Hi Reader,
How are you doing this week?
I am at home for a week before heading out to Japan for the scouting of our 2025 trip.
I feel like this trip has been such a long time coming and that you have all been waiting fo us to launch our tour to Japan forever, so stay tuned to our Instagram stories from Wednesday to see what our tour will include.
Spoiler alert: Lots of Japanese kick ass women, behind closed doors moments and uniquely Japanese culturally immersive experiences. I am super excited for our itinerary because it will not only be magical but also very personalised and female focused.
=> Follow us on Instagram for all the details of my scouting trip
=> Join Japan tour waitlist to be notified when we launch the trip, there may be a launch offer you don't want to miss
This week I wanted to tell you about a fantastic website and strategy I follow to choose my seat on a plane.
On a long haul flight, my primary concern is not getting stuck in the middle seat, but also, some other the less obvious things.
Storage space, not being elbowed non-stop by the bathroom line (and not having to smell it!), seats over the wing without windows, and actually being able to recline.
I am referring to a free website called SeatGuru, which is an awesome site I often check to see what seat is best on a specific flight.
Continue reading for some great features it has to help you choose the right seat.
How to find the best seat on a plane
Before reserving a seat on any airline, I always go to SeatGuru.com to check out the seats first.
The website has seat maps for most airlines and aircrafts, and allows you to put in your airline, date, and flight number, to see a layout of the plane and profile of all of the seats.
It’s extremely useful to have this information, especially on long haul flights where there are quirks of a plane which aren’t immediately obvious, like seats over the wing without windows or emergency seats that don’t recline, or where the galley and toilets are so you avoid them.
And it’s a great way to find out which seats are larger and have extra leg space.
Each airline is broken down into sections covering seat pitch, seat width, entertainment type, onboard WIFI, and more.
Follow these steps:
- Go to SeatGuru.com
- Enter your airline, date, and flight number. Click “Find” and then scroll down and click “View map”
Lets do that with the flight I took from Buenos Aires to Zurich via Sao Paulo with Swiss Airlines last month.
Reading the seat map
Once you have your seat map up, you'll have details about the plane itself, and the size of the seats in all classes.
I know travelers who use this before choosing whether to splurge on business class seats, and they're able to tell whether it's actually worth it - aka whether the seats are that much different to those in economy.
Seats on the plane map are colored - green is a good seat. Yellow is a seat to be aware of. Red is a bad seat, even in Business Class, there are bad seats.
If you hover your mouse over each individual seat, it opens comments about that seat and tells you exactly what you need to be aware of.
Below is an image showing that seat 11K is a bad Business class seat because there is no window aligned to the seat.
You can see photos of other travelers who have taken that flight, and even reviews of the aircraft and journey.
It also tells you if there is inflight WiFi and how the entertainment system is or if there are sockets to charge devices.
The last row in Economy is all red because it is close to the galley and lavatories, so it is very noisy and bothersome.
Many of the yellow seats, even though they are in an extra legroom seat, have downsides too. I still prefer an Emergency row seat in Economy, but I am aware that some of them have fixed armrests that take up extra space making the seat narrower, the tray is in the armrest so it is smaller and flimsier and there is no seat storage for take off and landing.
Did you know SeatGuru? Any other seat selection tips to share?
Hit reply and let me know.
If you found this newsletter useful, forward it to a friend :)
You can find all the previous 104 tips here.
Enjoy your weekend!
