A flight attendant has shared a simple yet effective airplane armrest hack to help passengers feel more comfortable on long-haul flights – and it involves a little-known hidden seat button
Flying can prove to be quite a stressful experience, especially if you’re not among the privileged few who can afford to fork out for business class tickets. No one wants to be stuck in the same seat for what can seem like endless journeys, boredom and discomfort often take over – particularly when you’re squeezed in on a row with total strangers.
While the cheaper economy class seats are known to be cramped, and on protracted flights, this frequently leads to significant discomfort and potentially severe health complications. Sitting down on a plane seat for longer periods of time has been proven to sometimes cause muscle cramps, bloating, and, in extreme circumstances, deep vein thrombosis or blood clots.
This is exactly why, if you’re planning to undertake a long-distance flight in the coming weeks or months, prioritising your comfort and physical wellbeing is absolutely essential.
While certain tactics can improve your comfort – including wearing baggy clothing, investing in noise-cancelling headphones, and packing a neck pillow – these remedies don’t always prove effective.
To help passengers in getting more comfortable in their seat, a flight attendant named Charlie Silver, from Manchester, has revealed her ultimate comfort hack for your upcoming flight, particularly when you’re wanting a bit more space in your seat.
How to get more space in a plane seat
In her video demonstration, Charlie is positioned in an aisle seat on board a plane, showing how the exterior armrest functions distinctly from the remaining armrests in that row – crucially, it doesn’t fold upwards.
“Are you sitting on the aisle seat, wondering why your armrest doesn’t go up?” she asked in her video. “Well, here you go. Here’s a little hack for you.”
She went on to share how to find a concealed button on the armrest, enabling her to move it as she pleased and thereby giving her more room in her seat.
“Press this little hidden button and voila. Your armrest will move freely up and down,” she said, pointing out the small lever-style button that was within easy reach while sitting down.
Using it means travellers can raise the armrest, creating more room in their seat for enhanced comfort. While it might just give you a couple of extra inches in the seat, this can mean a lot if you’re stuck in your seat for hours at a time.
Numerous viewers were quick to praise Charlie for her simple yet handy suggestion, though some noted it hadn’t worked on their flights.
“The flight attendants always make me put it down,” one person observed. Someone else explained: “You have to put it down for take off and landing, but you should be able to have it up during cruise.”
Another viewer wrote: “This hack is great for when you’re going into the row or getting out.”
“Nah! Needed to see this at the beginning of the year! Why’s it so hidden,” wrote another, clearly frustrated they hadn’t discovered it earlier.
However, not everyone was impressed by the revelation, with several expressing astonishment that it wasn’t widely known: “I thought everyone knew that.”
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