Pro-Tip: How I make this trivial decision!?

The general seat preferences on planes revolve around sitting with your family or friends or needing an aisle or a window seat. That’s it! No additional preferences.

Here, I want to bring my exclusive secret parameter to you and share how I manage the seat selection dilemma.

The process follows:

1. Pick the window seat: The window seat is my first love.
2. Pick the front or rear seats: Ensure the wing or the plane’s engine does not block the view from the window
3. Pick the non-emergency exit seats: Because, you know, “No Responsibilities!”

And finally, my cheap thrill!

4. Pick the correct side of the plane: Check the flight path — It helps me decide which side of the plane I should be sitting on.

Let me run you through an example.

I recently took a flight from Frankfurt to Muscat. The flight path is displayed below:

(Left) Flight Path (Right) Zoomed path near Kuwait

As you can see the flight path above, if I were to sit on the right side of the aircraft, I could get an aerial view of cities like Munich, Zagreb, Belgrade, Sofia, Istanbul, Kuwait, Doha, Manama and Abu Dhabi. Although it generally depends on the cloud cover, time of the day, the lighting and the quality of your camera at the time, its always good to do your research because you never know what you could capture.

Sitting on the right side would also provide me with a sunset view as the sun was bound to set in the west that evening. And it did wonderfully!

One such result is displayed below.

(Left) Faded Outline of Kuwait visible (Right) Flight Trajectory on the screen

A more clearer outline drawn on the picture:

Outline of Kuwait: Left most island is the Failaka Island. Bottom right portion is the Bubiyan island. The top part is the Kuwaiti Mainland

These images aren’t clear due to the obvious effects of cabin lighting and camera quality when taking images of something that distant, however, there is the obvious joy of seeing your plan come to life.

These are some other images taken using the same strategy.

Aerial Image of Rome: Red Circle marks the St. Peters Basilica of the Vatican City. Colosseum is just blocked by the engine

Aerial View of Frankfurt: The Deutsche Bank Arena is in the foreground with the Business District in the Background

Aerial View of Lyon: The airport visible just above the wing is where the flight had to land

Aerial View of Lyon: The Groupama stadium of Olympique Lyonnais team visible at the bottom

And the Final one, not the best pic but the best experience!

Aerial View of Marseille: Not the best picture but no camera is better than our eyes!

There are number of other cities that I have looked out for multiple times over the years but haven’t been able to capture them. On the onward journey I was lucky to have caught a glimpse of Venice as well with its distinct island archipelago clearly visible from the air. However, capturing was a difficult task as a camera cannot reach wherever our eyes can go!

Always here for help with your seat selection!

Pro-tip: Works well on Indian routes as well. Was lucky enough to view the Taj Mahal enroute between Delhi and Hyderabad. Although not visible distinctively, it is a great feeling!

Moral: Choose your aircraft seats carefully!

Leaving you with the sunset view!

Dawn or Dusk or a Black Hole?