The debate about the best seat on the airplane rages on. Window seat fans versus aisle seat enthusiasts may be duking it out, but everyone can agree that the middle seat is the last place anyone wants to be. Well, almost everyone. Kat Kamalani, a former flight attendant of six years, is a travel influencer on TikTok that explains the mysteries of flying, like why flight attendants can’t help you place your bag in the overhead bin, why tray tables need to be put away during take-off and landing, and the real reason why flight attendants greet you at takeoff. Recently, she left her fans with a bit of a mystery when she said she only sits in the window seat as her last resort, citing “safety reasons.”
Photo: Myra Thompson/Shutterstock
A Former Flight Attendant Explains the One Seat She'll Never Book (It's Not the Middle)
@katkamalani I will never travel the same again✈️
Although some of Kamalani’s other tips, like keeping your seatbelt on and making sure you have a bag of essentials in case of lost luggage, make plenty of sense, her choice to avoid the seat with the best views outside the window has plenty of people perplexed, including other flight attendants.
“I was a flight attendant for 14 years… I have never heard of someone being safer in the middle seat,” typed user ramonaquimby5432.
“Interesting, as a former flight attendant I always want the window seat for safety reasons,” user Dogs_Gardening_Music said.
“As an ex flight attendant… I only sit in window seats lmao I’m going to be okay,” rach commented.
While Kamalani doesn’t explain what she means by “safety reasons,” there are a few guesses. One of the main reasons the window seat is tempting is because it offers something to rest against. Unfortunately, the window is a pretty grimy place to lay your head. It’s way better to invest in a good neck pillow than to place your head on a germ petri dish. And although studies have mixed reviews on what seat is safest during a crash (some studies in contradiction with Kamalani saying the aisle is the least safe), common sense is that someone in an aisle or even middle seat will have better odds of moving quickly to the emergency exit in an emergency.
With commercial plane crashes so incredibly rare in the United States, would you be willing to give up your beloved window seat on her advice? 