Like on Ryanair, the horror line where you don't have to sit if you fly British (and six other European full-service airlines)

Francesca, a designer from Rovato on a business trip to London, had 13B. "But," she explains, "I hate the middle seat, and in row 30 I ended up there because it was the only window still available when I checked in. Yeah. Too bad that upon boarding, the designer discovered that the 30A 'window seat' actually had no window and that to its right was a big plastic wall. "A real rip-off," she says disconsolately. On the last British Airways flight from Heathrow to Milan Linate, BA 580 - And also a really claustrophobic place."

The writer was next to her a few days ago, in seat 30B, claustrophobic and even with shared armrests. Although the 'best seat in the house' (in an ironic sense, of course) was held by my neighbor to the left, 30C aisle, who for a good half hour got the 'pleasant' company of those going to the two bathrooms placed at the rear of the Airbus A320-200 that was taking us home.

Talk of 'window seat-without window' brings to mind the famous 11A found on Ryanair's Boeing 737-800s, the 'superstar of seat-framing,' since there, at least until recently, you paid to have a window seat that the porthole didn't actually have.

But, it comes to say, is it possible that British Airways, once the queen airline in Europe, is flying six of its passengers in a 'blind' row? By the way, my one-way ticket cost 634 euros, and the designer round trip about 800. Seats taken a few days before the flight, sure, but with that kind of money you go in Economy to California, not 'blind' to Linate.

The reason those seats 'exist' is that instead of row 30 there should be two bathrooms, with the entire back wall of the cabin used as galley, galley kitchen. Instead, to shove six more seats on board and thus arrive at the total of 180 (which is then the number of seats that low-cost easyjet has available on its A320-200s), British thought of halving the galley, carving out two Lilliputian bathrooms at the back of the plane and thus gaining space for those six extra seats. That if he can then sell at the above figures, that's a pretty good deal....

The former British flag carrier is not alone, however, in making passengers in the last row travel 'blind' on its A320-200 and A320neo: considering only the so-called (very so-called) European full-service companies, Iberia also does the same (also IAG Group, like British) on its A320neo (row 32), Brussels Airlines on its Airbus A319s (row 25) and A320s (row 31), Lufthansa (On some A320s, row 32), SAS (on A319s, row 31), Austrian Airlines on its A320s, row 31) and Swiss on its A320s and A320neo (row 38) and A321-200s (row 39).

• window
• porthole