Having thought about this for some considerable time, I realised that there are only two reasons to sit in the back row of an airplane:
Either you have diahorrea, or you are anxious to meet people who do!
The other reason for not wanting to sit in the back row of the plane is that almost always the seat doesn’t recline, or if it does, it’s barely enough to make a difference. Now when I fly, I like to spend most of the flight lying as horizontal as I can, so I can close my eyes and try to zone out until the flight is over. If I can’t recline the seat, I get frustrated. My argument is that I’m not a horse – I can’t sleep standing or sitting upright!
There did used to be other reasons, for example years ago you were allowed to smoke in the back rows of an airplane.
Since I don’t smoke I hated it if I ended up with a seat anywhere close to the back row in the plane, as the cigarrette smoke would always waft over to where I was.
Then, I ended up working with a great guy who was from Argentina. We became great friends and did a lot of trans-atlantic business trips together. The only problem was that he smoked, and so we ended up sitting in the smoking section of the plane, which by then was usually down to about two rows at the back of the plane.
My only consolation in sitting there was that since I was in one of those seats, there was one less person smoking on the plane.
Of course there was another benefit, in that most of the smoke wafted out of that area, so actually sitting in the smoking area was marginally better than sitting a couple of rows in front of it.
Have you got any good airplane stories to tell? If so, please leave us a comment. We would love to hear from you.
Image used under a Collective Commons License from https://www.pikrepo.com/nmzng/people-sitting-on-chair-inside-airplane
