Young, old, short, or tall; everyone has an opinion on airplane seats. And while you can’t always help it if you’re seated near a screaming baby or a guy who had a burger with extra raw onion for lunch, your positioning on a flight has a major impact on the overall travel experience. For this new series called Flight or Fight, the Here editorial staff will go head-to-head (and keyboard-to-keyboard) over the right and wrong ways to travel, starting now with one of air travel’s most hotly contested questions: what’s better, the window or the aisle seat?
Emma Glassman-Hughes: I think I’m officially a Window Girl.
Ally Betker: I’ve been an aisle seat kind of gal for pretty much forever.
EG-H: My only issue with it is getting bumped by the flight attendants with their carts. Don’t you ever get bumped??
AB: I have long legs, so the worst is when I’ve accidentally stretched too far out into the aisle and gotten ever so slightly run over.
EG-H: The aisle is kind of sneaky because you delude yourself into thinking you’ll get all this extra leg room but really you’re just asking for trouble with the carts
AB: But, I’m curious: Why the window to begin with? Nothing sounds worse to me than having to pee at 3 a.m. and not being able to get out.
EG-H: Windows are great for sleeping, and I’m a big plane-sleeper
AB: Ah, there’s the rub. I can’t sleep on planes to save my life.
EG-H: What do you do on planes if you’re not sleeping?!
AB: There’s nothing better than being on a plane when you’re on deadline: hours of uninterrupted work time! Or, the complete opposite: hours of uninterrupted chill time.
EG-H: I can do work on planes the way you can sleep on planes, in that I cannot do work on planes. Plane ride = time to tune out.
AB: That’s totally valid. Both are good things to do on planes! I feel like most people dread long flights, but if you flip the script and use it as required down time or work time, it takes on a whole new meaning.
EG-H: That’s true. I just remembered how much I love to gaze out the window longingly and/or absentmindedly while on planes. You just have nowhere to look in the aisle seat.
AB: There’s something very mind-expanding about looking out of the window of a plane. Maybe it’s too intensely emotional for me. (Not good for my work hours.)
EG-H: It definitely is for me, I usually cry. That’s why I don’t get any work done—too busy crying.
AB: Xrying at the possibilities in life? The expanse of the world? Or because you’ve just watched “Allied”?
EG-H: The first time I watched “The Fault In Our Stars” was on a plane. Worst decision I’ve ever made.
AB: SAME.
EG-H: IT WAS TOO MUCH. I had to turn it off, honestly. My seat buddy was growing concerned, I could tell. Window seats are perfect for a good existential crisis.
AB: Yes, the getting up and down for your seatmates really ruins the mood. I’ll also agree with you that there’s nowhere to rest your head on an aisle seat. So even if you wanted to sleep, it would be challenging.
EG-H: So you like the aisle because of the freedom it affords you? Bathroom access, etc.?
AB: Exactly. bathroom access is very important to me. One time, I was on a 15 hour flight from China with a coworker…
EG-H: Oh boy.
AB: He very graciously gave me the window seat and took the MIDDLE seat, which doesn’t even deserve a mention in this debate…
EG-H: What a SAINT.
AB: I know, but I of course had to pee somewhere over the Pacific Ocean (I think), and he was sound asleep but the aisle seat dude got up to go to the bathroom and I had to seize the moment.
EG-H: Ah yes, that familiar panicked strategizing of the window seat…
AB: So I climbed OVER him and made it to the bathroom and back before the aisle seat guy came back, but on my way climbing back over he opened his eyes briefly when I was basically straddling him
EG-H: OMG.
AB: He closed his eyes again, and we never talked about it.
EG-H: Best to forget. Or to call HR, I guess. But yes, the stress of not wanting to wake your seat pals is hands down the worst part of life at the window.
AB: It’s just not worth it for me.
EG-H: If I were in your shoes, I think I’d pick aisle, too. The headrest is just too tempting for my sleepy, melodramatic head. But the next time I hold my pee all the way to California instead of asking the person next to me to get up, I’ll think of you.