This is the best place to sit on a plane
Here’s one for you – where is the best place to sit on a plane? The aisle? The window? The dreaded middle seat? It’s a question that’s as old as air travel itself.
In our quest to get to the bottom of this we asked you, the Over60 Community, to share your plane seat preferences, and reasons why. The answers we received were thoughtful, enlightening and sometimes downright hilarious.
Here are a few of our favourites:
1. Barbara Easthope always goes for the window seat because, “When you get settled nobody disturbs you getting in and out of their seat. You get fractionally more space as you can lean into the window. You can also get some fantastic views.”
2. Mary-Lou Henry on the other hand, belongs to team aisle, “Especially on long trips. I flew from Brisbane to LA last year in the window seat and the guy and his mother next to me said hi and promptly fell asleep. They were large people, and I was ‘trapped’. In the end I had to wake them as I was not only busting to go to the loo, but my feet were like pork sausages about to split as I could hardly move (even wearing compression socks). As you age you really end to get up and do a few laps every hour or so to prevent clots forming. No more window seats for me (unless it's first class)!”
3. Lynn McGregor likes an aisle seat as well, saying, “If you want to get up and stretch your legs or go to the loo, you don't need to disturb anyone else. I hate to feel trapped near the window seat.”
4. Shashi Bhatnagar on the other hand prefers to be on a window, “It gives me privacy to be in a corner. I don't need to get up every time next seat passengers wants to come out. Nor anyone passing through aisle hits me every now and then. Moreover, in other seats, you don't know where to look at unless you have a book or so. At window seat, you simply can look outside avoiding staring at somebody or other. And sometimes there is some nice view outside.”
5. Dorothy Conroy agrees, noting that when you’re sitting in a window seat, “You can lean on the wall, more leg room and you don't have to keep getting up, once you could squeeze past people but today the seats are so close together that everyone has to get up to let people go to the toilet. The aisle seat you get bumped all the time as people pass.”
6. For Jan O’Riordan it really depends on the length of the journey, “Short trip an outtie. Long haul an innie. Have a fear of falling asleep with head flopped into the aisle, mouth open, snoring, dribbling. At least in a window seat I can lean against window.”
7. Joyce Reilly is quite strategic in her seat selection, opting for, “An aisle seat of the middle row on long haul flights. Only one person, sometimes your travel companion, needs to get out.”
8. Jackie Oz has slowly changed her mind, “A window seat is great, it gives you a bit more room and it's relaxing to watch the scenery on takeoff and landing. Views over the islands are magnificent as are the lights over a big city. Nowadays I prefer an aisle seat as it makes the visits to the loo so much quicker and easier.”
9. Deirdre Day goes for the aisle as well, “I don't have to disturb anyone for the frequent toilet breaks I need to take because I have drunk so much water to keep me hydrated and to avoid a DVT!”
10. Ann Noonan suggests, “For your first flight I would say window but after that it's all about comfort and being able to get up and move around without disturbing anyone aisle seat for sure.”
Which to you prefer? The aisle or window seat?