The Travel Blogger: My Rule For Window Vs. Aisle Seat When Flying Coach

Solving This Travelers’ Airplane Dilemma

By Kevin Wilkerson, PubClub.com Travel Blogger

It is the great airplane debate, one that people have debated for years with no clear-cut consensus as a conclusion.

It is the window-vs-aisle seat dilemma for airline passengers flying coach.

And since I have flown in coach for the vast majority of of my airline trips, I have developed a rule which I use and forever – for me, at least – has nipped this dilemma in the bud.

My rule is as simple as it is effective: when my flight is three hours or less, I take the aisle. When it’s more than three hours, I take the window.

Here’s my reasoning on this hot passenger issue. For flights less than three hours, I’m going short distances and being in the aisle enables me to get off the plane quicker than waiting for my seatmates – which can also spill into those across the aisle if the person on my end is not quick to their feet – to get out ahead of me.

It also means I can freely get up and go to the bathroom without disturbing anybody, which is a nice bonus. I can also gain a little extra bit of legroom by stretching my legs out into the aisle. This works like a charm until, of course, I nod off and a flight attendant rolls over my foot with the beverage cart.

Yet I don’t like to be in the aisle for a long flight, especially a cross-country or overseas one. The main reason is it’s hard to sleep in an aisle seat. Other than leaning straight back, I have nowhere to put my head. Being by the window, however, enables me to use the inside wall as kind a pillow brace.

I always sleep quite well while in a window seat.

Of course, the window seat has another advantage over the aisle, and that is the view. And I always appreciate a nice view.

You can’t get a good look out the window from the aisle. Instead – and this is kind of funny to watch while I’m in a window seat – when we pass over something scenic people in the aisle rise up out of their seats, hands on the armrest, and start looking around trying to get a peek at what we are seeing by merely turning our heads.

Those people do, tho, beat the rest of us off the plane.

Cheers!