Traveller shares little-known trick to find out how full your next flight is
We're finally in July and I'm sure many us can't wait to stock up on SPF, pack our suitcase and jet off to somewhere hotter for our summer holidays.
However, it's sadly a fact of life that you need to go through the absolute chaos of the airport and the plane ride in order to do so.
So, to help ease the process, one traveller has shared her little-known trick to find out how full your next flight is.
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The online check-in usually opens 24 hours before the flight's departure time.
Many airlines offer add-ons including buying a specific seat and it is here where you'll be able to see just how many open seats are available the day before your flight.
All you have to do is simply take a look at the seat map during the check-in process to see if you'll end up having a seat or row neighbour next to you or not.
The woman shared that you can also always just contact the airline's customer service to see if they can share with you just how full the flight is.
What's the point of knowing, you may ask?
Well, in some countries, you may be allowed to switch to a new flight free of charge if your current one is looking a tad too chock-a-block.
In the UK, however, this is far less common so be sure to check with your specific airline ahead of time!
In other travel news, it's clear that those who suffer from flight anxiety and prefer to know all they can about planes before they take the plunge and soar the skies at 30,000 feet.
So, it makes sense that such people are eager to know which seats are statistically the safest to plonk yourself down in.
The general long-held belief is that the back of a place is the safest place to sit.
An aviation safety researcher at the University of North Dakota, Daniel Kwasi Adjekum, explained a little more about the fundamental physics all planes seemingly adhere to.
Adjekum explains: "The front section, obviously, is comfortable because it's away from the engine and the noise.
However, the expert notes: "That's normally the first point of impact. And so it’s a high vulnerability area."
And if you're needing some cold-hard stats to back it up, Time magazine once analysed 35 years of crash data in a 2015 study and also found that the safest place to sit on a plane is in the back.
According to the study, those sitting in the back of a plane had a 32 percent fatality rate while the middle rear was 28 percent, the middle was 39 percent and the front was 38 percent.
"The rear section often will break off," Adjekum adds. "Lots of that kinetic energy goes with the front of the aircraft and leaves the back intact."
Topics: Advice, Travel, Life, Hacks, Life Hacks, Plane Etiquette
Rhiannon Ingle