by Isabelle Esteves

Created on: October 07, 2008   Last Updated: December 23, 2009

All the seats on any given flight are not equal. There are some that offer more legroom and there are some that don"t recline. Depending on the length of your flight, the best seat will not always be the same one. On overnight or longer flights where you may want to take a nap, the window seat provides somewhere to rest your head. By the same token on transatlantic flights if your flight is not fully booked you may want a seat in the center section so that you can actually lay down in economy.

 How can you know which seats will provide that little bit of extra space? Luckily there is a website that can help you to make your seat choice. www.seatguru.com will identify which seats on any flight are the most coveted. On many flights the bulkhead seats provide additional leg room but at the cost of no under seat storage for your personal items during take off and landing. Since the front overhead bins are often used by the airline to store things you may also not have any overhead storage. You have to decide if the extra leg room is worthwhile. Keep in mind that all bulkhead seats are not created equal.

The exit row seats are often also more spacious. These cannot be used by families however since no one under the age of fifteen is allowed to be seated in an exit row. Beware of the seats right in front of the exit row. Because the exit row is behind them they have limited ability to recline. If reclining is important to you avoid these rows.

Another row to avoid is the last row. These seats also have limited or no ability to recline especially those that are adjacent to the rest rooms. Where are the best seats on the airplane? The majority of the seats on any flight are quite similar. Some of the more forward seats and some of the farther rear seats may be a little narrower than the seats in the center of the plane. One thing you want to check on seat guru is the pitch of the seats. The higher the pitch number the more leg room you will have.

Your best bet for getting the seat that you want is to purchase your ticket early and pick your seat as soon as you are able. Check in early and make sure that you are guaranteed to have the seat that you picked. Get to the gate early as well, you don't want to risk losing your seat. When you check in ask if any seats have opened up, for this to be an advantage you need to know which seat you are looking to get. This is the time to try to secure a bulkhead seat since they are not assigned ahead of time.

With a little research and a lot of luck you can latch onto one of the best seats on your flight. Just know what you want and what you need and always be polite when asking for a seat change.

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