April 29, 2010

Although I booked air travel for the four of us last fall, I wasn't able to choose our seats at that time. We are flying with KLM from Amsterdam to Tanzania, and the airline doesn't allow seat selection until ninety days before the flight. Of course, the seat selection became available during the Icelandic volcanic eruption so the KLM website was slammed.
On one flight, I was able to reserve four seats together in the middle section of the plane. Not the best location, but at least we will know our neighbors for that twelve hour leg. On another flight, however, the seats only came in groups of three. What to do??? I finally booked three together and one across the aisle in the same row.
Seat selection is a big deal in our competitive family, and deciding who gets the window, who has the aisle, who is stuck in the middle and who is sitting next to whom can be complicated. On a recent trip, our youngest daughter's seat assignment was a few rows back and separate from the rest of us because of the credit card miles I cobbled together for the flight. She survived - she is the youngest and used to being left out (oh the angst of it all =O)- but the flight was not that long.
Twelve hours is a good length of time on a plane especially in seats with very little leg room. We will head to the hotel where our suitcases are stored for a quick shower and change after we finish climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro, then it's off to the airport for our flight. I'm already anticipating the need to do a few laps around the plane to stretch my muscles. I wonder if that will be allowed? I can always disguise the laps as necessary bathroom trips. I am a woman in my middle years after all.