myTobago – your questions, review and comment about Tobago

Hi

Myself and my girlfriend have just booked our first flight to Tobago and have been lucky enough (via a number of flights, BA's AMEX card, Tesco points and BA's E-Shop along with AMEX's 2-4-1 voucher!!) to score a couple of reward seats in BA’s Club World cabin, which should even make the travelling to what sounds like a wonderful Isle an enjoyable experience!

Having not flown on BA’s 3 Class 777s before I have no idea which CW seats to select for me and Ms Ben W, or indeed whether I should try to get a seat in the front cabin or the smaller second cabin, Im sure a number of you have flown in Club World before, does anyone have any preferences when flying as a couple?

This will no doubt be the first of many questions that I have (we’ve nowhere near decided on accommodation as yet!!), the vast majority of which I’m sure will be answered somewhere on this excellent site. I’ve had a quick search regarding seat selection and have however come up with nothing, so thought it may be handy to have a thread specifically for it as many airlines now allow this service when booking or at Online Check in (OLCI).

I thought it may be handy to have a thread where everyone can put down their experiences of what seats are best on each specific airline (for singles couples or families) and also detail which have good Leg room and recline (or lack of!!), which seats receive catering services first and also which is the best side of the plane to sit on, for views both coming into and leaving Tobago! This should help to make the long journey a bit more bearable for those who are on airlines where you can select seats.

I have pasted the below links to BA and Virgin’s seat maps, which I believe are up to date for the aircraft which currently run their Caribbean services, which should hopefully help people out a bit.
From my own experience I have flown BA’s, 4 class 777 a number of times and have been lucky enough to secure seats on Row 26 in economy at OLCI, 24 hours before departure when its open to all passengers (I only have a BA Blue Card so have no special status). These seats have lots of extra legroom and the layout looks similar on the 3 class 777, so if you can get them, they will be a huge bonus on a 10 hour flight!

Regarding World Traveller Plus, I’ve found that the Aisle seats have restricted ‘foot’ room due to the IFE box that handily takes up half the space under the seat. Again the seats at the front of the cabin have a bit of extra legroom so should be selected if at all possible.

One thing to be aware of on both of these rows however is that they have bassinet positions for infants, normally it’s not an issue, if you get a crier however it can be a pain!!

BA
http://www.seatexpert.com/_BA777_3_class_NCW.html
Virigin
http://www.seatexpert.com/_VS_Boeing_74 ... uites.html

Hopefully these links will help people, if anyone else has any advice, especially on airlines not mentioned please add it here.

Cheers
Ben

Hello Ben

Thank you for sharing this very valuable information. We've pre-booked our seats before on BA before but that was for a short European flight. One thing we noticed was that people in the exit seats can't recline their seats due to safety reasons. So, lots of leg room but if you need a rest then you can't recline.

Having said that, if you are sitting behind the exit seats then its great because the people in front can't restrict your movements by reclining their seats.

Not sure what to do now.. row 26 or row 27?. Whats the general concensus out there? Oh by the way, if you are travelling on the 10am flight on Christmas eve from Gatwick then I bags the best seats first!

Ben, you will get lots of good advice on this site about accommodation. Lots to choose from.

Have fun
Sue

Hi Sue

As far as I'm aware all long haul seats are reclinable, although I know some at the back of cabins can have limited recline.

You will definitely have no problem reclining your seat on Row 26, it will have hte same recline capabilities as all the other seats.

A couple of other slight disadvantage of these seats, that I forgot to mention, was that the armrests contain your meal tray and are therfore fixed, so you can not raise them if you were hoping to snuggle up with your partner. There is also no window in this row (which could perhaps be an advantage to people who hate flying I guess!) so if you really want to be able to look out of a window they are a no no.

Otherwise row 26 has easilly the best seats in economy and really isnt that much worse an experience than World Traveller Plus. My experience is limited to the 4 class 777 so it would be good if someone who has flown the Carribean aircraft could chip in too

Do you know how much leg room in cms you get on the long haul flight? I think for european flights its 31cms. could be wrong.

Sue

Hi Sue

Seat pitch information for all the airlines travelling from the UK to Tobago are given in menu:Tobago/Getting To Tobago/Air Travel/Baggage & Seat Pitch.

Here is an invaluable website to help you pick your seats. You must be very specific as to the type and model of airline.

http://www.seatguru.com/

Good luck, Hugh