have a reasonable idea of normal arrival and departure traffic flows for different wind conditions / runway utilizations

if you’re willing to share the routes for which you’re seeking side-of-the-plane recommendations, you’ll probably get a fair amount of more relevant info

the LAX arrival that OP described is almost universal for flights from the Pacific Northwest, northern California, Hawaii, and Alaska, as well as TPACs

It really depends on the flight path and one's interest. As such, the best practice is probably to understand the flight path perhaps followed by normal landing and take off directions.

For me personally as one who spends more at high altitude while not in a plane flying by mountain ranges is high on my list - especially by mountains I have been on. Nothing like scoping out a climbing route from air. Best unexpected view was on flight to Japan that went further north than normal. We flew past Denali and the south face which a few years before I had climbed. Another unexpected view was a flight from Guam to Japan and flying by Iwo Jima. Seeing many other islands and then Iwo Jima one understood why it was so important to the US during WWII.

“A” seat (left side window) on overnight U.S.-to-Europe flights, particularly from the west coast which are generally on more northerly tracks than those from the east coast
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...af3d6a8fa.jpeg

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...6eac5a9b8.jpeg

Hey ATOBTTR, thanks for the very, very detailed response specifically on certain airports! Are you a pilot? You have a very deep understanding of the runways at those airports! You mention variables, aside from wind and aircraft activity in the local area, what other factors might influence the flightpaths?

I do have a specific flight in mind actually. I usually fly between DBX - LHR - LAX, so ideally knowing which sides to sit on for each leg, both ways! Burj Khalifa, Dubai Palms, Big Ben and the London Eye, Hollywood Sign, Disneyland!

Any guidance appreciated! :)

Hey jrl767, thanks for the response! I've dropped a response below, main focus is DBX - LHR - LAX and return obviously! Are you a pilot too? Is that why you have 767 in your name?

Also those photos you posted of the northern lights are INSANE! I spent 3 evenings on boat in Reykjavik trying to spot it, and no luck! How did it feel seeing it from and airplane window??

Hey FlyingUnderTheRadar, thanks for the reply! Are you a mountaineer? When you're flying somewhere with a mountain range, do you try and plan which side of the plane to sit on, based on the flightpath? What's your strategy and how successful has it been?

Also, what was it about Iwo Jima?

Not a pilot but was aircrew (Flight Test Engineer) for several years with an Aerospace Engineering background. Also have flown a lot commercially for work and personal travel and on top of that, being an AvGeek I often put a lot of research into where to sit when flying in to certain places. :)

For the flightpaths, yes there are a lot of variables beginning with weather at your origin and destination and en route. En route, major weather systems and the patterns for the jetstream that day play a big role in the routes pilots and operations try to plan for to get the best fuel burn rate while also avoiding any severe weather. Other factors include airspace management and restrictions since all aircraft can't fly the same route at the same altitude at the same time. When flying international, overflight rights become a factor and airlines may either voluntarily or involuntarily avoid flying over certain countries, impacting routing decisions. For example, when flying from Dallas to Hawaii, the most direct route (the Great Circle Route) goes over Mexico but a flight will often stay north of the US-Mexico border to avoid going into airspace and incurring the fees from flying through Mexican airspace. Other times it's involuntary. Many airlines cannot fly over Russia right now due. When I flew to/from Korea a few years ago, our routings took us over Japan to keep us well clear of Russian airspace, adding an additional hour or two of flight time over what the flight might normally otherwise take. For landing and takeoff, in addition to the winds/weather, other factors can dictate what you may see, such as deconfliction with other airports in the area. In NYC, you can often receive what may seem odd or illogical flight patterns but all have to do with managing the traffic for 3 very busy airports plus several other smaller airfields and aircraft in the area.

For DXB-LHR, I can't speak to Dubai since I've never flown into/out of Dubai but for landing in Heathrow, I've found the right side is the best side to be on as if you land to the west (coming in from the east), you'll pass over downtown London and get views of Tower Bridge, the London Eye, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, etc. which will be on the right side of the aircraft. If you land to the east (coming in from the west), you may still get a good view of London coming in as you fly past London to then come back around and land at LHR. Heathrow can be a mixed bag as I've landed and taken off in both directions over my flights to/from/through Heathrow. On my most recent trip through LHR, we landed from the west and a few hours later when I flew out we took off to the west so in neither case did we fly over downtown London. On the flight in, we were on the left side of the aircraft (which I selected for our departure out of Toulouse) and since we landed coming in from the left, we had a great view of Windsor Castle.

For LHR-LAX, when landing at LAX, Disneyland is too far off to see and it's unlikely you'll fly far enough south to see it while coming into LAX since you'd be coming from the north / east coming from Europe. It's not even easy to spot Disneyland when landing at Orange County (SNA) which is much closer to Disneyland. But if you're on the right side of the aircraft, you'll see downtown LA, the San Gabriel Mountains, and the Hollywood sign (well, if you can see any of it through the LA smog :D ).

3 years in Boeing Flight Test, the highlight was as Test Director on the Number 4 767-200 (~50 flights and ~140 hours)
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...1c9d94465.jpeg

also TD for the entire pre-delivery test program on Delta’s first jet (5 flights, including first flight and FAA First-of-Model certification)
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...9c7d341a2.jpeg

For LAX, it's also not unusual to get a good view from either side. There are times when the approach takes you over LA from the North/West and then you make a 180-degree turn to join the approach path, so you'll get to see it from both sides. Interestingly, when I arrived home a couple of weeks ago from Europe, I was really surprised this was our approach given that we were basically coming in from the Northeast and should have just joined the regular approach somewhere over the San Bernardino Mountains. I grew up about 25 miles east of LAX and our house was not only under the approach path, but it was evidently one of those "on-ramps" where the planes would make a big u-turn to join the approach. It was cool to see them make the turn and I still look for our old house when I fly into LAX if we're making the same turn. I also recall the 110 or the 710 was a common turning spot based on my morning commutes to downtown LA. Used to see the Qantas flight in the mornings making its u-turn.

One of my favorites is flying into LHR. It always astounds me how the approach takes us over central London and I always get great photos. What a welcome to London!