#thewindowseat

     The window seat. The holy grail of the planespotter. No other place compares except for the cockpit. The view. The take-off. The landing. The flaps and ailerons and spoilers. The wing flexing. The view of the airport during boarding and pushback and landing and arrival. The engines. The thrust reversers, the glorious sight of the ground falling away as the engines sing their song! Oh for mercy help me!

       On my last flight I reluctantly gave up my window seat to my wife. She gets airsick and it was the last leg of our travels. The last plane was a wonderful (and one year old) Q-400, but turbo-props aren’t for everyone and it took its toll. I offered the window to my lovely wife to help with her nausea. It was hell. Not for her (it was too) but for me. It literally made me want to cry not looking out. It was a one hour flight from Montreal to Hamilton at dusk and it nearly killed me. My GPS would’t work that far from the window and no matter how hard I tried I could’t see enough. Melanie looked out occasionally and managed not to vomit, so that was a success, but at what cost? Of course it’s just a seat and the time passed quickly and everyone lived to tell the story.

      The thing is that the window seat means more to some of us than you may possibly imagine. To many it’s the place to sit to avoid distraction from passengers that like to leave again and again. It’s better that the dreaded middle seat without any doubt, and it’s often a second choice to the aisle seat where getting up easily is king.

       Sometimes despite our best attempts, our booking with care and our overtures to fellow travellers, we at times end up with a non-window seat.

   So if you’re one of those people who end up with the window seat, please for the love of all things sacred, don’t:

1. Close the window shade at ANY time during take-off or climb-out.

2. Close the window shade during decent and landing.

3. Close the window shade while at the gate.

4. Close the window shade during push-back.

5. Close the window shade for any reason whatsoever.

   Just don’t close the window shade. If you don’t like the light, don’t sit there. Seriously, seeing someone close their shade during takeoff almost makes me lose it. I mean REALLY? YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THIS???!!!??? FOR HEAVEN SAKE! WE CRAWLED OUT OF THE DARK AGES TO TAKE TO SKIES AND YOUR STINKING SHADE IS CLOSED??? WHY? WHHHYYYYYYYYY?