Seats at the back of the plane?

I've had a look on the FAQ's and had a look at the seat map ratings but this is relatively inconclusive. I was wondering about booking seats at the back of the plane for our flight from LHR to LAX. I've always thought they are good since its just for two but have heard in the past that there isn't room to recline as much as the other seats (since the wall is behind you) and you feel the movement of the plane more right at the back compared to sitting in the middle.

Does anyone know what these seats are like?

Thanks in advance.

I have always found the 2 seats at the back of a 747 to be excellent, as you say 2 on their own, with loads of room to recline your seat. Opinion is not quite the same on the Airbus range as there is less room and you have the WC behind you, which can be disturbing.

Check your plane before selecting the seats.

[Pete]

Hi and welcome to the forum.

On Virgin aircraft at least, there shouldn't be any restrictions on the recline at the back of the aircraft. There are other pro's and con's however. On the plus side, those 2 seat together rows do offer a little more personal space, especially to the side where there's a fair gap between the seat at the side wall. The negatives are the longer wait to go through immigration (you'll be at the end of the queue); you will feel turbulance a little more (but not a huge difference), and you can get disturbed on busy flights when people are queuing for the loos. Personally I think the benefit of a little more space outweighs the cons.

Pete

I agree with PixUK, though I have not been on a Virgin 747. The back seats were great - good view out of the window too. A bit bumpy over the rockies on the flight I was on but I'm sure I would have felt it in the middle too.

Mata nae!

Paul

I found the seats a the rear of a 747 to be great theres a lot more room
here. I did find my last flight VS07 LHR-LAX in May 2005 to be a bit bumpy but dont know if this was being at the back or just a bumpy flight. I would go for these seats every time on a 747.

I think these are the best seats on both VS and, dare I say it, BA. You get the extra room but more importantly, you don't get the grief of climbing past someone/them climbing past you all the time like you do when there are three seats together. However, you're always last to get off if you can put up with that. I've got those seats on my upcoming BOS trip (that is unless I upgrade at the airport )

Agreed with the above - I think these seats do give that extra bit of privacy and I think it just depends on what the situation of yoru arrival is - e.g. as Pix said - being at t he back means you will be last off and that can add an hour to immigration in the uS and Caribbean - but is probably not so bad coming back into the UK ( assuming you are a UK citizen!!) Therefore my strategy was always to sit as far forward as I could going westbound ( to the US /Carib) and then sit in the 2 seats on the way back - the other advantage of doing this is that it was easier to spot if a row of 4 was free so that you cud move and then have a bed for the price of an economy ticket!!!!

Just on that point - its often a good idea to ask the Flight Attendant if you can move after the seat belt sign has gone off - on one flight there was only one free row of 4 and the FA actually pushed all the seats forward and reserved it for us - which was kind of her!!!!

I regularly fly in these seats to BKK. I think they are great and you certainly can grab a row of 4. However I move before the door is shut and if no one comes I stay if they do then I move. I did used to ask the crew but they never say no so I just smile now!

I fly fairly regularly to LAX from LHR, and I usually choose a seat at the back, irrespective of the 'plane is a 747 or an Airbus. I think that they recline as far as any other econ seat on the 'plane and you don't have to worry about upsetting the person behind you when you recline your seat.

At LAX it's often advantageous to be at the back of the queue at immigration as after the US citizens have been processed they almost always start sending the non-US travellers from the back of the queue through the US only immigration checkpoints. I usually end up getting to the luggage carousel long before most of the Econ pax!