While I agree with much of what Bricker says, I differ on the aisle/window issue. I prefer to request window seats for a couple of reasons. One is fairly simple. Most regular travelers share Bricker’s preference for aisles, which means that you’re more likely to get a seat in a good location near the front if you don’t insist on an aisle (seats over the wing tend to suffer less from rough air, and in some planes there are engines mounted next to or above the rear seats, making them very noisy). Also, I tend not to get up during flights, even long ones, so the advantage of being able to get out easily is, for me, obviated by being required to either move or have the window and middle seat passengers climbing over me to get in and out. If your seat assignment isn’t to your liking, you can always ask at the gate when you check in whether the are any seats that are “better” by your standards available. My ideal flight is one in which I fall asleep at the gate before we’ve even pushed back and stay asleep until we begin final approach, and by having a window seat I’m often able to rest my head against the side of the cabin (unless the window itself is placed so that it’s impossible) and lean that way – minimizes the chance that I’ll lean over on whoever’s next to me (I refuse to recline the seat because I absolutely hate when someone in front of me does it). Took me several years of flying, though, before I learned how to sleep on a plane (never could do it in a car) – finally managed on a red-eye from SFO to ATL after a week at a trade show, and have been snoozing while airborne ever since. And despite Bricker’s comment that all clouds look alike, if I’m awake I do enjoy being able to see the landscape when it’s daylight and clear – there are a couple of routes that I both fly and drive often enough that I can tell exactly where we are if I’m in a position to see the ground.
It often pays to find out what type of plane is being used for a flight and what the exit rows are, and request seats in them (assuming you have no physical condition that precludes it such as blindness, deafness, or inability to move quickly and lift 50 pounds or so), since they typically have more legroom than other rows (in some cases there isn’t even a seat if front of you) to begin with, and the seats in the row in front usually don’t recline, guaranteeing you more space.
It’s also not a bad idea to know what equipment’s being used for a flight when you’re packing, so you can decide between carry-on and checked bags (depending on the length of your stay and the nature of the things you have to take). Generally, you’ll be happier the fewer things you have to carry, but if you can manage everything, not checking bags usually saves some time. However, I become nearly murderous when I’m stuck in a middle seat on a wide body (e.g. L-1011 or 767) where there are few or no overhead bins for the middle seats and everyone around me has decided to carry on all their worldly possessions, especially when it’s a four or five hour flight (ATL<–>SFO or ATL<–>SLC). I generally check items rather than carry them if it would bother me to have them under my feet for the whole flight, but then I also allow plenty of time for retrieving bags from baggage claim, which you may not always be able to do.
If you gotta work, fine, but I find it cumbersome to use most laptops on a plane. As Bricker says, most electronic devices that don’t transmit or receive radio signals are allowed during the flight, though pretty much everything is off limits during takeoff and landing. You’ll get reminded repeatedly by the flight crew, and there’s typically a list of allowed and disallowed devices in the inflight magazine. I much prefer to take a couple of magazines – I can polish off a New Yorker or Atlantic in a flight of a couple of hours or more, and for coast-to-coast flights (mainly ATL<–>SFO) I generally have a couple in hand. Books aren’t a bad choice but they don’t adapt as well to being shoved into the seatback pocket, stuck between your hip and the armrest, etc.
Frequent flyer programs are great – I’ve managed to make several trips I wouldn’t have other wise made by redeeming miles – but don’t get fooled by some of the affiliate programs that offer bonus miles for buying things that would be a bad deal otherwise. The actual value of a mile in most frequent flyer programs is between $0.01 and $0.05 (taking an average of 25,000 miles required for a free domestic round trip flight and dividing into $250 (low end discount fare) and into $1200 (very high end coach fare). So keep that in mind as you’re calculating whether an offer that includes airline miles is worthwhile or not.
Drink lots of liquids before and during a flight.