Flight booked.

Now what seat should I choose?

We’ve all been there and it can often be a stressful situation. At least it often is for me.

The last thing I want to do is be stuck in a middle seat on an overnight flight.

Luckily there is a great tool that you can use to figure out the best places to sit on your next flight.

SeatGuru.com

SeatGuru has a huge database of seemingly every airline and airplane combination around the world. This means you can quickly figure out the best seats to grab when you get the chance to pick.

How to use SeatGuru

You will want to have the following ready to go before visiting the SeatGuru site. Your airline, date of travel, and flight number. Once you get to the site, you’ll enter these in, then you will be shown to the appropriate planes seat map.

Understanding Seat Guru Maps

Here’s an example of what the seat map looks like for American Airlines flight 100 from JFK to LHR on a Boeing 777-300ER.

You will notice that seats are color coded based on their desirability. White indicates a standard seat, green is a great seat, and red denotes a bad seat. There may also be yellow seats that come with some additional notes or stipulations. It might flag that a seat is less desirable due to its proximity to a restroom or galley area.

Why you will want to use Seat Guru

Airlines do a poor job at showing seat maps when you are booking a flight. They typically just show row numbers and seat position (center, window, aisle).

While it might not matter much on short flights, you will certainly want to pay attention to where you are sitting on any flight longer than 3 hours.

Grabbing a great seat with extra legroom can make all the difference. And if you know what to look for, you can often snag a great seat without paying any extra cash.

Using Seat Guru at the airport

Say you booked a Basic Economy ticket that did not come with the option to choose a seat. Or there were no seats available choose when you booked your flight online.

Once you check-in (online or at the airport) you are often randomly assigned a seat.

I like to do a quick check on SeatGuru to see where that seat is located. If I do want to request a change, I ask an agent and see what else is available. Then, since I have Seat Guru open, once the agent starts rattling off options, I am able to see exactly where those seats are located and make the best possible choice.

It’s magic.

I hope this helps you on your next flight!