Middle seat passengers get both armrests. They are closer to the window and to the aisle. Some airlines give prizes or bonus miles to middle seat passengers. But there’s another, hidden benefit to airline middle seats that I had never considered before.
Pro-travelers prefer airline aisle seats, though a small minority – and professional contrarians – will argue for gazing out at the world from the window. Nobody speaks out for the poor beleaguered middle seat. That is a mistake.
Occasionally photos of airline seat maps will go viral, showing someone having taken a middle seat by choice when the aisle and window in their row are open, and people wonder what that person is thinking?
- I’ve always assumed they’re trying to maximize the chances of having an empty seat next to them.
- Two passengers together won’t pick their row, since those passengers can’t sit together.
- And if only one person takes the row, they still have either the window or aisle open beside them.
This usually doesn’t work. But it’s a coherent strategy. It may also be simply that the aisle and window seats required a fee to assign! It’s rarely someone that actually prefers a middle seat. However middle seats get a bad rap and I’ll tell you why.
- Ethically, you’re entitled to both armrests. The window passenger can lean into the window, the aisle passenger can lean into the aisle. Since the middle seat passenger has no such option, the correct position is that the middle seat passenger gets both armrests. So you actually get more room at your seat than whomever is in either the window or aisle.
- The middle seat can be more rewarding. Virgin Australia actually gave away prizes to middle seat passengers in a lottery. Spirit has done the same thing with bonus miles.
- Best of both worlds. You may still be able to see out the window, looking over just one person instead of two if you were at the aisle. You also only have to climb over one person to get to the lavatory instead of two if you were at the window. (There’s a 50% lower chance that a person seated nearer the aisle is sleeping, so less of an impetus for you to have to ‘hold it’ instead of waking them and asking them to move.)
It turns out there’s another, hidden benefit that I hadn’t considered: socializing, making friends (HT: Dan R):
Every time I have a middle seat on a plane I loudly say “statistically speaking sitting in the middle actually doubles your chances of making a friend.” No one ever laughs and I’ve never made a friend, so if you want a quiet flight maybe open with that.
— @dad_hard (@kunkelcomedy) November 9, 2023
If you’re sitting in the window, you’re next to only one person. That’s just one person that you might become friendly with. And that person may be important to you for the rest of your life.
- You’re stuck together for several hours
- If you click, it’s great forced conversation
You may finding the person you’ll marry that way. Or just temporary romance. Even just a good friend! Years ago I was in a wedding where a woman had become dear friends with the bride after they sat next to each other on Southwest.
Credit: Southwest Airlines
But if you’re only sitting next to one person, your odds aren’t nearly as good as if you’re in the middle seat!
Even better: if you don’t want to be social, declaring these odds out loud is a surefire way for the people next to you not to want to talk to you, and you’ll get peace and quiet for the flight. Either way, you’re in more control of your own destiny than the middle seat is usually given credit for.
You could also be the middle of a fat sandwich. No thanks
I met my wife sitting in a middle seat. She had been assigned the same seat. So we sat together and a few months later, we were married.
Nobody. mentions THAT possible advantage (unless you don’t want to be married, but I digress)
There is no advantage to sitting in the middle seat – quit with the sales pitch.
Mark Twain did it better with the story of Tom Sawyer and the fence.
it does have more under seat space.
6-2, 220.
Hard No.
I think that the main advantage of the middle seat is that sitting in the middle seat maximizes the chance of being left alone and minimizes the risk of being asked to move to a worse seat. I’ve mentioned in the past about Miss Ukraine sitting in the middle seat on a transatlantic flight with her caged cat and striking up a friendly conversation with me in the aisle seat, only for her to then ask me to move one row back to the middle seat occupied to her young healthy husband who somehow avoided conscription.
Given the algorythm-aided high load factors in 2024, there is almost zero chance of an empty seat next to me. I once tried the middle seat and found myself between a mother from the old country and her spoiled son, and I quickly made the move to let them sit together and I took the aisle seat.
Another advantage of sitting in the middle seat is when a couple occupying the window and aisle seats share a meal and passes their food over your middle seat, their food crumbs drop in your lap. Free food.
Gary, you gotta stop with this stuff about how the middle seat occupant gets both armrests. Just because you want it to be so doesn’t make it so in any way. It’s like DCS declaring Hilton as the best loyalty program for top elites when it painfully obviously isn’t.
> Middle seat passengers get both armrests
No they don’t
No one lets the middle seat passenger have both armrests. This has never happened in the history of airplanes. Ever.
