WHO KNEW I COULD PREFER BEING STUCK IN THE MIDDLE SEAT?
Does where you sit on an aeroplane actually matter? The answer to that is that there is no simple answer – it all depends on specific circumstances and whether you are travelling alone or with young children or elderly relatives. If, for example, I am taking a short flight to Leeds to visit my niece and family, I couldn’t care less where I sit. When I’m only going to be in the seat for less than an hour it is pretty irrelevant to me. It’s like getting on the DART to travel from Greystones through to Connolly station.
But if I am off to somewhere a bit further afield and the flight is more than a couple of hours, then, yes, I like to choose my seat in advance. My preferred seat on planes with three seats either side of the aisle is 5C. Close to the front but not the premium price and, crucially, an aisle seat which would always be my first choice whichever row I end up in.
I will be flying to Crete in a few weeks’ time with my friend Erna. It’s a four-anda-half hour flight so comfort is important. There was a dilemma when booking, however. Erna likes a window seat and I like the aisle. What to do?
I was on the point of just sucking it up and booking window and middle seats when Erna quickly solved the problem. ‘You like the aisle and I like the window, so book an aisle seat and a window seat,’ she said, looking at me as if I was bonkers to suggest any other option. ‘If we get somebody in the middle, so be it. If we don’t, all the better. But at least we will both be sitting where we like to be.’
She was right, of course. So that’s what I did, thus avoiding either of us having to sit in the dreaded middle seat for all those hours.
For, make no mistake about it, there is absolutely nothing to commend the middle seat option to anyone. An American survey recently showed that 56% of people would rather get stuck in traffic than take a middle seat while 50% said that they would prefer to wait for a better seat on the next available flight.
Some 20% even said that they would stay overnight in an airport hotel and catch the first flight the next morning rather than get stuck with being squished in the middle.
But help is at hand, it seems, to rehabilitate the poor old middle seat and give it a new lease of life.
With a design from the American company Molon Labe, based in Denver, the new ‘side-slip’ seat gives you a middle seat that is three inches wider than the window or aisle options but which is also positioned slightly behind those seats. So you get automatic claim on both armrests as well as more actual seat space.
What makes it attractive from a business point of view is that it also has a sliding mechanism meaning that until each seat is occupied there is more aisle space so that passengers can board more quickly. Fewer hold-ups, so more efficient and timely take-offs. Due for serious testing in the next couple of months, the new ‘sideslip’ design could well revolutionise aeroplane seating.
Not in time for my trip to Crete this year. But on future flights you could well find me sitting comfortably, not in my favoured 5C, but in the roomier and more comfortable option that is 5B.