Trifter

SeatGuru (www.seatguru.com) is a travel website founded in October 2001 by Matthew Daimler, a proficient travel-hopper himself, with only one aircraft seating chart posted.  Today, SeatGuru has the detailed seating maps of more than 400 aircrafts from 55 different airlines.  Now you might be asking why this website in such high demand?  It is because not only does it give information on certain in-flight amenities (such as audio & video capabilities, food provided, and its policies towards infants, pets, and unaccompanied minors) but recommends the best seat for your value on any given aircraft.

In addition to providing airline seating maps (which includes the location of galleries, lavatories, closets, and exit locations), each seat is color-coded.  Green indicates a ‘good seat’, yellow indicates a ‘be aware’ seat, and red indicates a ‘poor seat’.  The program is interactive.  When the cursor is placed over a specific seat a window pops up listing the specific reasons for its designation.

To date SeatGuru has generated more than twelve million unique users, largely from word-of-mouth between travelers.  However, in recent years the website has gained plenty of publicity, including Forbes ‘Top Twelve Travel Sites’ and Travel & Leisure Magazine ‘Top 28 Websites’ in 2006.  SeatGuru was purchased by Expedia’s subsidiary TripAdvisor in March 2007.  Similarly, its high visitor traffic has appealed to such companies as Google, whose attempted to monetize its website traffic through its AdSense program.

Now I’m not a frequent flyer.  However, had I known of this website before heading on an eight-hour flight to Amsterdam two years ago, I would’ve had a much more pleasant experience.  The best I can do is now is spread the good word in the hopes that any future travel (or future travel by my peers) is done with the best of forethought in mind.