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.
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.
We’re in the age of AirPods and RBF being socially acceptable (it’s completely out of vogue to “tell women to smile more” – actually it may never have been in vogue at all – but today people aren’t doing it anymore, whereas in the past, people did).
This means if you don’t want to talk to someone, you’re not going to be talking to someone.
If you do want to talk, if someone looks interesting, you don’t have to be in the middle seat to do it. If you’re in the aisle and they’re in the window, you can simply ask the middle seat to swap and 98% of the time they’ll gladly do so. (The other 2% of the time you get a masochist/autist [maso-autist?] who either prefers the middle or wants to sit there to spite your seat swap request.)
In my personal experience sitting in the middle seat, my seatmates hog the armrests and I don’t get any. I don’t feel good about asserting myself to BOTH seatmates and saying hey this is actually my armrest. I fume silently about how ill-bred my seatmates were. I also fume about how I can’t afford First Class.
…which incidentally is why I read View From The Wing! Thank you, Gary Leff, for being our tireless thought leader in travel and sharing your expertise in mileage and points programs which have allowed me the occasional opportunity to travel in style (+$5.60 taxes/fees minimum) since the year 2002. JFC, that’s 23 years ago.
Recycled post. Still a terrible idea. Since when have “ethics” ever played a role in airline seating? And sitting next to two people rather than one just doubles the chance of you sitting next to an annoying person who hogs your armrest.
In an age of sold out flights, the “logic” of sitting in the middle and hoping for empty seats is just cuckoo. If I see someone doing that and the aisle and window are the best seats available, my wife and I will gladly sit apart. We often do that anyway to get better seats over having one of us in the middle. In fact, we’ll often sit one in front of the other since I rarely recline much and she gets really annoyed by people who do, so I guarantee her a pleasant flight.
The ONLY reason I see to ever pick a middle seat is it’s the only MCE still available and I want to sit forward to get off the plane faster to make a connection.
I am not voluntarily sitting in a middle seat. I would rather upgrade and be on one of those flights I have a window AND an aisle.
Sitting in the middle seat, you can compete for two armrests but you are not ethically entitled to them. Airlines are using skinnier armrests in coach these days, which are not as comfortable to rest an arm on.
Gary, I find your comments on selecting a middle seat to be relatively useless. I definitely disagree with your idea that the person in a middle seat gets to use both armrests – with the argument that it is the “ethical” view to do so. Since when have “ethics” have anything to do with air travel nowadays – any so called “ethics” have disappeared with men wearing suit jackets and ties when flying and women wearing modest, but attractive dresses or blouses and skirts. The average airline passenger nowadays is super casual in dress and manners. Also, what about people sitting in a four seat middle section of a 777 or 787, etc.? If there were lower prices for middle seats that might be a reason for choosing one, otherwise it is simply the seat assigned. Have you ever done the research to learn how many people never choose a seat but simply accept whatever seat the airline assigns to them?
Please please stop with the “Middle seat gets both armrests” assertion. There’s no such rule and it stretches credulity that someone who writes about horrible behavior by passengers as much as you do would believe that people will inherently do the right thing.
Sorry, middle seats do not get both armrests. There’s been no international treaty establishing thst. I do not agree with your territorial claim. Both armrests are shared. That’s why it’s a less desirable seat. You’re asking for more conflicts by asserting this nonsense.
One great thing about only flying domestic F (or Euro business) is never having to think about any of this. Never a middle seat to contend with.
Also, what Mantis said.
I am 1K with United. On many of the middle seat flights I take, there is much more under-seat space.
The middle seat in the photo is a free seat vs the preferred seating($) as indicated by the small white triangle….
Thumbs up to Ly! I was thinking the same thing. It could turn out to be a brilliant move.
“Mantis” is a well known white supremacist on this website as is “Mike Hunt” (anti-Chinese)
Stop communist seizures! The middle seat does NOT have both armrests. To advocate otherwise is no better than state seizure of your private home.
The middle seat is entitled to 0.67 of two armrests, resulting control of 1.33 armrests. The window seat is similarly entitled to the window side armrest and 0.33 of the next armrest.
What that usually means is that the window seat has a little elbow space on the armrest towards the center
There’s another tiny benefit: you have slightly more underseat space, since the IFE is usually under the window seat.