Plane Seatmate Test

Everyone asks who they'd want next to them. Nobody asks the other question.

There's a game that goes around social media every few months: a seat map, a row of famous faces, pick who you'd take on a long-haul flight. It's really a personality quiz in disguise — your answer says more about you than about them. But it always skips the more uncomfortable version of the question. What are you like to sit next to?

This isn't about travel taste

It's about social distance — how you spend your social battery when you're wedged beside a stranger for ten hours with nowhere to go. Both elbows arrive on the armrest at once. You need the bathroom and they've been asleep for four hours. They turn to you at cruising altitude and ask where you're headed. Eight in-flight moments, and how you handle them says a lot about how you handle people generally.

Four kinds of seatmate

• The Headphone Fortress — noise-cancelling on before the safety demo. A polite, unmistakable wall.
• The Pro Napper — asleep before the wheels leave the ground, awake for landing.
• The Courtesy Radar — tracking whether the person next to them is comfortable, the entire flight.
• The In-Flight Socialite — boarded next to a stranger, disembarked with a new friend.

Swap results with whoever you're flying with. Better to find out at the gate than at 35,000 feet.

Who it's for

• Anyone who enjoyed the 'pick your seatmate' meme going around
• Anyone who finds close quarters with strangers uniquely draining
• Anyone with a long-haul flight coming up and a companion to compare with

Curious what results are in play? Have a look at The 4 types of plane seatmate - Headphone Fortress, Pro Napper, Courtesy Radar and In-Flight Socialite before you start.

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