Cahn’t make this stuff up!
Except that only one who is demented and utterly clueless will claim that DCS has ever declared Hilton to have the “best loyalty program for top elites”, when what DCS has done year after year has been to debunk this site’s unsupported declarations of Hilton Honors as the “weakest” program for elites, while declaring SPG and then world of Hyatt, after SPG went belly-up, the best program in the universe for elites.
I can provide evidence for the site declaring SPG or WOH as the best hotel loyalty program for elites, and I challenge any moron to provide evidence where DCS has ever declared Hilton Honors the “best hotel program for elites.”
We’ll be waiting for the evidence with bated breath. In the meantime, good luck getting the site host to stop repeating the stupid claim that the middle seat occupant gets both armrests.
Puh-leeze stop with the middle seat armrests nonsense. Yes, it’s courteous and generous for seat neighbors to give them a little more space- but if the middle person is even an average-sized modern American (i .e. “it’s my body type” person living in BMI denial) then the aisle and window people need to lean away for that to happen.
I choose to live an active lifestyle with a lot of vegetables in my diet. Consequently, my butt and gut fit in coach seats. Why should I have to abuse my spine for a 2-3 hour flight just because “Gary’s unwritten rules about armrest etiquette?”
What a load of bs in this “article”
Ethically? Get a grip
This article is proof that guy who once stood in a bar and talk BS, now has computer and access to internet. What a load of BD
Aren’t the middle seats in Spirit Airlines’ new A320 1″ wider than either the windows or aisle seats? Whether anyone wants to fly Spirit is another matter entirely, however.
I think the amount of people aware of “middle seat gets both armrests” is incredibly small
Enjoyable article, thanks Gary. Ignore the people who post anti-social things on a message forum.
I always take aisle seat except biz class direct aisle access where I always take a window seat. If for some reason aisle is not available then I will always take a middle seat for the reasons Gary stated. Window seats are terrible in domestic economy – I hate having to ask someone for permission to use the lav
WTF middle seats are no good for any reason whatsoever…Just traveled from Hong-Kong to San Francisco via Taiwan and although the passenger on my right slept through the whole flight, he also confiscated the arm rest leaving me the only chance to lean over to my travel companion. So please STOP praising the ‘benefit’ of the aisle seat on any airline that may be paying you to say that. And no, I wasn’t interested in ‘finding’ a potential gf or wife, just wanted to be able to ‘share that armrest’ on that awful 3-3-3 configuration
When I am in my window seat, I have the window side armrest and half of the next seat armrest, both of which I am ethically entitled to. Fortunately I do not need to get out often because I do not need to go to the toilet often. Maybe the armrest situation is partial compensation for my sacrifice.
Oh, really? Just try and use both arm rests. Good luck. Enjoy the sandwich.
So we’re in agreement that Hilton doesn’t have the best program? It’s not the worst either to be fair, just lacking in certain areas such as guaranteed late checkout, confirmed suite upgrades at the time of booking etc.
Since you agree on the above paragraph I sincerely apologize for my misunderstanding. I had misconstrued your vehement defense of Hilton as saying that it had the best elite program.
I don’t know if they still do this, but back in 2008 I flew on an Asiana flight where all middle seats were slightly wider than the aisle and window seats. I thought that was a great way to make all seats equitable, each with its own virtues.
Please, stop praising the ‘middle seat’ of the 3-3-3 configuration that airlines do only to squeeze more people and dollars per seat. The middle seat armrests are always confiscated by either of the other two adjacent passengers. So and unless the airlines are paying -you- to glorify the middle seat…stop!
Jay
Lol at everyone saying middle seat armrest isn’t a known rule. Everyone knows middle seat gets both armrests.
Your reader Antonio is right. Some airlines, ANA specifically have wider seats in the middle. I was travelling on the aisle and noticed this and (nothing else to do) I measured the seats to find that the center seat had about 2 inches of addl width.
What is a middle seat?
I don’t see them in first class.
Window seats are for sleeping, not star gazing, especially on 14 hour flight.
Often there is more room at your feet under a middle seat to fit a bag. The window and aisle seats’ foot area is often narrower or it curves in. That’s an actual physical advantage: I can both fit a bag and still stretch my legs a bit.
I have to fly many times a year, whether for work or personal reasons, both internationally and domestically. I’m 5’7” and weigh a little over 140 pounds. I used to never mind sitting in any seat, but once, I was stuck in a middle seat with two very large passengers on either side of me, and I felt extremely uncomfortable. Since then, I’ve tried to avoid middle seats whenever possible. On a side note, airlines should consider charging passengers based on weight.
