The magic of a pre-booked seat.

Until today my flight routine has always been, book on the fastjet website or app and arrive early for check-in. However, this trip opened my eyes to a service that I had deprived myself of.

Seated and taxiing for our departure I quickly realised I sat on the aisle in the middle of a group of ten couples going for a weekend away. Full of conversation and excitement the party were having the time of their lives, much to my frustration as I had hoped for a quiet flight.

Hoping to change my seat, my luck was quickly extinguished after a quick scan confirmed the flight was full. I was stuck with the lovebirds.

During inflight service, the ever-helpful fastjet cabin crew greeted me and offered an inflight snack. “Good afternoon, Sir, Can I offer you our snackbox?” Handing me the colourful box she noticed an expression of discomfort or concern on my face and quickly remarked, “Are you ok Sir? Is there anything I can do to make your flight comfortable?”

To that, I asked if there was a vacant seat and if I could move. She confirmed what I had observed earlier. “Unfortunately, we are operating a full flight and the demand for travel to Victoria Falls continues to grow”. I extended my hand to receive a bottle of water before she moved on to the next row and repeated the same parrot formula, “Good Afternoon Sir, Can I offer you our snackbox?”.

Having listened to my shameful conversation, the gentleman on seat 8A looked at me with an air of contentment and said, “You do know you can pre-book a seat on the fastjet website?” Obviously, I knew this but had somehow ignored it until today when I had people engaged in conversation right in front of my face, passing mobile phones and sharing images that they had taken with the spectacular window view.

Bad manners I know, but at this point I was asking myself why I had never prebooked a seat. I could be enjoying the view instead of playing Postman passing one phone to the other.

I found solace in the fact that it was an hour’s flight. Timekeeping and being anxious to arrive, I heard the Captain announcing, “Ladies and Gentlemen, this is your Captain speaking, we have been asked to hold and make way for another flight. Do not be alarmed. The good thing is our holding area provides us with an uninterrupted close-up view of the falls”.

As we circled, the passengers on the A seats had a spectacular aerial view of the Falls and in completing the circle, passengers on the C seats were treated to a rainbow view. Peeping and trying not to strain my neck but catch the view, the Captain made another announcement that we were about to land.

“I got the rainbow, I got the water curtain”, the couple said exchanging phones while engaging my delivery service. We had a smooth landing and in walking toward the terminal, I immediately went on the fastjet App to manage my booking and select a seat for my return flight.

From now moving forward, seat 4A it is. Prebooked for my every flight, for an unforgettable flight experience.