Airplane Seats

“There are only two reasons to sit in the back row of an airplane: Either you have diarrhea, or you’re anxious to meet people who do.” — Henry Kissinger, diplomat, political scientist, former United States Secretary of State and National Security Advisor

My husband says I’m a superstitious traveller. I just like to maximize my comfort… and odds of survival.

On a flight, I like to sit in an aisle seat. I don’t feel “trapped” the way that I would if I was in a window seat. If need be, I can get up to stretch or go to the washroom at my leisure.

Before I book my seat, I review the plane’s seating chart – something readily accessible when booking online with Air Canada and WestJet. I also consult SeatGuru, a website which tells you which seats on a particular plane are “good seats” and which are “bad seats.” This designation is based on factors such as whether there’s a video entertainment box in the seat in front of you that could limit legroom, whether there is a tray table in the armrest which reduces your seat width, whether it’s hard to see the TV, etc.

I also choose aisle seats near the back of the plane, beyond the wing, within five to six rows of an emergency exit. My seat choices in this regard have been influenced by various studies over the years, including a 2007 Popular Mechanics study which concluded that passengers near the tail of a plane are about 40% more likely to survive a crash than those in the first few rows. Those results were also backed by a Discovery Channel study in which they deliberately crashed a remote-controlled Boeing 747, loaded with sensors and crash test dummies, in the desert along the U.S.-Mexico border.

If I can avoid tempting fate, I’ll do that too, although this isn’t always possible. I once travelled to Calgary with some work colleagues. Our outbound Air Canada flight had been cancelled twice, and we were reassigned seats on the new plane that finally arrived. Upon looking at my new boarding pass, I exclaimed, “Oh my God, I’m in the death row!” My seat was in row four, which, in spoken Cantonese, has many phonetic meanings, including “die.” The only row that could have possibly been worse would have been row 24, which, phonetically can mean: “You die.” Why take the chance?

Have I ever flown first or business class? No, but this is not to say that I wouldn’t jump at the chance to experience a free upgrade! But until that happens, you’ll find me in an aisle seat, somewhere near the back, not too far from an emergency exit, but definitely not in row 24!