Lordie…Only one who is truly stupid beyond words would have “misconstrued” anything after having participated in the discussions of posts on this site titled:
“Why Hilton Is The Worst Major Hotel Chain For Frequent Guest Benefits” on June 3, 2023
and/or
“Why Hilton’s Loyalty Program Fails To Deliver Benefits – And Every Other Big Chain Is Better” on June 2, 2024.
The following does not need to be stated because it should be obvious. However, given the level of stupidity and ignorance made clear in the quoted statement, I believe that it bears stating in all its simplicity, which is that, just like where one chooses to sit in an airplane cabin (aisle, middle or window seat) is a personal choice or preference and not a choice for a self-anointed “thought leader” to make for you,…
G’day.
You should have saved this post for an April Fool’s Day article. No one chooses the middle seat when there are plenty of ailse and window to choose from.
Quite a stretch.
Middle seat maybe entitled to both armrests, but this rarely happens when flying in the US where most “middles” are squished between overweight flyers. Add in the manspreaders and middle seat is misery. Sorry, no sale.
Grammar note: WHOever is in either the window or aisle….
Imaging sitting in a middle seat with severe lower back pain
The seat map pictured occurs because the window and aisle seats are “preferred” seats open only to elite members (and maybe cardholders) while the middle seat is not and may have been the best seat available to assign for free at this point in the flight’s life.
Nice try, bless your heart.
It’s obvious that planes do not seat the “average-sized” American of obese proportions or even regular sized minis. They make planes smaller with smaller seats…uncomfortable and unsafe. THEY DON’T CARE! #uck them….take a train, ship or drive! With all due concern, Mini Mouse
I couldn’t make it past the first sentence without laughing aloud. “Middle seat passengers get both armrests.” Ha! I have only ever ONCE been able to claim both armrests (and sometimes neither, sitting with my shoulder blades drawn together in misery) and that was because the gentleman next to me consciously said, “Here, please take the armrest. My wife taught me.” He was also one of the few gentlemen to keep his legs in his (admittedly small) area of legroom. In the aisle or window seat, I only have to deal with one potential manspreader. In the middle, I’m twice as likely to suffer. And all the polite “Pardon, but…”s only get one a few minutes of reprieve before people’s muscle memory kicks in again.
Gary has never flown in the middle seat, and probably never flies in economy. That being said, I think all of you should choose the middle seat. On the United 777-200 there are 2 middle seats in first, with 2-4- lie flats. That’s a great way to join the mile high club.
Gary has never flown in the middle seat, and probably never flies in economy. That being said, I think all of you should choose the middle seat. On the United 777-200 there are 2 middle seats in first, with 2-4-2 lie flats. That’s a great way to join the mile high club.
Sorry – the middle seat doesn’t get to have the arm rest that controls the window seat, that’s just madness.
In theory, you’re ethically entitled to both armrests, but in practice and in my experience, almost nobody in a middle seat gets both armrests because the people next to them are inconsiderate jerks. I’ve sat in a LOT of middle seats as a standby passenger, almost never get any armrests.
This is like justifying food poisoning as. Colon cleansing. The fact is middle seats suck!
Joke!
Lean into the aisle and you may visit the ER! Carts and attendants could care less if you have a part of your body exposed.
People simply have different preferences.
I often travel with my two daughters who are smaller than me, so if I have the middle seat, I can use some of their leg space.
Personally I prefer window seats, because you can get an interesting view of the countries you are flying over or the places that you are arriving, and if you are overland you can try to figure out where you are.
If you have the aisle seat, you have to constantly watch out for the drinks cart running over your foot. On the other hand it is a bit easier to stand up and stretch your legs.
To be honest ALL of the seats on a passenger aircraft are uncomfortable, and I would prefer to travel on a bus anytime.
Then again, jet travel is a miracle. When my grandmother was born the Wright brothers had not yet taken off and steam trains were still a terribly modern form of transportation, and yet before the end of her life she was visiting other countries.
Stop with the whole arm rest thing. No one is “entitled”. We share.
The middle seat empty works quite often for us. Twice in a row in recent 12 hour flights
I have never had both armrests in the middle seat. In fact I usually don’t get either. Both passengers seem to think their seat entitles them to armrests, leg room, my shoulder when they nod off, as well as multiple trips to the bathroom.