Sitting in a plane leaves you with a lot of time to think. While you are waiting to arrive at your destination, you may take to looking around, and that’s when you might notice that something is missing from the seating system. No matter what size of plane you’re on, there are certain letters of the alphabet that aren’t present when it comes to seating arrangements. Some examples are B, E, I, and O. There are a few reasons why these letters won’t ever appear on your boarding pass, and it has to do with reducing confusion and keeping seats consistent.
Planes don’t skip seat letters randomly. In fact, there are only two consistently skipped, and those are I and O. The reason for this is rather simple: to prevent confusion. For example, the letter I is easily mistaken with the number 1 or a lowercase L. The same goes for O, which is easy to confuse with the number zero. Passengers mixing up these numbers and letters can slow down boarding times, and with flights so tight, a few minutes of mix-ups can cause some serious delays.
However, it’s not only passengers that can get confused. Flying can be stressful, and making mistakes is part of being human — even though it’s their job, it is also a hectic process for gate agents and flight attendants (which is why you should avoid flying on the worst days of the year for your sanity). Airlines aim to reduce the confusion as much as possible by omitting common alphabet and number-related mix-ups. Having easy-to-read seat assignments also helps in the rare case of an emergency so that people can quickly be identified.
Consistency, confusion, and other reasons why some letters are skipped on plane seats
Occasionally, you may see other letters skipped, such as B and E. This is common on planes with two rows of two seats. The reason why these letters are omitted is for a different purpose than the one above. It’s not to prevent the mixing up of certain letters and numbers but to uphold seat assignment conventions across all airplanes. Knowing these letter configurations can be useful in helping you choose your favorite seat — and avoid confusion. Most airlines now charge you for picking where you sit, but if you know the best day to book your flight for cheaper travel, you can use some of the money you saved to get the perfect spot.
If you’ve been on several planes, you may have noticed that A seats are always the window, B is the middle, and C is the aisle. It works the same on the opposite side, with F assigned to a window seat, E to the middle, and D to the aisle. When rows have only two seats, there is technically no center seat, so B and E are usually removed to keep things consistent. Some planes can have a 3-4-3 or even a 2-4-2 set-up with their seats. In these cases, the rows would be A-C, D-G, and H-K (minus the I), and they often choose to omit the G, F, or K as the extra seats if needed. Now that you know this little secret, you can focus on having a more enjoyable flight experience by following these hacks for making economy flights comfier from a TikToker who has broken the internet.
