Airline travel can be made better or worse depending on the seat you are sitting in. Some seats may have more leg room than others. Some may have more seat width, a better window view, or limited ability to recline. All these factors affect your comfort level on a flight, especially on longer ones. Did you know that you can find out which seats on any given plane type are the best ones? You can, and it's simple to do! Here is How To Pick The Best Seats On An Airplane Using SeatGuru.
SeatGuru is a website owned by Trip Advisor. SeatGuru has the seat plans of all the airplanes used by the major airlines. When you are planning a vacation or business trip, you can find out what type of airplane is scheduled on your flight number.
Using that information, you can look up the plane and view it's seating diagram. Each seat will be color-coded showing the seat's rating, from Poor to Good. You can then pick the most comfortable seat possible for your trip!
So, to get started, go to www.seatguru.com. There is a link to the website in the Resources section below.
On the main page of SeatGuru, go to the left side of the page to the list of Airlines. They are separated out alphabetically, such as "Airlines: A-B", "Airlines: C-D-E", and so on.
Let's say you are traveling on Southwest. Click on "Airlines: S-T". This expands the list to show all the airlines that SeatGuru has information on. Click on Southwest Airlines.
The list will expand more, showing you the different types of aircraft that Southwest Airlines uses. Click on the model of aircraft you will be flying on, for example, the Boeing 737-700 (73G).
You will now see a color-coded diagram of your airplane's interior. To understand the color-codes, look at the Seatmap Key next to the plane. At a glance, you can see that:
Green Seats = Good Seats
Yellow Seats = Have Some Drawbacks
White Seats = Standard Seats
Red Seats = Poor Seats
Some seats may even have half of one color and half of another, simply meaning they are somewhere in between the two levels. Hover your mouse over a specific seat, and a dialogue box will appear telling you why that seat was rated the way it was. This is very helpful information to know ahead of time. On Southwest Airlines, they use more of a free-for-all boarding system, so knowing which seats to run to first can be a real advantage!
For other airlines that allow you to choose your exact seat ahead of time, SeatGuru can let you know which seats to try to get first. If the best seats are already taken, you can at least try to get the next level down.
If you aren't sure what type of airplane you will be on, SeatGuru explains how to find out.
Go to the bottom of the SeatGuru webpage and click on "Frequently Asked Questions". On the list of FAQ's that opens up, click on "How do I know what type of plane I'm flying". The answer to this question will tell you several ways to determine what type of plane you will be flying on.
SeatGuru is an easy to use site that can help make your flight just a little bit more enjoyable. And the more you fly, the more important that is!
