Most of us go abroad for our annual holiday and that often involves flying to the destination. And if you are going on a long haul flight that lasts several hours you want to make sure you are as comfortable as possible.

The airline you choose to fly with will impact on this of course, but also the seats that you select.

In this post I want to highlight the economy class seats that you should avoid if possible to have a pleasant flight.

1. SEATS CLOSE TO THE TOILETS

These can be technically very handy if you have a bladder problem, but seats close to the loos are very busy. Normally queues can form there and people bump into you.

Sometimes it can also get a bit smelly around there so if you can I would recommend to avoid them.

2. SEATS IN THE BACK OF THE AIRPLANE 

These are bad for two reasons.

First, some airlines start serving food and drinks from the front of the airplane and they work their way towards the back. Hence, you can expect to wait some time before you get served. Also, it can happen that certain food options may run out by the time you get served.

This happened to me before. The airline had two meal options: beef or fish. The beef option ran out and only the fish one was left. As I did not eat this fish and nothing else was left I had to eat the kids meal option, which did not fill me up. It was not a pleasant experience.

Second, the planes start to get narrow towards the back due to the body shape of the planes. This means that you are losing space. This can be leg space, smaller seats or space by the window. This can be crucial if the airline for example still have old entertainment systems and fit the bulky computers by the legs or when you lean or put your head by the window as I do.

3. SEATS CLOSE TO THE FOOD STATIONS

Seats close to where the air hostesses are such as the food stations can get very busy. The crew will constantly pass you as well as guests. This may bother you.

4. EMERGENCY EXIT SEATS

Okay, so those seats can be good and bad.

Good if you need a lot of leg space of course. Then this would be an excellent seat.

However, if you are like me and you most of the time have your bag underneath the seat in front of you to access books, nibbles, your jumper in case you get cold etc, this is a terrible seat.

The reason being that you are not allowed to block the emergency exit, so all your belongings need to be stored in the overhead lockers. Therefore, you would not have your things accessible and need to get up every time you need something from your bag.

5. SEATS CLOSE TO DESIGNATED BABY SEATS

There are particular seats in airplanes that are allocated for families with babies. These seats have more space for baby beds for instance. Hence, it may be noise around those seats if the baby starts to cry.

6. SEATS IN THE LAST ROW BEFORE A WALL

If you like to recline your seat, watch out for airline seats just before a wall. Sometimes these seats may not recline fully and therefore can limit your comfort.

Also, I have experienced that some airlines store blankets and pillows behind those seats. Again, this may limit how far you can recline your seat.

FINAL THOUGHTS…

You can visit Seat Guru to check which seats are not favourable to pick. Once you know the airline, the date of your flight and the flight number, you can visit their website and enter those details.

The website will show you the aircraft that is planned for your flight as well as the seat configuration and of course the bad seats.

I always use this side to check which seats to avoid.