Airplane Seat Assignments

Sometimes the seat you get on your flight to Ethiopia is just what is available and sometimes you have options. Here’s a summary of my 4 transatlantic flights (3 with child). All of my flights to/from Addis were on Ethiopian Airlines.

My first flight was as a solo passenger. I flew from London to Addis. I was in Economy in the middle seat of a 3 seat section. The plane was hot. To summarize, it sucked but it was only about 7 hours. The flight was packed full. I think I slept for about ½ hour total. How am I supposed to sleep when there are people on both sides of me and it is 80 degrees? Since I also didn’t sleep on the flight from Newark to London, nor during the 12 hour daytime layover in London, I felt (and looked) like crap when I landed in Addis. If I had to do this segment with a kid on my lap….that would’ve been very, very awful!

My second flight was with a 19-month old. It was from Addis to DC. I had a bulkhead window seat with bassinet in a 2 seat section. (And, since I had no idea what a bulkhead seat was when I started this whole process, I will tell you it is the row of seats directly behind the wall. There is no seat in front of you.)  I really liked having a window. And, though my baby was pretty big, the bassinet was nice to sit him in while I ate. I could also just let him sit in the bassinet and play with his toys (or plastic cups). It was a pretty good setup. Since I was pretty exhausted by that point, I did not have high standards. It was tricky navigating under the bassinet but over the seat divider to get out and go to the bathroom. Lucky for me, the bathroom was right in front of us. Also, being in the front, you get served food first. So, you can eat and go to the toilet before some people have even gotten their food. This flight was also packed full, but the temp was good. I probably slept 1.5 hours total.

My third flight was from DC to Addis. My son was almost 23-months this time. I went hardcore charming on the ticket agent in DC. The agent was Ethiopian and I whipped out all 8 of my Amharic words on him, plus I pulled out my secret weapon…Junior. I made him say Selam to the agent and as a bonus he was blowing kisses to everyone. We got the bulkhead row. And, since the airplane was quite empty, the ticket agent gave me a seat with an empty seat next to me in the bulkhead row…actually I had the whole 3-seat section of the bulkhead row for my son and me. AMESEGENALEHU!! The setup was very nice for spreading our crap out all over everything. He got his own seat which was great except for his obsession with continuously buckling and unbuckling his seatbelt. The bulkhead row has a lot of leg room, so he could also play on the floor by my feet. And, he had plenty of easy access for flirting with the flight attendants and anyone who used the toilet. It still was a little uncomfortable trying to sleep semi-upright, but it was better than the previous flights. I think I slept 2.5 hours. Wahoo!

My fourth flight was from Addis to DC. I had a reservation for a bulkhead seat with bassinet. I had gotten spoiled by the last flight and was not looking forward to sticking a 31 pound kid in a bassinet. I know his legs would’ve been very bent or dangling over the edge if I actually did lay him down in the bassinet. At the ticket counter, I asked the agent if we would be getting a bassinet. She said it was available. I told her if there was a seat open that I could have for my son, I would be willing to take that and leave the bassinet for families with smaller babies. The flight was pretty full but not packed. Fortunately, she said there was a seat setup like that available, but it was in the back. It wasn’t the very last row, so I said OK. We ended up in the second to last row in the middle 3-seat section. Since my son had a meltdown pre-takeoff when I tried to make him wear his seatbelt, the woman in the third seat sprinted away as soon as the Seatbelt Light turned off. I never saw her again. Oh, shame, because we now had 3 seats to ourselves. Now, these seats don’t have as much legroom as a bulkhead row, but the armrests on these seats flip up. When the lights dimmed and it was time to sleep, I threw my modesty out the window and laid flat down across the 3 seats, with my knees curled around my son in the outside seat. The people in the row behind us had gotten rid of all the extra pillows and blankets by dumping them in the empty seat in our row. So, I had 5 pillows (2 I graciously gave to my son) and 4 blankets to make myself a cocoon out of. After a couple of hours he started to fuss about my legs pushing on him, so I pulled him up and he fell asleep on my chest while I was still sprawled out across the 3 seats. This was the best sleep I had ever gotten on an airplane!! I think I slept 6 hours! Yee haw!!! Sure, the awake time in the airplane was not great because I had to continually admonish and redirect Junior because he was kicking and pushing on the seat in front of him, but what a difference an additional 4 hours of sleep makes on a Mommy-Attitude!

So, if I had a choice between a bulkhead row with bassinet and a cattleyard seat with an open one next to it, I’d pick the bulkhead. But, if I could have cattleyard with the whole row, definitely I’d pick the cattleyard. And, if I could have one Business Class seat versus any of these situations, I’d take the one Business Class seat every time!