Wednesday, January 28, 2015

The best seats on the plane

I just realized that the best seats on the plane, at least when flying domestic in India are at the two ends of the aircraft. The front is obvious, you are sitting in a wider seat,  being served your plastic meal on real china and you get a free newspaper. Even on a no frills carrier, you have the advantage of getting off the aircraft sooner.

Seating in the middle of the aircraft, especially on the over-wing seats, gives you all the joy of sitting in the middle seat. You cannot enjoy the window, and you have to cross hurdles to get to the washrooms.

The tail end might need some advocacy. On domestic sectors in India, airlines still use the good old stepladder most of the time. If you are in the last few rows, you can disembark sooner than the poor folks in the over-wing seats who are straining their necks fore and aft to try and figure out which line will move sooner. I have even been on flights where even though the aircraft was parked at the aero-bridge, they still had the rear stepladder attached and allowed passengers to disembark from the rear door. I think it was Indigo, trying to get the next flight to depart ahead of schedule.

Sure, there is the obvious downside of being seated close to the lav, but if you can hold your breath for about 60 minutes, the last couple of rows are the best. Because remember, the tail section usually remains intact. They don't locate the flight data recorders in the tail section for no reason.


2 comments:

Timepass2007 said...

Eerie closing. And still don't quite get the logic of tolerating odour for 60 mins, just so you save 5 while disembarking. Not to mention, that last seat does not recline..Unless ofcourse the hope is to tag along the flight recorder and float to safety..

Mohit said...

I'll take that last seat if I am on Air India! :)