These days when I travel unless it is a very long flight I don't even bother with booking a seat now that airlines are doing that silly game where they charge you more money if you want to choose a seat. Since I almost always travel alone I don't really care where they put me.
When I book a long haul flight I turn up early to the airport and request an exit row seat and then, depending on which exit row it is I will normally not give a damn which it is because in the exit row you have enough space in front of you that the person or persons siting with you can get out to go to their 19th trip the bathroom without waking you up, bothering you, and if you are in the rows that are near the galley, they won't even need to get close to you.
There are a lot of benefits to getting an exit row and in my more than 20 years of international travel I have never been denied one. For domestic flights a lot of the budget airlines have started to charge a premium for these seats and I don't know how they get away with this because the FAA and whoever governs the international version of the same thing has safety reason for reserving these seats and why they cannot be booked online most of the time.
You'll see them greyed out in the seat selection section for the most part. You are not allowed to sit in those seats if you are too young, too old, too fat, too skinny, at all handicapped or if you are traveling with kids. They have a whole criteria.
Anyway, when I am forced to choose a seat I will normally take an aisle seat if I am in economy which is almost always. The reason for this is that I am quite tall by international standards and if I am on the inside there is a very good chance I am gonna be smushed and perhaps even have a bit of claustrophobia set in on me. At the aisle, even if it is a bit rude I can stretch my leg out into the 'hallway" and just stay on my guard for moving them whenever anyone walks by.
I think if you are not a little kid there is no real benefit to sitting the window seat outside of takeoff and landing, the rest of the time I hope you really enjoy looking at clouds... or the demon that is tearing up the engines.
Obviously the middle seat sucks but if it is a short flight I don't really care if I am in that one either. I am not a short flight sleeper and actually struggle to get to sleep on long flights as well. There has to be medication and some serious noise cancelling headphones involved for me to have a chance as slumber on a plane no matter how long it is.
For me, I will take a aisle seat almost all the time but honestly, asking for the exit row is the best thing to do if you are a solo traveler that is physically capable.
Which do you prefer?
