Ask the Seat Expert

Save money or lap flying with 18-month-old for 11.5 hours?

The Seat Expert — Mon, 17 May 2010 13:00:27 +0000

As adorable as I’m sure your 18-month-old baby is, s/he presents a challenge in this particular situation.

Specifically, are you going to purchase a seat for the baby, or do you intend to carry her/him on your lap?

Delta allows children under the age of two to ride in a parent’s lap, and will only charge 10% of the adult fare (plus taxes and fees) for the child’s ticket. This isn’t a bad deal, but it could definitely make an already long 11.5 hour flight feel twice as long.

If you are planning on purchasing only two seats, your best bets would probably be 15FG or 16AB (see the seat map for this flight). Both are bulkheads and will give you slightly more room to stretch out. The window position at 15G might be slightly better than 16A, but the difference would be negligable. If those seats aren’t available, any AB/FG combination between rows 28-40 should also be suitable, though potentially a bit more cramped should the travelers in front decide to recline their seats.

Stay away from row 41 – the views are obstructed to the point of being nearly non-existent from these seats.

After conducting an exhaustive survey of the parents in the office, however, we strongly recommend purchasing a third seat if your budget allows. The location of the third seat is entirely up to you. If you are going to attend to the child for most of the flight and want to ensure your wife enjoys a view, you will probably want to purchase an A or G seat directly in front of or behind the seats you and your child occupy. On the other hand, if your wife will be attending to the baby during the flight, and you aren’t concerned about the view, an adjacent C or E seat might be preferable, as you will feel less removed from your family.

Enjoy your trip. And give serious consideration to purchasing three tickets … you’ll be glad you did.

Best seats for family of four on Virgin Boeing 747?

The Seat Expert — Sat, 15 May 2010 13:00:15 +0000

To answer your question, we’re going to have to make a couple of assumptions:

By “family of four” we assume you mean two parents and a couple of children, with the children being bigger than a bread box and smaller than your average Saint Bernard. We’re thinking somewhere between the ages of 6 and 12.
We assume you are intending to travel in Economy class. If money is no object, please ignore the rest of this answer and purchase any four First class tickets. Heck, if money is no object, make that five First class tickets and we’ll join you.
And finally, we’re going to assume you actually want to be seated together. Knowing how some families feel about each other when they travel, this is most certainly not a given, but we had to start somewhere.

Before jumping into which seats would be best for your family, it’s important to mention that Virgin flies two versions of the Boeing 747:

Virgin Atlantic Boeing 747 – Version 1
Virgin Atlantic Boeing 747 – Version 2

The configurations are nearly identical, and what differences there are between the two don’t impact our recommendations. Still, this is useful to know in case you end up with a seat near a lavatory that you didn’t realize was going to be near a lavatory.

As to where your family should sit. You have a couple of good options for a family of four on this flight. The middle set of four seats is the most obvious choice. Your family could essentially own a row to itself and spread out as you like without concern for seat mates. If you elect to go this route, we would recommend against any of the bulkhead rows (30, 40, 52), as the armrests contain the tray tables and are therefore non-moveable. Part of the advantage of owning the row is having the ability to raise the armrests and turn your set of seats into an approximation of a sofa.

You might also want to avoid the last couple of rows (64 and 65), as these are relatively high traffic areas, and the associated noise could dash any hopes you have of peaceful, slumbering tots.

Now, on the off chance your children aren’t always best of friends and occasionally tempers flare when confined to small spaces for an extended length of time, you might consider Plan B.

This option involves splitting up the family and owning two rows. Book seats AC and HK in any of rows 61-63 and you could seat one parent with one child, yet still not bother, or be bothered by, a seat mate. During the flight you could swap kids for a change of pace, or even sit both kids together for a bit and grab a moment of respite.

Row 64 would work as well, but there again you abut the high traffic area, so this is a little less desirable.

Enjoy DisneyWorld, Miami, Key West, Cape Canaveral, the Gulf Coast, or wherever you find yourself in the great state of Florida.

When should I buy my tickets to London?

The Seat Expert — Thu, 13 May 2010 17:22:46 +0000

Yours isn’t really an airline seating question, so we here at SeatExpert can’t offer much assistance … but we know where you can go to get an answer.

There used to be a site called Farecast.com that would display predictive airfares for future time frames based on historical trends. In 2008, Farecast was bought up by Microsoft and the technology and feature set now resides on Bing.com.

Just go to Bing.com/travel, and below the travel search form you will see a section where you can enter a departure and destination city, and Bing will show you a graph indicating when fares will be the highest and lowest. The predictions aren’t 100% accurate, but they are probably about as close as you are going to get and can at a minimum give you a good idea as to whether or not you can expect prices to rise or fall prior to your flight.

For what it’s worth, we entered Denver as a departure city and London as the destination and it looks like fares aren’t expected to fluctuate much for your flight dates. Of course, fares from your departure city could be much different, so you will want to try it out yourself.

Even if you don’t find a lower fare, we are sure you will have a fantastic time in London.

How can seven women get from the “Chili Capital of America” to the “Cradle of the Renaissance” in comfort?

The Seat Expert — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 23:09:35 +0000

Traveling with six good friends to Florence, Italy … now that sounds like a great trip.

To make sure your flight is as enjoyable as possible for your group, however, I think you should probably consider changing seats.

