Choose the window seat, but the window is not there: expert explains why

There are few things that piss off air travelers like selecting a window seat when making a reservation or checking in online and finding out, once on board, that the window seat, in fact, has no window.

Of course, the experienced traveler, or one who reads TFC, knows full well that there are tools like Aerolopa or Seatguru That help choose the perfect place.

Instead, in its place is the cabin wall, which, especially on flights of a certain duration, can create a remarkably claustrophobic situation. And then, perhaps, one has even paid extra to have that seat and the view it is supposed to provide.

It must be said that on almost all airplane models and whatever company, there are places that the window doesn't have one, and then there are airplane models where the windows are even in the bathroom. This is the case with the first row of seats placed near the doors in economy class on wide-body aircraft. There you have extraordinary legroom, but quite often not the view.

Then there are those like Emirates who have put screens to recreate the view of the windows for first class seats that don't have the real ones.

However, there are several models (more Boeing than Airbus) on which the row of windows simply breaks, missing one or two, only to resume later. It happens, for example, in Business Class on the Boeing 787-9, where the fifth or sixth row (depending on cabin configuration) is the only one with only one window instead of two. Or on all Boeing 737 models.

On Ryanair's -800 version, seat 11A is 'infamous' because, precisely, it has no window despite being sold as a window seat by the Irish low-cost. Some airlines are 'transparent' in this regard. Alaska Airlines, in the news section of its website accurately indicates the window/window seats on its 737 fleet: 9A on the 737-700, 10A on the 737-800, 11A on the 737-900 and the 737 MAX9.

Yeah, but Why does it happen that the row of windows, on many aircraft models breaks? Alaska Airlines itself explains this, again on its website, "Those are the points where Boeing runs the air conditioning ducts from the 'belly of the plane, where the air conditioners are located, to the ceiling of the cabin, where the air distribution nozzles are placed," explains the director of fleet engineering of the American company, John Melvin. "On other aircraft, the space where a window is missing is related to the passage of electrical cables from the bottom to the top of the fuselage, as on our sister company Horizon Air's Dash 8s," Melvin adds.

An entirely different case is that of missing windows in the fuselage sections (e.g., on Boeing 747-8, 777-300 and 787-9 and -10 as well as Airbus A380s) dedicated to first class. No electrical cables or air conditioning ducts run there. Or maybe they do, but the basic reason why those sections of the fuselage lack one or two windows for every two or three installed is related to the interior layout of the luxurious seats.

The goal is to increase the privacy of each suite, which an unbroken row of windows would compromise. This is the case, for example, with the front of the main deck on A380s or the front of the fuselage of British Airways' Boeing 787-9 and 787-10, which house the British airline's First Class.

In the case of Air France's Boeing 777-300ERs, one can 'guess' whether or not they have on board The famous La Premiere (first class), precisely by the absence of a window after the fourth from the front of the fuselage: if the window is missing, there is La Premier on board; conversely, the 777-300ER will be one of those that do not have the French company's top product on board.