The seat numbers that don’t exist on some airlines

Looking for row 9 or 45 on your Qantas Dreamliner flight? No chance. Take a peek at some of the quirkiest seats you won’t find on planes around the world.

Don’t go hunting for row 9 or 45 on a Qantas Dreamliner.

1A. It’s the seat so many of us wish we were in and usually involves sitting in the front row of the plane.

Unless you’re on an Air China 747-400, where 11 is front row and the numbers count back from 11 to 14 in business class then switch to 1, 2, 3 in first before jumping to 31 in economy.

As anyone who has counted along as they walked down an airplane aisle has noticed, seat row numbers can be unpredictable.

Unless you’re familiar with the way that particular airline numbers seats on that type of plane, you may be surprised to find single numbers or whole chunks missing from the front to the back of the aircraft.

So why don’t airlines keep things simple and sequential?

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Qatar's Boeing 777-300 is missing row 13.

SUPERSTITIOUS WAYS

While it doesn’t scare us Aussies enough for Qantas or Virgin Australia to remove row 13 from their line-ups, some airlines avoid handing anyone a ticket with that number.

Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Qatar Airways, Emirates, and United Airlines, are among those with no row 13.

Considering 13 is actually a lucky number in some parts of Asia including China, and that 4 is the unlucky number, it’s a little surprising you can fly in a number 4 suite on Singapore Airlines but not sit in a number 13 seat. Cathay Pacific on the other hand has removed the number 4 from their seat maps as well.

Meanwhile Lufthansa skips both 13 and 17 as the latter is seen as unlucky in Italy and Brazil.

As for that luckiest number in Asia, the number 8, you may spot that on your boarding pass in another way.

Lucky flight numbers to or from Mainland China and Hong Kong include United Airlines’ UA888 from San Francisco to Beijing, KLM’s KL888 from Hong Kong to Amsterdam, and Cathay Pacific’s CX888 from Hong Kong to Vancouver and New York.

On Air China’s 747-400, seat 1A isn’t where you would expect.

PRACTICAL PLANNING

Depending on demand, sometimes airlines will add or remove rows of seats from their cabins. Having some wiggle room between cabin numbers makes things easier and helps to keep bulk head and exit row numbers the same, which is a good thing if planes have to be swapped and people have paid extra for those premium seats.

Sometimes a missing number could also mean something has broken the flow of the row. On Qantas’ Dreamliners for instance business class jumps from 8 to 10 as there is a galley and toilets in between.

But on Singapore Airlines the numbers only skip when the class changes, and stay in order regardless of galleys or toilets breaking them up.

Row 9 is a no-go zone on Qantas' Dreamliner 787-9 plane.

In the case of that kooky Air China numbering system, the airline realised the wider, second cabin on the 747 was the best fit for the first class seats, but they wanted to keep the prestige of 1A and 1K for first class passengers.

Speaking of seat lettering, whether there are two seats or ten in a row, windows seats will usually be A on the left and K on the right.

And when there are three seats on the right, the letters will go HJK, skipping the I as it could be confused with the number 1.

But don’t worry too much about cracking the code. There’s always SeatGuru to help you see just where your seat is on your flight. Or you can go old school and be surprised when you get on board.

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