This topic was suggested in another thread. I’ll start.
I have unusual travel preferences. I always attempt to sit in the back-most row on any plane, preferable window seat, on the left side of the plane (looking towards the cockpit). It’s the least comfortable seat on the plane yet I vastly prefer it even for long distance flights.
I did get a free upgrade to first class on one flight from Phoenix to D.C., but I’d never pay for that, personally. I will probably have to travel again sometime this coming year and I intend to get that same horrible seat.
No matter where I sit (maybe except of a car) I prefer to sit alone.
Makes me uncomfortable to share and disturb/be disturbed by someone.
I will of course tolerate if someone sits beside, but if it’s possible to be alone, that’s the perfect trip
Wow good going, being proactive and making this thread!
How come you seek out the least comfortable seat possible?
I travel by train, plane, bus and everything in between always in coach, always crammed in like a piece of cargo. Over the years I’ve invested in things to make it less stressful, especially air travel, but still fantasize about how effortless it would be to get driven through the airport, sky lounge, boarding group 1, and first class on a long haul flight. Instead I’m the one trying to look out the window on takeoff without making it seem like I’m staring at the person in the window seat, and doing a silent commentary on the piloting while I’ve got the flight map on cockpit mode. Especially with crosswinds right as we take off or fighting through turbulence so strong the oxygen masks drop.
EDIT: Deep down I know first class ain’t that great. I pass them every time I board and deboard the plane
It’s pretty universal, I hate this too. Enclosed spaces, other peoples’ germs and opinions, social bombardment, the danger of vehicular travel, and being reliant on someone else’s ability to keep you safe. I don’t know how @Yacob deals with it
I fly pretty rarely, never fly on a plane that requires stops, never carry on any luggage except maybe a book or a tablet, never recline my seat (even if it’s possible) and always take my time so the last seat on the plane is almost always ideal for me. I don’t care how long it takes me to get off the plane and will happily be the last person off. I vastly prefer to save my money for when I actually get to where I’m going and that seat is almost always the cheapest. Plus, there usually isn’t anyone sitting next to me unless the plane is full as the middle seat in the last aisle isn’t very desirable either. It’s just logical for me.
I prefer to just teleport to where I wish to be like in Star Trek, but then I wake back up and realise we’re still in the real world and traveling in tiny seats is still required.
Automobile travel is my least fav. I get antsy anytime a car ride over one hour is required. Often the seats are comfortable enough, but 99.9% of the time I’m on the road there is not a bathroom available nor can you drink alcohol (I don’t live in Texas where you can drink if you’re in the back seat and I can’t afford to be wheeled around in a proper limousine with a licensed commercial driver which would also allow me to drink).
I don’t often travel by rail or by boat, but so long as there is a bar and a washroom you won’t hear any complaints from me.
I travel a bunch by air. If I’m in coach I prefer an aisle seat even on a night flight. I’ll tell my seat mates to just wake me up if they need to get up for whatever reason. Years of working as a crew member on a C-130 have gifted me with an incredible ability to just pass back out in 3 seconds. I am left handed and prefer to slouch to my right so I want an aisle seat where my right shoulder is towards the aisle. I prefer backwards facing seats, but those are super rare in the commercial world b/c customers find them “strange.” I want to be a few rows behind first class, not directly across from or within 2 rows of a lavatory, and not adjacent to a galley. If I am upfront in a non layflat the same rules apply. On a 737 seats in row 1 and 2 will have lights from the galley nearly all the time and rows 4 and 5 are too close to coach (higher % chance of kids) so row 3 is the sweet spot. If I have a layflat I just don’t want to be too close to a galley or lavatory. I still prefer backwards facing but now I’d like the window, but I often will offer to swap and take the aisle if me getting up a bunch will bother my seat mate. Lots of premium cabins now have these tiny angled seats where everyone has direct access to the aisle anyway. If I’m flying private (which I can not afford, but once or twice a year I get lucky and am with a friend who can) then I just want the crew to be fun and not care what happens in the sky. Most of them are like that but occasionally you get the zero fun crew and then you might as well be on a commercial flight.
This jet-setting sky lounge-sitting, C-130-slumbering dude it’s the patron saint of air travel
What kind of things do you do to make it more comfortable? For example, are you part of a club, use airmiles, pay for extras etc? And is there a secret to getting an upgrade?
Pick one carrier and stick with them! Really though unless you fly all the time upgrades are hard to come by. There are traveling salesmen who fly 6 flights a week 3 weeks a month 11 months a year. It’s just impossible to get ahead of them on the upgrade list unless you also fly like that.
A priority pass card will save your life. It’ll get you into a bunch of private lounges around the world but not the DL, UA, or AA lounges. It’s also expensive so most people who have it get it as a perk of the Amex Platinum or Chase Saphire Reserve card AND then they also have club membership for the US carrier of your choice. Really that choice should be based on where you live. UA and DL have far better service than AA, but if you live in Dallas or Miami then you should be tied to AA. If you live in Minneapolis or Atlanta you’re a Delta guy, and if you live in Chicago or San Francisco then you’re a United person.
Just as a quick follow up…
There are other high fee, high perks CCs out there besides the two I listed and they will have that priority pass as a perk. Those are just the two I am most familiar with. I have one and has the other. I also have the United club card bc we live in Chicago.
Anyone looking into one should certainly look at more than just those two.
