Seating advice on Air NZ flight to USA

[kaz]

Hi
Just booked 4 return seats to San Francicso from SYD, flying Air New Zealand.

Flight is on a Boeing 777-200. I've checked out the website Seatguru.com to get an idea of what seats are the ones to avoid.

The seats that we're able to choose from are from Rows 38 through to Rows 65. Rows 38 to 48 are over the wing then rows 55 to 65 are towards the back of the plane (seated behind the wing.)

The seats we were going to chose are in rows 38 & 39 A & B, but then I realised these are located roughly over the middle of the wing area.

From travellers past long haul experience: Is it better to get a seat over the wing or towards to back of the plane (which would be behind the wing area) .. ??

As we are flying mostly through the night, my MAIN concern would be noise that you may hear from sitting over the wing & engines. Missing out on a view by sitting over the wing does not bother us.

Does anybody have past experiences, good or bad comments that they can share with me in regards to seating over a wing or towards back of plane.

Many thanks
Karen

 

[kaz]

If I could get a reply/s today that would be fantastic
thanks

 

[NM]

The wing area is the most stable (i.e. least movement), while the tail end can bounce about a bit.

Engine noise is worst behind the engines and the wing area helps to shield a little. Though I don't find a lot of sound level difference once you get out of the premium cabins.

You lose some of the downward views, but its night and only blue stuff down below, so not much worth looking at anyway until you cross the coast at California, and then you are normally on the ground with about 5 mins of crossing. You will still some of the scenery when seated over the wing.

I would prefer to be as far forward as possible since the time spend in the queue for passport control and customs exit is probably longer than the time spent looking out the window for those down the back of the aircraft.

 

[kaz]

Many thanks NM for your reply. Good to get advice from a seasoned traveller as this is only our 2nd trip overseas

 

[Kiwi Flyer]

Sorry for the delay in replying. I was actually on an NZ 777 SFO-AKL at the time you posted

I second NM's advice in getting seats well forward. IMHO noise isn't much of an issue - ie fairly similar everywhere. However the queues at SFO immigration can sometimes be bad (NZ flight arrives about the same time as several asian and europe flights arrive) - being fairly quick off the a/c will make a noticeable difference in how quickly you are processed.

NM - every time I have flown NZ to SFO we have had "views" for the last 15-20 minutes of the flight, although sometimes the view is obscured by blanket of fog/cloud. Generally the flight path loops over SF and down as far as San Jose before turning and landing to the north.

 

[N860CR]

I'll recommend a forward seat as well. On a long flight the very back of economy always reminds me of a war zone. Pillows and blankets everywhere, legs hanging out into the aisles etc etc etc.

The forward areas tend to have less seats hence less people. These's also better airflow towards the front of the plane. Sacrifice the window seat and get an aisle and middle (or aisle and window and hope the middle will be empty)

 

[NM]

NM - every time I have flown NZ to SFO we have had "views" for the last 15-20 minutes of the flight, although sometimes the view is obscured by blanket of fog/cloud. Generally the flight path loops over SF and down as far as San Jose before turning and landing to the north.

I was actually referring to LAX arrivals. In over Catalina Island, cross the coast south of LAX, turn left and into the airport is the usual approach. Sometimes you get a few circuits over the freeways.

You are correct for SFO arrivals as the flight will follows the very spectacular Pacific Coast for a way as descending into SFO.