Lots of people traveling together as a couple book an aisle seat and a window seat. They’re hoping that the middle seat stays open and they’ll get some extra space for the flight.
This doesn’t always work out. Often, planes are full. Even if the middle seats are the last ones to fill up, there’s a good chance someone will be in that seat.
“That’s ok,” you think, “we can always trade them the window seat and still sit together.”
- Best case scenario, extra space with an empty middle seat
- Worst case scenario, you’re still next to each other
- So it’s better to give yourself a shot at best case rather than book worst case from the outset.
Only sometimes the middle seat passenger won’t move. Here’s a woman who says she prefers a middle seat over a window for two reasons:
- She’s claustrophobic, so being closer to the aisle is better
- She gets up to go to the bathroom a lot, and prefers to only have to climb over one person instead of two to do it.
She told a couple no, she wouldn’t take the window seat – but she’s trade for the aisle. The woman with the aisle seat refused, saying she was going to keep the seat she’d paid for! But she’s the one wanting to make a trade. Finally the middle seat passenger relented and took the window – and when she needed to get up to use the lavatory she had to climb over both passengers, who wouldn’t get up even though they’d promised to as part of the trade.
@nycshreya first world problems
That’s why the elegant solution isn’t to book a window and aisle seat instead what you want is two aisle seats across from each other.
- You still sit next to each other, with no passengers in between
- And you’re guaranteed the extra space of the aisle between you
Why don’t people do this? Of course you can also buy that extra empty seat if you wish on most airlines. Yet almost no one does this, either.
If you don’t like the seats that are available, that you do assign yourself, you can set a free email alert for a better seat. Virtually no one does this, either. (By the way here’s how to know which seat is best.)
I have still never met anyone who prefers the middle seat to their choice of aisle or window. It’s an AH move to presume which one will work for any other person.
Still, I don’t bother trying to game this anymore because there’s so few empty seats at all nowadays.
My wife and I have been doing this for years. We both usually sleep during flights or are watching videos so we don’t need to talk much. We don’t care about a window seat and neither one of us like to be in the middle so this is the best solution. I don’t mind getting up to let people out to go to the bathroom but I hate having to ask people to let me out.
The desire for empty space isn’t the space of the aisle as much as its the empty space of the seat. That way, one can use the armrest without jostling, raise the are rest for an unconfined feeling, and use the space of the empty seat to sit things on. You can’t do any of this with the space of an aisle.
I started booking the 2 aisle seats several years. Works great for us. I need the aisle, my husband sits wherever I book him, and I hate to ask people to let me out to go to the bathroom, and it doesn’t bother me to get up to let people out cuz I don’t sleep well on a plane anyway.
I would have stayed in my middle seat, the woman who whined about the aisle deserves zero respect or anything.
I prefer the middle seat. The aisle gets the aisle and one armrest. The window gets a window and one armrest. The middle gets two armrests.
The only reason we book the window and aisle seats and not two aisle seats across from each other is my wife just has to have the window, and there’s not a snowman’s chance in Hell that I’m sitting in the window seat. What IS hilarious is when the person who has the middle seat tries to tell me that I’m in the wrong seat. Laughable, right? If you don’t want the middle seat, buy early, have status or a branded credit card with the airline so you can avoid the middle seat, or just go to Southwest.
I have done this for years!
My spouse and I have been doing the window/aisle thing for years and have found it works about 50% of the time. (We fly primarily between SAT and DEN, EWR, JFK, CLT)
When my wife and I travel we book isles across from each other so we both have space but are across the isle.
Been doing this for years. Only negative is, on long international flights , I don’t have a shoulder to lean on when I want to sleep.
We book the two exit row aisles, and then offer to switch one with the middle seat that has the most preferable window seat passenger next to it (small, no body odor, not obviously sick, etc.). Depending on the passengers, we may keep the two aisles instead.
Or, JUST SIT IN THE WINDOW AND THE AISLE if the middle seat is full. What is it with people that they can’t stand being two feet apart from each other for the duration of a plane flight. By definition, you started out together and had plenty of time to chat while going to the airport and through security, and waiting for boarding. And by definition, you are going to the same place, where you’ll have even more time together. Just read a damn book, watch a damn movie, get some damn sleep!
I’m another one who can’t figure out why some, make that most, couples need to be joined at the hip! I was in a window seat recently. The guy in front of me asked the woman next to him in the middle seat, to switch with his wife a few rows back…wife had a window. Woman refused.
The wife and I have done this for years, for all the many reasons noted earlier!
I usually take the aisle seat and my wife will take the window. She falls asleep as soon as the plane takes off, and I listen to music. I also prefer mot to bother anyone when I want to stand up and strectch.