After flying from Dublin to Philadelphia in a window seat in business class that featured exactly zero window, a thought struck me. Airlines should block the worst seats on the plane from being able to be selected unless the flight is full.
Frequent flyers know some seats have no windows, while others are situated by the toilets and possibly worse. These are usually available for an unsuspecting passenger to select and potentially pay for, which is just not good enough.
Worst Seats On The Plane
There are some contenders for the worst seats on an aeroplane. In my case, it was the American Airlines Boeing 787-8 where row 5 in business class has no window. You can see it on the seat map here, with an excerpt below.
- There’s no window (denoted by a window shaped dark grey half moon) at row 5.
Perhaps even worse is found on the British Airways A320. Densification is the name of the game and those down in the back couple of rows must really be feeling it. Both row 29 and 30 have slimmer seats and no window, as you can see on the complete seating plan here.
- Yikes, that’s no good!
I would be pretty upset had I paid for a seat and found myself in a slimmer chair along with no way to see outside. What a waste of money that would be!
Overall Thoughts
Airlines routinely block out their best seats from being selected, saving them for high level frequent flyers. They also do the same with the front seats on many aircraft. This saves a space for people travelling with a baby, as the bassinet positions are located there.
Why don’t they do the same with the worst seats on board? The seats with no windows, no recline, or those right next to a toilet should be blocked until check-in opens. It would probably incentivise people to actually buy a seat, just to avoid being “lucky last”.
What do you think about this idea? What are the worst seats you’ve had the misfortune of sitting in and why? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.
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All seat map excerpts via aeroLOPA.
Airlines don’t care. That’s why they overbook flights, swap equipment, etc.
Also, the old config 787 rear-facing seats are interesting, but because of how they are made, they wobble or move, which can disturb the seat connected to them. Some are individual units (which you want to select) but the pairs that are connected you do not.
Yes, I’d read up on them and heard that the connected ones wobble, hence why I chose row 5, as it’s one that isn’t connected. In hindsight I should have just selected the seat I wanted and dealt with any wobbling for six hours to see how bad it was going to be. Next time, I guess!
Having had really serious issues with Air France, I recently decided to burn a lot of my AF miles
Booked DUB-CDG-MIA in Business and return in Premium economy
Flights booked through Flying Blue call centre, specifically asked for window seats in all flights. coming back from MIA, got onboard to discover the first row in PE had no window and the seat was quite narrow due to the IFE screen in one armrest and the tray in another
So much for AF knowing their own aircraft, cleraly they couldn’t care less ….. and now, I don’t either. Adiu AF !
That’s a shame, I would have been disappointed by that. I guess it pays to check yourself online beforehand, just in case. I suppose some newly trained call centre agents might not know the specifics of where windows aren’t, but you’d expect them to know, as you say.
On that particular AA plane, that is where the toilet use to be, or was suppose to be.
On the 787-8s, the old backward/forward seat (A seat I liked) used less space.
These carriers never learn. Have a window in the bathroom or closet area….you never know when your denser than dense config will utilize it.
With that said, this seat SHOULD be sold with a warning and a discount. Great seat for vampire types.
I was really hoping to get that old config, as I would rather like to try it. Considering it was supposed to be the main business class seat for the airline and a lot of design went into it, it’s a shame it never caught on. Absolutely agree with the window in the toilet etc. Haha – a great seat for vampire types indeed! 🙂 Thanks for that!
There are A330s and A220s that have windows in at least one of the toilets. I’m not sure if any other types do.
I’ve seen some 787s (on Qatar Airways) with them, an also others like the Airbus A220. It’s up to the airline if they want to leave them in really.
These are seats YOU consider to be the worst. Other people may not share your opinion.
This is very true, Rob! It goes without saying that there are bound to be people who love a window seat without a window, or to sit by the toilet in case of urgent need. Appreciate the comment!
The people who choose their seat last are often good customers. There is some virtue to giving the worst seat to the guy booking completely non-flex six months in advance.
True! In this instance I think BA do it very well. They allow their frequent flyers with status to select seats at no cost, while charging everyone else. It generally means there are good seats available right through to the last minute for their very best customers. Of course, on the flip side, those without status who have to pay really really hate it as the fees are not inconsequential. Thanks for the comment!
I was just going to post exactly this. LHR based DL diamond. I’m no princess, but the pricing premium extracted for last minute seats do not correlate with being given the worst the seats on the plane. The type of traveler that books the last ticket wouldn’t put up with it Case and point: Eurostar, just before the pandemic. Had to book a new same day ticket. The o/w fare paid Paris-London was something ludicrous like £350 for a standard ticket on a completely full train. As it turns out, that price didn’t buy a seat in normal cabin that… Read more »
Wow, I can see why you would have switched back to flying after that, For that price, that is disgraceful. A very good point there – thank you for that!