AirBus A380 - Sit in the middle or the side?

In My Humble Opinion
1

My wife and I are flying to Spain this fall on an Emirates A380.
This is the layout of the plane:
https://www.seatguru.com/airlines/Emirates_Airlines/Emirates_Airlines_Airbus_A380.php

All the “good” seats have already been taken. I know I’m going to need an aisle seat to get up and stretch my legs every so often, so I see three options:

  1. Book the aisle and middle seat on one of the side sections
  2. Book the aisle and one of the middle seats in the middle section
  3. Book the aisle and window seat on the side section and hope the middle seat does get booked. If it does switch with that person to move to option 1.

My wife is saying the side section, but the issue I see with that is that we’ll have to get up every time the window seat person needs to move. If we sit in the middle section, the other middle seat person would go out the other side.

Which do you prefer?

2

I don’t find that people get up often enough to be a bother. (with rare exceptions) So, that wouldn’t factor in for me.

3

Option 1 gives each of you unrestricted access to the aisle, but strangers in the non-aisle seats will be asking you to get up from time to time so they can climb out and stretch their legs. It also makes casual conversation between the two of you more challenging.

Option 3 requires taking a risk that nobody gets booked in the middle seat; you might have bad luck.

Option 2 looks the best to me. Wife and I did the same thing on a 747 the first couple of times we flew to Japan. One of you has to make the other get up from time to time, but this is less annoying than having a stranger do it; it also works well if you both get up at the same time.

4

What, you don’t have a private suite? (What a way to fly…)

Okay then, try to get a seat near the beach. Not too near the surfers.

5

Your best bet is to book the middle and aisle seats in the middle row. So, for instance, maybe 78F and 78G.

That way, strangers will go the other way when trying to get up to use the restroom. You and your wife only have to yield for each other. Under this seating arrangement you would never have to get up to let the 78-E stranger use the aisle, because the 78-E stranger would have to pass through 2 seats to get through you and your wife, but only have to pass through 1 seat on the other side. It would make no sense for 78-E’s seat occupant to try to go through you and your wife, unless 78-D’s occupant is snoozing and is known for a bad temper, etc…

6

This is what my wife and I do. We also always try to get stretch seating as I am quite tall.

7

That is overstating the risk. The risk you’re taking is that someone books the middle seat and refuses to swap to your window seat because they prefer the middle seat. I believe that’s significantly lower risk :slight_smile:

This aisle plus window strategy is a favorite of my wife’s, and it’s worked a few times where we’ve gotten the row to ourselves. But I suspect it’s less effective these days as it seems airlines have gotten better at filling up their flights.

8

OK, you give him the window - and then both of you have to get up whenever he wants to get up.

9

Back when I was first flying to and from Japan there was a good chance that the side seats wouldn’t fill up. Not now.

I would go with the middle seats.