Beware The ‘Windowless’ Window Seats On Planes

If you are accustomed to traveling via planes, you are probably used to the windowless window seats that they have. While this is not really a secret, not many know about these dreaded seats. As it turns out, not every single seat in an aircraft comes with a window- something users on Twitter have been complaining about lately.

Kalie Marsch, a traveler, was the first one to post a picture of her windowless seat, with the caption, “I’ve made a terrible, terrible, terrible mistake.” Several other users were quite quick to offer her their sympathy. One user wrote, “The worst. I’m an obsessive window-seater and this would make me have a slight panic attack.” Another user also mentioned, “The least they could do is have a picture of a window there!”[1]

Windowless Window Seats Are An Evil Necessity

The Points Guy UK, a travel site, also discussed their recent troubles with this windowless window seat. They sent a picture of their seat on a plane to MailOnline Travel. Later, Nicky Kelvin, the Head of the travel site clarified why these seats were a necessity. “They’re often due to the manufacturer using that space to feed through certain avionics (aviation electronics) or essential components such as air-conditioning ducts. Frequency emergency exit window seats don’t include a window view as the design dictates window placement on the emergency exit door, which often results in an obscured view.” The best way to get rid of this issue would be to use any booking website which would give you a seat layout of the aircraft that you could potentially be flying on.

Virgin Australia, one of the premier airlines in the country, recently explained in a blog that their seat 9A on the Boeing aircraft was windowless. This was in order to ensure that the panel that was used to hold the entire distribution of the air conditioning ducts was strong enough to not fall on the heads of the passengers.

If you are traveling by Ryanair, you would find a small pop-up message that would be warning customers, “Oh, and if you are booking with Ryanair, it’s worth noting that the windowless seats often tend to be 11A and 11F, in case you have paid to select a seat.” But, you will not be getting your money back from any airline company- simply because a seat is nothing but a seat to them. So, you might as well get the best use out of this window seat and sleep throughout your journey.[2]