christopher-hill.com

Seat Guru

Booking my holiday on the Sheffield - Shanghai express is turning out to be an incredible headache. It turns out that I'm not actually allowed to book any of the required train tickets until 45 days before departure, which is a bit bothersome. None the less I decided to plough on and book my hotels and return flight, again - easier said than done. First of all, Virgin Atlantic are absolutley convinced that Sheffield is in China, and I don't seem to be able to convince them that it is actually in Yorkshire. Secondly, they want me to pick up and pay for my ticket in person at their Shagnhai office within 48 hours, I've explained that this is a little inconveniant, given that Sheffield is, as already noted, in Yorkshire, not China.
Obsessed as I am with comfortable seating, and being a complete newbie at long haul flying, I have been checking out this site which shows the best and worst seats on planes. I'm thinking K50 would be best. This site is quite useful too, as you get individual opinions from past flyers.

UPDATE - I've spoken to Virgin now, and the flight is sorted. As regards the seat, I asked for opinions here and there are two problems with K55 - one is that you can't book exit row seats in advance, you can only book on arrival as they have to be sure that you are physically fit to operate the door in the event of a major catastrophe. Secondly, the areas with extra legroom tend to be held back for people with babies. There's only one thing that would annoy me more on a 13 hour flight than lack of legroom - and that would be sitting next to a screaming vomit machine. So I've plumped for K55.
I realise that to most people such in depth discussion of seating arrangements may seem trivial, but to me, it's important. I once hatched a plan to buy a wheelchair so I could sit in the disabled sections at auditoriums and public transport, as the people in the disabled sections always get shit loads of legroom, which I think is unfair, the fact they're in a wheelchair means that they probably don't have much feeling in their legs anyway, so why should they get all that space for their useless legs? And those sections are always virtually empty anyway, so it's not like I'd be depriving any genuine disableds. I didn't go through with the plan, as wheelchairs are suprisingly expensive.
Interesting fact - Row J was always the best row at the Sheffield Memorial Hall as it inexplicably had twice as much leg room as any other room. I wonder if that will continue to be the case when it re-opens after re-development.

Friday, April 15, 2005 4:04 PM