Sometimes getting the right seat on an airplane flight can make a big difference.  Fortunately, there is a very useful website providing detailed insights about airplane seats and amenities.

The website is called SeatGuru, and it provides information about specific planes, seats, and amenities.    The website was launched in October 2001 by Matthew Daimler and is now operated by Trip Advisor.

Before we dive into the website’s useful features, let’s review the relevant airlines with flights in Malaysia.  Below is a list of airlines flying in or out from Malaysia, and the bolded items indicate that they are not covered in SeatGuru.

Airlines Connecting in Malaysia:

• AirAsia
• Air India Express
• China Eastern Airline
• Cebu Pacific (not covered in SeatGuru.com)
• Czech Airlines
• Emirates
• Etihad Airways
• FireFly (not covered in SeatGuru.com)
• Japan Airlines
• Jet Airways
• KLM
• Lion Air (not covered in SeatGuru.com)
• Lufthansa
• Malaysia Airlines
• Riau Airlines (not covered in SeatGuru.com )
• Qatar Airlines
• Thai Airways
• Silk Air (not covered in SeatGuru.com)
• Singapore Airlines
• Tiger Airways (not covered in SeatGuru.com; however Tiger Airways Australia is covered)
• Vietnam Airlines (not covered in SeatGuru.com)
• Xiamen Airlines (not covered in SeatGuru.com)
• As you can see, quite a large number of airlines flying with connections to Malaysia are covered on SeatGuru.com. Additionally, if the airline is covered that means a lot their individual planes routes are covered, which means you can gather useful insights for your next flight from Malaysia.

Information You Need to Submit for Finding Airplane Seating Insights

SeatGuru is free.  You just need to enter some simple information, which you can find while you purchase a ticket online or by looking at your flight itinerary of an already purchased ticket.

• First, you enter  the name of the airline and flight number.  The flight number typically starts with two letters, followed by several numbers.
• Second, identify your route departure and arrival points.  
• Third, identify departure and arrival times.

Once you enter this information, you’ll have access to some neat insights.

SeatGuru’s Insights: Seating Layouts, Amenities, Reviews, and More

The website can offer some great insights about individual flights.   Once you’ve entered the requested information for SeatGuru to retrieve your flight insights, a page will display with various types of information.

At the top of the page should be a description about the specific airplane model.  It might also reveal how many of the airplane models are in the airline’s fleet. It may provide insights about the plane’s first class, business class (e.g. flatbad available, seating angle type, etc.), and economy class (e.g. personal tvs for each seat, video ondemand available, restricted legroom, etc.).

Below the description will be a chart outlining some quantitative information about the seats, such as:

• Seat pitch: Distance between the back end of one seat and the front end of the adjacent seat, also known as, legroom.
• Seat width
• Seating details: This will comprise various types of information, such as number of seats, movable headrest, length of the seat’s extended bed position, and more.

Following the quantitative details about the seats, the website offers some information about the plane’s amenities.  This may include details about the personal video screen, personal audio equipment, ac power adapters, food onboard, and special services for infants.

The next key part of SeatGuru’s insights is the seat map.  This shows a basic floor plan of all the seats on the flight.  More importantly though, the seats are color coded with a legend indicating good (green) to bad (red) seats.  You can then just hover your mouse over those seats to read the comments, which might state things like, seat has restricted legroom, seat has extra legroom, seat is near lavatory, window seat has extra space, no space to store bags infront of seat, or other insights.  This seat map can be very useful to avoid picking the wrong seat or finding that lucky seat with added-value.

In addition to these structured insights about flights, SeatGuru offers some nifty guides for traveling.  Here are a couple of them:

• Not sure how to spend your day at the airport? Check out SeatGuru’s Airport Guide.
• Have you ever been asked what aircraft you’re flying and not sure how to figure that out? Check out, How do I know what Aircraft I’m flying?

There are many more resources on the website, including a tool to compare the seating classes among the airlines.

Have you used SeatGuru?  Share your thoughts by posting comments below.  No registration is required.

Unsure about commenting?  Learn why and how to comment.

Photo credit: caribb / Foter / CC BY-NC-ND

Thumbnail Photo in Extract: Stuck in Customs / Foter / CC BY-NC-SA