Last week was one of those weeks: I left home on a Sunday, before dinner, to fly across the country for work. Proceeded through four planes and three cities in three days, catching a red-eye back. That’s one of the most aptly nicknamed flights around. Of course, it could also be called the sore-back or stiff-neck or totally-wiped-out… But I digress.
In three marathon days of work and travel, it wasn’t actually the overnight flight home that stayed with me. It was the evening flight out, with me in the very last row of coach on a classic 757 that didn’t have a single available seat. I was in row 44, to be exact, with no other option.
With all due respect to the West Coast, I’ve always felt like a six-hour flight should land me on another continent. That is a loooong trip, and being in the last row has the potential to make it feel a whole lot longer unless you employ some serious lemonade-making thought processes to find the good in what is clearly not a good situation. Given the migraine-inducing realities of air travel today, this can come in very handy. So, in an effort to help all of my fellow frequent fliers, here are the results of my efforts to identify the “perks†of a situation that at first seemed to lack any.
Great Service: In the last row, you’re so close to the galley, you can smell everything happening in there (which, since airlines have given up cooking, isn’t much). You’re the first to be served a beverage and the tiniest possible packaged snack ever created. Of course, if you’re a big spender, you can buy something heartier without having to ever worry that the red wine, beer or sandwich you want is going to run out before your row is reached.
Safety First: Not only are you close to the exit without having to bear the heavy psychological burden of sitting in the exit row (are you really equipped to rip that door from its hinges, toss it from the plane, and
play hero in a crisis?), you are actually sitting smack under the plane’s emergency medical supplies, including oxygen and a defibrillator. I found this out on my flight when a woman passed out in the aisle and the flight attendants had to climb up on my seat to get the equipment out. Luckily, the ill woman was revived without using any of it. But for my troubles (I had to stand up while the equipment was retrieved and then returned) the flight attendants apologized profusely and offered to give me anything I wanted. Of course, they no longer have anything (ice cream, a nice hot meal, a headset worth keeping) I want on planes, so I humbly declined.Click here to continue reading…
No Room…But a View: Sitting in the back of the plane, you have a clear view all the way to the cockpit, which means that you don’t have to crane your neck to see if there’s a line for the bathroom. You can sit back (well, not really back, since your seat doesn’t recline in the last row) and relax, not bothering to get up until that little “vacant†sign slides into place.
Congeniality Corner: Not only will you get to know the flight attendants stationed in the galley right beside you really well, you’ll get to overhear all of their conversations, which could easily be more enterta
ining than the in-flight movie you watched on a previous flight. Also, you’re guaranteed to make fast friends with your seat mates, who will be just as eager as you are to commiserate about your shared seating fiasco.No-Kick Zone: For anyone who has ever endured a trip with a child kicking their seat from behind, this is a big one! For some, it might be reason enough to actually request the last row! No one is behind you. No little kickers, screamers, coughers, tappers, gas-passers or other junior travelers that only a mother could love.
Better Survival Odds: I read a statistic years ago that said you are more likely to survive a plane crash if you are seated in the rear of a plane than in the front. Of course, this is logical. As to whether it’s actually true, who knows. If you’re stuck in a last-row seat, it’s a good thing to console yourself with nonetheless. Those folks in first class, with their clean blankets and pillows, their hot meals and fresh-baked cookies, their leg-and-butt room and reclining seats, their spacious overhead bins, practically private bathroom, and drinks-on-demand… in a pinch, they’re more precariously perched than you are.
So, you see, there’s a lot to be glad about if you find yourself riding the back of the plane. Of course, this assumes you have a window or aisle seat. Back row, middle seat? The best you can hope for is that you’ll sleep through the entire ordeal.
Bon voyage!