SeatGuru: Check Detailed Seat Maps Before Booking to Avoid Bad Seats

SeatGuru is a free tool that shows you detailed seat maps for airline flights. Before you choose your seat during booking — or before you pay an upgrade fee for what the airline calls a "premium" seat — SeatGuru can tell you which seats are actually worth picking and which ones have problems.

The seat maps on SeatGuru use a color-coding system. Green seats are generally considered good — no obstructions, normal legroom, and a standard recline. Yellow seats have some drawback worth knowing about, like a window that is slightly off-center, reduced recline, or a seat that is slightly narrower than normal. Red seats have significant issues. They may be next to a galley with bright lights and noise, close to lavatories with foot traffic, or missing a window entirely.

The reviews and comments from real passengers are what make SeatGuru most useful. Under each seat on the map, you can click to read notes left by travelers who have sat there. These comments include practical details like whether a tray table is mounted in the armrest (limiting how much you can adjust it), whether the in-seat entertainment screen is positioned awkwardly, or whether the overhead bin nearby tends to fill up quickly.

SeatGuru covers thousands of aircraft configurations from dozens of airlines worldwide. It is owned by TripAdvisor and is completely free to use. There is no account required to search.

Keep in mind that airlines sometimes swap aircraft types on a route, which means the seat map you reviewed before your trip may not match the actual plane you board. Checking again within a week of your departure is a good habit.