Aisle or Window?

Whenever I travel by air, I book an aisle seat for myself. I like being able to freely “move about the cabin” if the mood strikes me. If I’m traveling with someone, generally I book the window seat for my companion. Of course, this leaves the dreaded middle seat open and, like most people, I spend the better part of my time in the gate area hoping against hope that no one will occupy it. So, sue me. I like having elbow room. Besides, isn’t the middle seat where you’re supposed to stash the germ-laden blanket and pillow that the airlines leave on your seat?

Of course, if you’ve been flying as much as I’ve been flying, you already know what I am about to tell you. The middle seat is almost never empty. Airplanes are filled almost to capacity. Good news for the airline industry, bad news for those of us who have personal space issues. Not to mention hygiene issues. Sorry, but now that blanket and pillow are headed for the floor.

Traveling to Hawaii with my daughter this summer, I met the first person I’ve ever known who prefers to sit in the middle seat. Yes, you read that right. Pretty sick stuff. He books middle seats because he likes to meet people, and chatting during long flights passes the time for him. Even better if he has two people, one on either side, he can engage in conversation, just in case one turns out to be a dud. I think you may know where I am going with this.

When I nicely asked him if he’d prefer to switch his middle seat to a window or aisle (who in the world wouldn’t?), he said “no, thank you, I like to sit in the middle seat.” Between a mother and her 10-year-old daughter? Was this flight destined to be the longest flight in history for me? Entertaining not only my 10-year-old for close to six hours — but a perfect stranger? I’m basically a nice person. What did I do to deserve this? I smile at this (actually, less-than perfect) stranger and say, “I’m sorry, my daughter is terribly shy (this is such a lie), she is a fearful flyer (also not true — she’s been flying since she was 6 months old), and she is prone to motion-sickness (another fabrication — she actually likes turbulence). I actually consider describing in detail the horrific projectile vomiting she experienced on our last flight, but realize there is no need. This man is looking at me like I am the lunatic in the ninth row. “I’ll see if I can find another middle seat,” he says, and off he goes to torture another couple of travelers several rows back. I heave a huge sigh of relief, my daughter heaves an even bigger one, and the first leg of our 15-hour excursion to Hawaii is underway. We have the middle seat/blanket and pillow holder all to ourselves, we have a place to stash our newspapers and books, our elbows can actually move about the cabin, and neither one of us has to relinquish our preferred seating assignments. Life is good.

Indeed, “Life is good” for a lot of people in the travel — and travel goods — industries. The combination of a strengthening economy along with an increase in consumer confidence and spending is helping to make 2004 one of the strongest years in travel in quite some time. According to the Travel Industry Association of America’s (TIA) Annual Travel Forecast, overall traveler spending by domestic and international visitors is forecasted to increase nearly 6 percent in 2004 to $585 billion, up from $552 billion in 2003. Travel spending is expected to continue to improve in 2005, increasing nearly 5 percent to $613 billion and finally surpassing the record set in 2000. TIA is also forecasting a 3.2 percent increase in leisure travel for this summer season. According to TIA’s Summer 2004 Forecast, Americans will take more than 334 million person-trips (one person traveling 50+ miles, one-way, away from home) during June, July and August 2004. And business travel, in decline since 1999, is expected to rebound this summer with a 5.7 percent increase over last summer.

More people traveling means more people are buying travel goods. The forecast is looking good for us all.