Preferred seat on an aircraft – what’s your choice? Window? Aisle? Try to figure out how to leave a middle seat free so you can have a comfortable seat? Get the extra leg room? My answer varies depending on the flight and the situation.

Every flight is different in different ways. Will I be drowsy because it’s an early morning start? Will there be a connecting flight? Do I need to try to sleep to prevent jet lag? The state I’d be in, the journey I’m taking and what I plan to do on the plane will all make a difference.

The beauty of online check in is that I can now choose my seat on most flights and, provided I’m early enough, my choices are usually wide open.

The 5 rules I keep in mind when choosing my seat on a plane are:

1 – Can I even choose my seat ahead of time?

Some low-cost airlines only let you choose a seat against payment. I understand that if passengers want it enough, they’ll pay for it but it does feel a little stingy.

Some airlines let you choose seats under certain conditions only.

I can’t change this, but I can prepare myself so that by the time I’m at an airport check-in desk, I can ask for a specific seat. This leads me to:

2 – Will I need to catch a connecting flight?

See my other article about flying through small or large airports first. Based on what I booked and whether my connection time is reasonable or not, I place myself as far front as possible. If I have a tight connection I will choose any seat that’s at the front over anything else.

If I have no connecting flight then I move myself further back. Some other frantic traveller can take the advantage of a seat up front.

Karma, people.

The next question is:

3 – Is this a long-haul flight?

Any flight longer than 4 hours means I need to get up and pace about a little. We’ve all read the bit at the back of inflight magazines about the need for small exercises. Sitting for more than an hour at a stretch isn’t a good idea (this applies in the office too) but I can take a 2-hour flight without getting up. If it’s anything up to 4 hours, I figure that it’s reasonable to bother someone to ask them to let me out to pace a little, so a window seat is okay. But if I need to do this a lot more than once or twice, I begin to feel I’m annoying the other passenger. I would much rather choose an aisle seat and let someone else bother me than be ‘The Annoying Passenger from Hell’.

If it’s a long-haul, aisle seat. Always.

4 – What am I going to do on the flight?

The previous rule will be tempered by this one. I don’t tend to sleep well on planes but I can grab an hour or so of rest here and there. If I know in advance that I’ll have a long day before the flight (which increases my chances of sleeping), a window seat may be a good idea. Like all good rules, “it depends” is the operative principle.

5 – What features are available on my flight?

I tend to use SeatGuru a lot. This is a brilliant service that shows you how every major airline lays out its aircraft. Importantly, it shows you were to find power sockets, which seats are too close to the toilets and which seats cannot be reclined.

Personally, I’m not tall enough to need to worry too much about extra leg room but SeatGuru is great for this sort of thing too. For instance, if I know that a flight will be packed I will need to place my hand luggage under the seat in front of me. That can’t happen if I’m sitting near the emergency exits.

Based on all this, I can select a specific seat or a reasonable second best option.

Which seats to you prefer to go for on flights?