SteveMart.in

This weekend I went on a business trip to Colorado Springs to setup a network for a client. It was a quick trip flying out on Friday afternoon and back early Saturday morning. I arrived and completed my work at the airport and then headed to the offsite location to set it up. When I finished everything up and went to my hotel room, I had an e-mail from Delta for early checkin. I went ahead and clicked the link to check in and was excited to find that I had seat 1A. The very front of the plane. I would for sure be the first person off the plane and of course there’s extra leg room up there right? What a lucky guy I was. I didn’t even have to CHOOSE that seat, I was just lucky enough to get it by chance.

Seat 1A sounds awesome until you actually sit there. First of all I learned that the front row of seats does not have any carry-on stowing area. Since there is no seat in front of you, you have no place to shove your carry-on and they don’t let you keep it on the floor between your feet, I tried. I ended up having to put it about 9 rows back in the overhead compartments. That meant that I had to get out of my seat and head back 9 rows, open the overhead compartment and retreive my laptop for the flight and then go back near the end and put it back before we landed. I like to get in my seat and stay there the whole flight, especially on short flights like this one.

The next draw back is your tray. You don’t get one. It would be entirely possibly for them to install trays on the wall in front of row one, but they don’t. You just have to hold your orange juice and not set it down. Your laptop remains on your lap and that is pretty much your only option. I didn’t know how much I liked having a tray until I got seat 1A.

As for that extra legroom, that doesn’t exist either. I can generally stretch my leg out a little by sliding it under the seat in front of me next to my carry-on. In seat 1A, there is a wall. Just a wall. However, I did have a better view of the stewardess as she was texting pretty much the entire taxi to the runway. I didn’t know THEY were allowed to text while the rest of us had to turn our phones off. She put her phone away just before she had to sit down and get buckled for take-off.

And finally, the person in seat 1A is NOT the first one off the plane. In fact, you are just about the last one off the plane. Remember your carry-on? Ya, it is way back at row 9, so you have to wait for just about everyone to come walking past you on their way off the plane before you can finally go back 9 rows for that darn carry-on.

So, my advice for anyone flying, if you have a choice of which seat to take, stay far far away from Seat 1A. You’ll have a much more enjoyable flight.

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