So about over a month ago, the day before Valentine’s Day 2020, I left from KBOS on a British Airways B789 for a vacation to Europe. Excited to take pictures from the window seat, I made my way onto the plane, only to find out, to my dismay, that the row of the plane I was sitting in, had no window! Just a wall, where the window should’ve been!
It was Seat 41B, near the back. However there were two rows behind me, with windows, and ALL the rows in front of me also had windows!
Unfortunately, I couldn’t take a picture of it, as there just wasn’t enough room to do so. It forced me to, if I wanted to see outside, crane my neck to try and see out the window behind or in front of me (WhichI tried not to do very often as it would probably bother those in front/behind me.
I didn’t complain to the flight attendants, as they obviously couldn’t really do anything about it. I found it very surprising how Boeing would choose this design for seemingly no reason.
Unfortunately I’ve had this same dismaying experience on a Delta 737-900ER. I know now to check the seatguru when booking flights in order to prevent this.
Flying is a learning experience, and hopefully now that you know this is a thing, you can check for it in the future.
Dang, that’s rough.
I’m assuming you were sitting here:
G-ZBKF British Airways Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner Photo by PROMPONG J. | ID 703534 | Planespotters.net.
What seat was this?
Hey look it’s the AN-225 in the background!
That’s also a thing on the B737. Will take a look at seat maps like seatguru.com the next time, lesson learned…
I had this thing happen on an Alaska 738. I just moved to the next row in front and if a passenger said in a respectful manner, “hey, that’s my spot” and showed me their ticket, I would have gladly moved. But, no one did. Turns out, no one sat behind or in front of me either, so it’s likely that these people either didn’t care or didn’t show up for the flight.
TLDR: I just moved up one row. I think doing that’s fine but if the passenger there comes and asks you to move, then you should :)
Yup, I found pictures of the exteriors afterwards, they all seem to have that window missing
I had the same issue on a Singapore A380 when I flew to Adelaide via Singapore. Thought it would be cool to sit on the upper deck on the way out and lower on the return.
I picked the last row of seats which only has 2 in a row, great I thought until I saw it was missing a window. 🙄
Yeah I probably would have done that, but the flight was PACKED
Oof yeah that sucks.
I wonder why all these planes have missing windows? There MUST be SOME reason!
Often it is not Boeing’s fault. The airline can choose the seating configuration that they would like, and sometimes the window just does not line up with the seat. On some long haul flights the Inflight Entertainment system may have a simulated window view, and I know it is not great. It is better than nothing though.
I hadn’t even thought it could be BA’s fault, but interesting. It wasn’t even an alignment issue, the window just was not there.
Happened to me on a Lufthansa A321 once, Seatguru didn’t even show it was missing a window because I guess the configurations change depending on the exact aircraft. I asked the flight attendant and it turns out a couple people missed the connection due to some delays, so I was actually able to get a window in the last row of the plane! Only thing to do is ask others to switch (since a lot of people only care about somewhere to rest your head on instead of looking out the window), or ask a flight attendant.
Yeah, that’s definitely weird. It may be something you to due with structural issues in supporting the tail section, but that theory doesn’t seem like a reason to remove a window.
It looks like it’s unavoidable unless they put a First/Business class seat in the back of the plane.
Looking at the seat maps for other 787-9 operators, they all have a missing window at the back of the plane.
However, Virgin Atlantic’s seatguru chart shows it having a “misaligned window” instead of completely missing a window.
I should also add that until about 4 hours before departure, we were scheduled on a 777, BA changed planes last minute. If it had been 777 as it was supposed to be, I would have gotten a window. I know this because the flight home to Boston WAS a 777, and not only did I get a window, but all of Economy had windows.
Never knew they made them like this
Aircraft are generally assembled in sections.
- Nose
- Fuselage
- Tail section
Its likely theres no window there because that’s a joint where two or more pieces of the airframe were joined. Popping a hole through that joint could compromise the integrity of the structure. See the pic below:
