Why I Hate The Middle Seat.

I'm sure so many people share my aversion to the middle seat but there's just something about it that really gets me.

Recently, all of my flights have been taken alone as I was backpacking solo around the southern hemisphere and now on my way to California. And out of the 15 flights I've been on this year I could say that on 3 of them tops I had a window seat.

The middle seat is the place for the lonely, apparently. The one who has no one to chat to. The one who then has to be squished by the particularly rotund old man drinking his way through the entire liquor stash. The one who has to awkwardly wake up the middle aged businessman to be able to get to the loo. The one who can't sleep comfortably, in danger of falling asleep on a neighbour. The one who has to endure a snotty child chucking it's food everywhere for an entire 8 hour flight. And yes those are all things that happened to me.

The middle seat is the struggle of the arm rest hierarchy. The place where you have to try not to drop any empty food packaging on your neighbour as you pass your tray back to the stewardess. The place where you have to lean across your unhelpful neighbour to get the tray in the first place. The place you have to think about what you watch on the TV because you're pretty sure the person next to you is judging you for watching Inside Out. The place you have to continuously say "sorry" because you can't move without bumping a neighbour. And yes these happened to me too.

But what's so good about the window seat or the aisle seat? Well, for one there's normally just that bit of extra space. You can curl up on the window to fall asleep. You have the freedom to go to the loo when you please. You have the freedom to look out of the window at the stunning mountains you're flying over. You get to stretch a leg out into the aisle when the food trolley isn't roaming around. They both have their downsides but it's still not the middle seat.

And if by some miracle you're on a partially empty flight and end up with three seats to yourself then live it up! Even if it is a short flight from Koh Samui to Chiang Mai!