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This Is Where You Should Sit on a Plane If You Want the Best Service

| © Jordan Sanchez / Unsplash

Unless you’re paying through the roof, no-one expects their experience of flying to be completely enjoyable. Cramped seats, arriving late and smelly toilets don’t make for the best environment.

But what can make a bearable experience frustrating is being continually missed by the air stewards on a flight, or always being the last to the served.

It’s annoying to wait half an hour to be served dinner, only to find that they ran out of your preferred meal option on the row before you.

We’ve got the insider secret of how to get consistently great service on a plane, courtesy of ‘Dan Air’, host of the Confessions of a Trolley Dolly website.

Flying doesn’t have to be arduous if you sit in the right seat

He says that while sitting in the very front row will get you good service, sitting in the very back rows will as well.
Dan recalls: ‘During the Concorde days and in first class it’s the seat that the A-list celebs always sit in. And on Concorde it was the Queen’s seat.
‘But even on low-cost carriers such as easyJet, Ryanair or Jet2 it’s still the best seat as it gives you the best leg room, a higher chance of being served first and an unobstructed view.’
But he adds that it’s wise to wrap up if you sit here (up front), because it’s ‘typically one of the colder seats in the plane’. And of course, it’s also one of the most expensive.
For those travelling on a budget, sitting right at the back is a great option.

The seats are likely to be cheaper, you’ll often be near a small area where you can stretch your legs and you’re close to the toilets (although that can be a disadvantage).

Dan says that air stewards often gather at the back of the plane.

Speaking to Mail Online Travel, Dan explains: ‘If we’re all gathered in the back [main] galley having a brew and a catch-up on all the latest gossip the last thing we want to do is be walking all the way up to the front of the aircraft to respond to a call bell.
‘And we don’t like flaunting what the passenger has asked for because then it can set off a whole chain reaction with everyone wanting something else.’
The downside is that the chitchat of the cabin crew can be loud for those who want peace and quiet, and the seats situated here sometimes have a limited recline.

Dan adds: ‘Many passengers don’t like being seated towards the rear of the aircraft as it can be quite noisy.
‘The galley is our office space, our rest area, the place we gather. So if you’re on a late or overnight flight and want to catch up with some shut eye then sitting here may not be the best of ideas.’
We’ll definitely be bearing these tips in mind next time we’re booking plane seats.
Hooked on travel? Check out our guide to making sure that your suitcase always comes out first at the airport.

About the author

Alice is always planning her next meal. She studied English at the University of Bristol before getting her Master’s in newspaper journalism from City University London. She worked on Femail at Mail Online for 18 months writing about lifestyle and food and has also worked at Metro.co.uk, The Guardian, Mumsnet and The Sun. After starting at Culture Trip as a Social Content Producer writing travel and lifestyle stories, she was promoted to the role of Food Editor and now specialises in culinary culture, trends and social issues around food. When she’s not writing, eating or travelling, she can be found cooking overly elaborate dinners, reading cookbooks in bed or playing with her cat, Orlando. Her favourite foods include fishfinger sandwiches, burnt caramel panna cotta, Flamin’ Hot Cheetos and oysters.

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