First, the good news about your current seats – you have a lot of extra legroom.

Ok, now that we have that out of the way, let’s talk about the downsides. The most obvious is the proximity to the lavatories. In addition to the possible odor, be aware that this is a high traffic area and the person seated in the aisle seat is likely to endure some jostling.

Being exit rows, with exit hatches, the windows are going to be smaller than standard and not ideal for sightseeing. But the real problem with sightseeing from these two rows are the position of the exits directly over the wings. It will be difficult for you and your friends to see anything but sky from these seats.

You say you will all want to get some sleep anyway though (no doubt, you want to be ready to hit Florence running), so perhaps the viewing opportunities, or lack thereof, won’t be a big issue.

Shut eye may not come so easily in these two rows, especially in row 20, which has restricted recline due to the exit row behind it. Add to that the very real possibility that the seven of you could be shivering like a pack of nervous Chihuahuas – these exit rows do tend to be chilly – and rather than hitting the ground running when you arrive, you be hitting the hay.

Unless you are a senior women’s nordic basketball team traveling to Italy for some sort of olfactory restoration surgical procedure, you will probably be happier moving to any set of seats from row 29 to row 40. The views will be better, the temperature more comfortable, the atmosphere more pleasant – and you won’t be surrounded by six cranky women.

How can I be seated in row 19 when the plane only has 18 rows?

The Seat Expert — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 21:28:46 +0000

You are correct, the United Express ERJ 145 aircraft only has 18 rows. So how, you might wonder, is it possible you are seated in row 19?

United has code share agreements with two airlines that provide ERJ 145 service for United Express – ExpressJet and Trans State Airlines. Both operate essentially identical versions of the aircraft, with one small difference – the ExpressJet row numbering skips right over row 13. Because the rows go directly from 12 to 14, ExpressJet ERJ 145s have a row 19, whereas Trans State Airlines ERJ 145s only go to row 18.

So, if you are in row 19 on a United Express ERJ 145, you can be sure you are flying on an ExpressJet code share flight.

As to the armrests. The center armrests on this aircraft are moveable on the AB side of the plane. The rest are not.

Now you can relax knowing that your flight does not have an unlucky row 13.

Preferred Seat on Singapore Air … Will I be refused alcohol?

admin — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 19:57:58 +0000

Singapore Airlines publishes a list of requirements on its Web site that a passenger must meet to be assigned a Preferred Seat. Among the listed requirements is that a passenger not be “under the influence of any intoxicating substance at check-in, boarding, and during the flight.”

But we’re guessing you already knew that, and that’s why you’ve written us.

Gate and cabin crews for all airlines are provided wide latitude when deciding who does and does not meet the requirements for sitting in an exit row. It is very rare indeed, however, for a passenger to be refused an alcoholic beverage solely because he/she were seated in an exit row (and probably even rarer for passengers who have paid extra for the privilege, though we have no quantifiable data on that). If you display signs of intoxication during the flight, however, you could be refused additional beverages, or even asked to change seats.

So long as you are drinking and acting responsibly, you need not fear being refused an alcoholic beverage in your Preferred Seat.

Can you offer some insider info on the best place to sit on a Southwest flight?

The Seat Expert — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 19:00:49 +0000

The “most comfortable” place to sit means different things to different people. Having said that, I think we can help you out.

First things first, as far as the physical seat is concerned, all are about the same on most Southwest 737s. Some offer a bit more legroom, some have no recline or limited recline, and some are positioned nearer the lavatories and galley, but you can see all of those details on our seat maps.

But what you want is the “insider info,” the tips and tricks you can’t discover by looking at a seat map.

Well, did you know that there is a “Secret First Class” on all Southwest flights, located just behind the exit rows? Or how about that there are three rows where you’ll be served drinks before all others? Do you know how to avoid sitting next to children and/or how to choose your seat mate, rather than let them choose you?

Contributors to the FlyerGuide Wiki graciously share all of these bits of Southwest seat selection wisdom, and much more.

After you’ve read all of this information posted by these “FlyerGuides” you will know how to maximize your chances of sitting next to an empty middle seat, or an attractive seat mate … whichever you prefer.

Flying into Paris. What’s the best window seat in Biz on a Delta Boeing 767?

The Seat Expert — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 20:56:33 +0000

Row 1 on Delta Air Lines’ Boeing 767-300ER Version 1 (the plane on which you indicated you will be flying) is generally considered among the better seating options primarily because it is a bulkhead row and, as a result, you get a little bit more legroom and there is no one in front of you and so no one reclining back into your space. This can be particularly important for passengers like yourself who prefer a window seat, as you’ll always have easy access to the aisle.

The drawback is that you have no under seat storage in front of you. This might not be a problem if you don’t mind getting up and grabbing your things out of the overhead bin, or if you travel light.

Enjoy your trip to Paris, and the view out of your window on your descent.

Up close and personal with new lie-flat seats in Delta BusinessElite

The Seat Expert — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 17:26:06 +0000

A FlyerTalk trip report with pictures of DL 767-400 business class with newly installed lie flat seats- a significant improvement over the current BusinessElite seats.

Read here: BusinessElite lie flat seats

Qantas: The Ultimate Seat Guide

The Seat Expert — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 20:19:22 +0000

FlyerTalk members have created this best seat guide for Qantas.

The Ultimate Qantas Seat Guide