Since I have never used budget airlines with "free-seating" before, I would like to know : to which seats I have to rush to ?

Hi PB

I travel by AirAsia quite alot. I always travel alone so I prefer to have the whole row to myself. I dont rush for it but most of the time I get my favourite seat which is the seats by the emergency exit in the middle of the plane by the wings. Since it is by the emergency exit, most people avoid them. I suppose people are superstitious about it.

Its a two seater so most time you get to sit alone. The only drawback is that you cannot recline the seats. But on the plus side, you have longer leg room which is more important.

By the way, dont look at the emergency exit door too often.

Sagit

As mentioned above, the emergency exit seats are great if you are tall and like the extra leg room.

The other good place to be is in the front row or as close to the front as possible. This way you are among the first off the plane, first on the airport bus to the terminal, and first in the queue at passport control on international flights.

If you are unfortunate enough to be late arriving at the gate, you will inevitably end up at the rear of the aircraft, and last in all of the above.

Personally, I think free seating sucks. If you are traveling with a group or family, it is possible to be separated from your traveling companions as seats become filled and passengers before you take the choice window or aisle seats.

It can present difficulties especially if you are traveling with young children. You will end up having to request other passengers who have already chosen and settled into a seat to trade seats with you in order to sit with your friends or family. This can be embarrassing or inconvenient in a crowded aircraft cabin, and places extra pressures on cabin attendants who are often involved in trying to reach a workable solution.

Pre assigned seating shifts the first-come-first-served basis to the check in counter, rewarding the people who arrive early for a flight, penalizing and inconveniencing those who arrive late, and makes the boarding / seating procedure much more sane.

If you have a choice of budget airlines flying to your destination- choose Nok Air if it is available. Their prices are great, and seats are pre-assigned.

My humble $0.02.

I go for the back so I can easily scope out the rest of the plane, then dash for the best remaining option if one exists.

Hi PB

I travel by AirAsia quite alot. I always travel alone so I prefer to have the whole row to myself. I dont rush for it but most of the time I get my favourite seat which is the seats by the emergency exit in the middle of the plane by the wings. Since it is by the emergency exit, most people avoid them. I suppose people are superstitious about it.

Its a two seater so most time you get to sit alone. The only drawback is that you cannot recline the seats. But on the plus side, you have longer leg room which is more important.

By the way, dont look at the emergency exit door too often.

Sagit

I always try for the emergency exit seat by the window behind those two. There's no seat in front meaning you can stretch right out and the seat reclines. Nok Air is a better option though IMO, with assigned seating and more flights but the babes are definitely a notch up on Toxin Air.

If you have a choice of budget airlines flying to your destination- choose Nok Air if it is available. Their prices are great, and seats are pre-assigned.

A big thumbsup on that one...

A recent flying trip from Hat Yai to Bangkok really pointed out the difference...

The AirAsia flight was called for boarding and the scene looked like a mad crowd rushing to flee a burning cinema...

20 minutes later, the Nok Air flight was called for boarding and the people sauntered up to the counter like it was a stroll along the beach at sunset.

*edit*

no prizes awarded for guessing which one I was on...

ohh... and having priced both airlines, Nok was even less expensive... albeit, not by much... but avoiding the pushing, shoving mad dash was worth hundreds more.

Edited October 13, 200520 yr by sriracha john

I like to sit in the back, I've never heard of a plane reversing into a mountian!

The emergency exit seats over the wings are a good option but just a word of warning:

When flying Tiger Air from BKK to SIN my TGF and myself won the scramble and managed to get two of these exit seats. However, as she could not read the English instructions for operating the emergency door, she was not allowed to sit in the exit seat row for take-off - they asked her to occupy a different seat until the seat belt signs were switched off. Strangely, on landing in Singapore, nothing was said and she stayed in her seat.

DM