Booking A Window Seat On A Flight Doesn't Guarantee You'll Have A Window

You've got the aisle seat, where you can expect to have your knees bashed about by the trolley as it comes past, or the middle seat, where you fight for every inch of arm rest you can.

Then, there's the window seat, which is perfect for having a sleep against the wall or - if you're so inclined - having a good old watch of the world whizzing by.

But what if there was no window in the window seat? Apparently, not all window seats have windows.

Yes, in some cases - which are admittedly rare - instead of a lovely porthole you can stare out of, there's just a piece of the same boring grey panelling that the rest of most aeroplane cabins are made out of.

You'd be a bit disappointed, especially if you'd specifically asked to be seated at the window.

It turns out the people who care about this sort of thing really care about it.

In fact, plenty of them care enough about the lack of a window to have spawned a bespoke hashtag about the occurrence - #WheresMyWindow.

As ever, there is an easily explicable reason for all of this. It's simply down to the choices of the individual aircraft.

While a lot of airlines operate the same type of plane, each one is responsible for choosing the layout of their own cabins.

That's why you may see a windowless window seat on some flights but not others. It's a real game of chance, if we're honest.

In other cases, it is because the actual body of the plane is behind the panel. That means there couldn't be a window there even if they wanted to put one in.

Surely you'd rather the main body of the aeroplane was intact, rather than having a window, right?

For example, on some Virgin Australia Boeing jets, the air-conditioning ducts that mean everyone can have nice cool air blowing across them are behind the panelling - which means seat 9A, nominally a window seat, does not have a window.

Regardless of how p***ed off you are at the lack of a view, there's not a great deal you can do about it.

Most airlines will try to flag it up to you when you're booking, but you aren't likely to get moved or get your money back.