Triangle Trip

We all know that Southwest does not have assigned seats and everyone is aware of the standard practices to get in Zone A to avoid having to sit in the middle seat. The standard practices  to get away from sitting in the middle are:

1. Print your boarding pass at right after midnight before your departure date so you board during Zones A or B. This may mean staying up all night just to avoid getting a bad seat – which is not so attractive.
2. Paying for Southwest Business Select. This approach does not really make sense as you’re flying SWA because you’re trying to save money. Why should you pay to board first especially if you fly SWA all the time?

The standard practices also does not cover you for flight cancellations or changes. Here is the secret to avoid the middle seat or at least mitigate the risk of having to sit in the middle.

Kids generally prefer to sit by the windows because they want to look out the window during takeoff and landing. Since kids rarely travel by themselves which means a parent will be next to them. Like everyone else, parents also don’t like to be stuck in the middle seat. The usual scenario is a kid seated by the window and the parent sits at the aisle hoping no one will take the middle seat. This scenario occurs toward the back of the plane.

Regardless of when you board the plane, you need to look for a kid seated by the window and a parent occupying the aisle seat. What you must do is ask the adult to allow you to sit in the middle. The result is the parent will move to the middle because the kid will not want to give up the window seat nor does he or she want to sit next to a stranger. I have used this trick on every flight that is crowded and have an 80% success rate. Go try it!

Although this post isn’t really related to business travel but I do believe it will help improve the management of your busy schedule. One of my favorite sites Rival Central has relaunched its Super Bowl Squares game, a popular office pool game. Instead of running around with spreadsheets at the office, we have used this site to manage our Super Bowl squares pools which span across the globe. Click here to learn more about how to play Super Bowl Squares.

Football and other sports pools help me stay connected with my colleagues while I am on the road. We highly recommend Rival Central to our readers.

I have been commuting coast to coast for over 10 years – that’s between New York and California. I have flown out of JFK to LAX and SFO months at a time. There were only two carriers back in the 90s… now we’ve five options:

1. American
2. Delta
3. JetBlue
4. United
5. Virgin Ameirca

I have experienced all carriers and want to share my experience with everyone. Here are the plus’s and minuses for each:

1. American:

PLUSES:  Price – usually cheaper than Delta and UA. Coach seats are pretty roomy vs. the other four.

MINUSES:  The AA terminal at JFK is a zoo. Planes are older.

2. Delta

PLUSES:  Price – usually cheaper than UA. New seats inside the plane – leather. Live TV in coach. If you’re a Medallion Gold or Platinum, 80% chance to be upgraded to First.

MINUSES:  If you buy a low fare ticket, you will not get full mileage in your bank. Skyteam points are not as valuable as Star Alliance or OneWorld.

3. JetBlue

PLUSES:  Newer planes. Flights are cheap. Free live TV. Food for sale is decent.

MINUSES:  Have to fly to OAK or SJC vs. SFO. Long Beach or Burbank vs. LAX. No first class upgrades.

4. United

PLUSES:  Star Alliance points and UA offers 100% on all flights regardless of the price of tickets. JFK terminal is extremely clean. If upgraded to buniess, service is awesome – personal DVD player, plugs on all business class seats, etc.

MINUSES:  UA divided plane into 50% business, 50% coach. As a result, there are not that many seats available for sale in coach. Tickets are generally expensive.

5. Virgin Ameirca

PLUSES:  Plugs on all seats, games and TV on your seats, comfortable throughout the cabin, ticket can be pretty cheap as well.

MINUSES:  Limited flights throughout the day. Can only bank Virgin points.

Summary

In summary, you should fly Delta if you have Medallion status as you will get upgraded. Fly United if you have enough points to spend on the upgrades. Go with Jetblue if you’re cost conscious or don’t mind flying to alternative airports.