Airlines Should Seat Window Seats First
I’m sure that there is some think tank type committee that meets in a secret bunker sipping wine while making major decisions for the airlines which affect millions of travelers every year. Perhaps they hire genius level experts who clean house on Jeopardy or can beat Deep Blue in a chess in less that 20 moves. This must certainly be the case. However, sometimes I do wonder at the logic in how some things are done.
For instance, think a bit about how seating is handled on airplanes. Seems logical enough. When the cute announcer lady comes onto the microphone and gives her speech, of course she is going to call First Class before the other less important customers. We all know that those First Class customers either paid through the noses for their seats and want us all to know it, or perhaps they have family members in the airlines who comp them tickets. Certainly one of these is true and they are better than me because they have been dubbed with the prestigious title of First Class. They must be seated first.
Next up are the families with screaming kids followed by the wheel chair or disabled travelers. We all agree they should go first. Fair enough! But what about the rest of us? What about the average Joe passenger?
On my recent flight to escape snow in Colorado for sandy beaches and warm weather in Florida, I sat in the aisle row. When I arrived at my seat, a nice lady was already sitting in the middle row. I saw down next to her without causing any disruptions in her reading of the latest mystery novel. We both sat for about five minutes. It was just then a cute girl showed up batting her eyes and telling us both we needed to stand up and move into the aisle so she could sit in the window seat. Ahhh ha! Ding! This is how great ideas are born; how chocolate was invented. I had my moment of brilliance!
I propose we have a new seating system. Let’s start with the window seat. Fill all those up first– all of them! Get those cute girls and over weight people settled in first. After they are in their seats, lets seat the middle row. And we can work our way out from the window to the aisle. Perfect! Nobody has to stand up to let another passenger in. No more shuffling to get into the right seat. No fuss, no muss!
Note: It was only after reading this I realized families traveling together would hate this system, especially where little Johnny wants to sit near the window so he can see goblins dancing on the wings. Maybe we should ban families from traveling together or give them their own airplanes. There must be some system that works which is better than what is used now.
