Habitually Good

I used to think that everyone knew the trick to figuring out the best seat amongst all those available on the plane – but time and again, my co-travelers get surprised whenever I mention the method I use. This means that not enough people know, and so here is a quick write-up about it.

It’s really quite simple – it’s called SeatGuru – a service by TripAdvisor. Here’s what I do to use it.

I typically get my tickets booked by some travel agent (through my office). I usually don’t get a lot of say at the time of the booking about which seats I prefer. That is not a problem though.

Almost every airline these days allows an Online Check-In, and as part of the online check-in, you get to choose your seat assignment (even if you have a previously assigned seat number). Here’s where I open up the trusty SeatGuru site. I locate the airline that I am traveling, and I then look at my ticket to check which airplane I am traveling on (the ticket usually contains this information). Then I open up that particular model of the plane under Airline on SeatGuru and here’s what I see:

I get a complete layout of the entire plane, and a comment on each type of seat on whether it’s good, or bad; whether its located next to the lavatories; whether it has a power port or not; what kind of legroom it has; etc.

This is a great resource, and almost always I have been able to get myself a great seat on the flight.

Here’s another trick. You can print the seat map and mark your favorite seats. This can come in handy in the following ways:

• If you don’t have online check-in or don’t have the time or facility, then you can use the printout as a guide when you do a self-check-in at the airport or do a manual check-in and ask the lady behind the desk nicely to change your seat to one of the ones marked on the sheet.
• Sometimes not all seats are shown as available on the online check-in, but may be available at the airport. You can try your luck again at the check-in counter.

In any case, you should always know the seat layout of the flight you are traveling on because choosing the right seat in your class can make a huge difference between a comfortable and not-so-comfortable flight.

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