Seats ahead

A website that hands out a ready reckoner on the best seating available at a click of the mouse.

What is it?
One click on the mouse and you'll know the best and worst seats on any aircraft, on nearly 50 airlines across the globe.

Sounds good, right? Well, www.seatscorecard.com recently launched a seat selector tool where all you have to do is choose the airline that you are planning to fly and punch in details like the aircraft type and class of travel and search the best and worst seats on that aircraft. You can use the same search to look for seat reviews and airplane features.

Why are we writing about it?
Websites like www.seatguru.com and www.lovemyseat.com have been rating airline seats for you and providing user reviews and research comments.

But www.seatscorecard.com goes a step further. You no longer have to trawl through airplane seating maps and read all the comments, you just have to specify the airline, aircraft and class of travel to find the best seats.

Say, you're flying business class on Air India's Boeing 747-400 sleeper version, you merely have to search www.seatscorecard.com to find that seats A, B, J and K in row 15 are the best seats on the aircraft. Happy?

What's in it for you?
The website also has the regular features like seating charts that help you locate laptop ports, video terminals, bathrooms and galleys that are closest to your seat. You can also browse through user reviews and research comments before you book your seat.

The website also provides info on in-flight services such as food and entertainment provided by the airline. And in case you're looking for important phone numbers, direct links to important information on the airline's website and the airline's profile, well that's there too.

What are the damages?
In one word, nothing!

Take it or leave it?
Come on, you don't want to say no to something so easy that'll prevent you from landing yourself in a cramped seat and end up with a backache?

SNIPPETS

King of my castle
Emirates is looking to grow even bigger this year. Last month, it unveiled plans to expand in the Middle East, and now, the airline has announced that it will start a non-stop daily flight to the British town of Newcastle in September this year.

The service "" and this is Newcastle's first-ever scheduled long haul flight "" will link travellers and cargo shippers in UK's north-east districts to Dubai, now popular as a tourist destination and one of the fastest emerging markets in the Middle East.

The airline is also hoping that this flight will aid its hub, Dubai, as passengers can stop over at Dubai before heading to cities in SouthEast Asia, Australia, New Zealand, India and Africa.

Emirates will fly an Airbus A330-200 aircraft with 27 business class and 251 economy class seats and the capacity to carry 14 tonnes of cargo. With this flight, Emirates will have flights to six destinations in UK.

About town
Well, it's not just the low cost carriers that are looking to connect the metros with smaller towns. Kingfisher Airlines has started a direct flight between Bangalore and Tiruchirapally.

Kingfisher is the fourth airline to fly to Tiruchirapally. Indian, Sri Lankan Airways and Air Deccan fly to this city, but Kingfisher's the first to connect Bangalore to Tiruchirapally. With this flight, Kingfisher now has 146 flights connecting 25 Indian cities.

Wait no more
Cathay Pacific's looking to make life a little better for flyers at its Hong Kong hub.

The airline has reduced the waiting time between its and Air China's connecting flights to 60 minutes from nearly 90 minutes earlier, which essentially means that passengers now have an additional 134 connecting flights per week from Hong Kong to choose from.

Cathay Pacific has entered into an agreement with Air China to improve its connectivity to the Chinese mainland.

Lucky Seven
If you didn't get lucky with Air Deccan's offer of Rs 2 tickets, don't worry you stand another chance.

The carrier's now offering three lakh tickets at Rs 7 plus taxes on the occasion of Makar Sankranti/Pongal.

Don't waste any more time and get on to Air Deccan's website, www.airdeccan.com quickly because bookings have been open since Sunday. The offer's valid for travel in February and March on all the routes flown by the carrier.