I do not. The membership has a yearly fee. You can go to their website to find a plan or a bunch of credit cards cover the membership as part of their perks. Depending on the membership you get X amount of guests. I believe I get 2, and so if I had 3 with me I would pay for the 3rd. My card covers the cost of my entrance and also my first 2 guests. Perhaps if I had a customer paid membership it would work differently? I don’t know
The Amex platinum lounges come with their own set of rules but basically platinum cardholders all get solo access and if you spend enough in year one, then you unlock two free guests per visit in year two, otherwise it’s $50 per guest per visit. The spend threshold is 75k which is pretty steep, but the lounges were too crowded before the threshold. If you ask me they are still too crowded, but that’s a different topic. The Chase Saphire Reserve is the other card with their own lounges which currently don’t have a min spend to unlock guest privileges and, you guessed it… they are too crowded as well .
Ah so yours is a corporate booked one?
My superiors would certainly pay for it and without blinking, as there are resources for such things (and I strongly suspect they’ve got an organization-wide pass anyway). But I claim as few perks as possible because although it’s free, ultimately somebody’s paying for it. Priority Pass has something called a ‘member visit fee’ that’s only waivered at the highest price
My priority pass membership comes as a benefit from my Amex platinum card. I have had positions where my job covers the annual fee on my credit card, so I guess those years they did.
Food: yes most of them have food. Usually it’s hot food. It’s often decent. Sometimes it’s very good. Usually drinks are free. The biggest benefit is that nearly all of them do not play the airport announcements. You don’t realise how nice it is not hearing “unattended luggage will be picked up by the Chicago Police Dept” and all the other announcements on repeat until they are gone.
@Yacob might be able to answer this, or anyone else, but why do people want to get on the plane before other people? I’m talking people in boarding group 3, who pay to be in group 2. They’re not getting to the destination any quicker, and still have to wait for later boarding groups to get on.
My current theory is it’s because if you have a connection, you’re one of the first off the plane, so you can sprint for your other flight
That would only work if you can sit anywhere you want though. If you’re in boarding group 1, but your assigned seat is way in the back, you’re still not getting off that plane any faster. When you board (unless there are no assigned seats) shouldn’t make any difference to how fast you can get off the plane.
There are two benefits I can see to boarding early in an assigned seat model:
It’s going to be easier to find space in an overhead compartment the earlier you board. People tend to put their bags into the first overhead space they can find (or at least over their own seats) so if you board early, there’s less chance of there being insufficient overhead space. If the plane does run out of overhead space there is a possibility that the airline will ask you to check your bags, which could delay you when you land. With every airline charging for checked baggage and the wait on the other end for baggage claim, most people try to avoid checking bags if they can - resulting in overcrowded planes with insufficient space.
Waiting in the terminal is unpleasant. The lines and general crowds make people nervous. People don’t want to cram together in a big group. There is a feeling that getting on the plane is least some progress while standing in the terminal is just “waiting”. Even though you’re no further in your journey on the plane then those still in the terminal, you feel like you’re progressing rather than just sitting.
Oh boarding group doesn’t scale with class? I always assumed after first class and business were on, the next boarding groups were the closest to the front? They seem to load them front to back. Though obviously different places do it differently, and sometimes groups 1 & 2 are synonymous with first and business class whereas elsewhere they’re all separate things
Sometimes the crowded compartments have resulted in the gate agent asking for people to volunteer to put their stuff in the hold, often for free. But I can see how that’d be an unwanted delay if you’re connecting!
Boarding group does typically scale with class, and if that’s what you meant, then you were correct of course. What I read though was that boarding early implied better seating in a causal way. You can sometimes pay to get earlier boarding and with loyalty or rewards programs, military service, or by travelling with family you can get on the plane earlier even if you have a poorer seating assignment. While sitting in business or first class does get you on the plane earlier, the fact that you got on the plane early doesn’t imply your seating position, if that makes sense.
Some airlines attempt to load Outward to Inward, so boarding group 3 (after first and business) would be all window seats, boarding group 4 would be middle seats, and boarding group 5 would be aisle seats.
It would actually be much more effiicient to board back to front though. Let the people on first who sit in the far back of the plane and then load the plane that way (you’d have to require that people put their bags in the overhead closest to their seats though.
Of course the first class passengers wouldn’t stand for that - they need to be on the plane first to show how special they are!
Yeah I did assume boarding group equates to better seating, but thank you for explaining
I was sat in the boarding area for a regional flight today, watching people competing over boarding group (and, I assumed, seating position) and the gate agents talking about ‘Now boarding pre-pre-pre-boarding group gold standard premium deluxe’. And I’m here going “Why’re you that desperate to board so soon? You won’t take off any sooner than the rest of us”.
Though with some less scrupulous airlines, I guess they do double book seats, so grab them while you can!
always in coach, always crammed in like a piece of cargo. Over the years I’ve invested in things to make it less stressful, especially air travel, but still fantasize about how effortless it would be to get driven through the airport, sky lounge, boarding group 1, and first class on a long haul flight. Instead I’m the one trying to look out the window on takeoff without making it seem like I’m staring at the person in the window seat, and doing a silent commentary on the piloting while I’ve got the flight map on cockpit mode. Especially with crosswinds right as we take off or fighting through turbulence so strong the oxygen masks drop.
has the other. I also have the United club card bc we live in Chicago.
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