Emirates A380: Seat Dilemma
Off on another whirlwind adventure.
Being a relative novice in international travel (don't get me started on domestic) I thought I'd take a holiday before having the cash to splash and stick with economy - flying Emirates Sydney to Frankfurt.
Now I'm the sort who needs to know as much about the plane I'll be travelling in. Not as much as in the name and number of the plane, but more then the general flying public. I want to know if it's an Airbus or Boeing (as most people know there aren't many other choices for long haul), if it's a A330 or Boeing 777-200 and am I seated in 3-4-3 or 2-4-2.
Being a seat nazi I stick to a few simple rules that make sense to myself by constantly justifying my needs and wants for my seat.
1) I must have aisle access. No - I don't need to see outside a window. At only 23 I've flown enough to loose interest in starring at the ocean.
2) I must be in close proximity to a bathroom. See rule 1. This is a controversial decision with most of my travel companions. The same as being near a galley, you suffer from light leak (depending on which direction you face) and noise. I live in the city, I'm used to noise while I sleep and luckily I haven't experienced any bathroom noise leak ;)
3) I want to be able to recline without bothering anyone behind me. Idiotically I have self imposed social decorum that extends beyond that norm. I worry that I might lower my seat into someones face who's leaning forward, or who could be snacking outside of meal times. I also don't want to start an international incident.
With these rules in mind I set out to find my seat. Specifically searching for an A380 flight with Emirates I select an optimal time that really isn't optimal for anyone except the airline - but what can you do... if you are flying for 20 hrs your going to need to adjust somewhere! This was my specific seat picking journey...
For these two flights (Sydney to Dubai, Dubai to Frankfurt) I also had the added criteria of being as close to nose as possible... something I normally wouldn't consider, I'm the opposite! But I guess sometimes you have to listen to your partner. Emirates A380 entire lower level is a dizzying 427 economy seats.
Using the usual reference of Seat Guru I found lies! Lies everywhere. Firstly, row 51 meets all my requirements - close to the bathroom, infront of a bulkhead, access to the aisle. But one piece of important incorrectly given piece of information is that this row has limited recline. This is true in row 50, but row 51 features a a walkway behind. Now this is good and bad, I can imagine during boarding and disembarking every knob with too much carry on will be grabbing that seat as they move through the aircraft. But it gives the ability to recline all that way (with the generous recline that is given in economy of course). How did I discover this information? An extremely informative but rudimentary website - AirReview. I was first scared by the red symbols on the row but then found "Unlike most seats against the rear bulkhead, these seats do have full recline, thanks to a small walkway behind you." Thank you! Perfecto. This row is made for me. Done deal.
All that said and done the real test will be the flight. I envision one real assonance queuing or the bathroom. We see... we see.
Next - Etihad seat adventures.
