Obviously, you won't always be able to choose from among those three. But you can often choose a flight with comfort in mind. In coach, where seats are generally straitjacket-tight, small differences in roominess can have a big effect. Configuration , how seats are grouped within a row, determines your risk of being crammed into a middle seat or of sitting next to a passenger in one. The table shows the typical setup in various planes.
Numerals indicate how many seats are in each unit, and hyphens represent aisles.
Some airlines use nonstandard widths and configurations. The best setups have no middle seats. Seat strategy You can put up with even the worst airline seating if you're next to an empty seat. Middle seats in the center section are considered the least desirable, so they're the last to be assigned. If most of the seats on a plane are in groups of three, one member of a couple will almost always be assigned to a middle seat.