Well now I have info on our Continental flight (thanks Rkwan), because i have a problem sitting upright (medical condition), I decided to get two aisle seats...I hate noise so my question this time is..what part of plane do Iook for in terms of less noise?...front?back?..you can tell i am a nervous flyer...

In front - you want to be ahead of the engines.

She'll be hard pressed to get a seat ahead of the wing without being an elite frequent flier.Even with a "medical condition" it might not happen until gate check in.Or might not happen at all.

<two aisle seats...>

Do you intend to stretch out from one seat to the other?

If she checks in right at 24 hrs before the flight (when they release those seats), her chances should be pretty good of getting a seat in front of the wing. We're not elite, but find we can get bulkhead or aisle seats up front well above 50% of the time. Just our experience.

Exactly, the key is to do online check-in at exactly 23:59 before your flight.

There's an option to have CO automatically checked-in for your return flight, but you should still re-check-in at 23:59 before your return flight to grab the good seats.

The aisle seats near the front are usually taken already. Some may open up at OlCI as elites were upgraded to the first class, but you can't assume you can get 2 aisle seats near the front across each other even at that time.

Better chance to get the first row, which is the bulkhead. These are usually blocked until OLCI, so it's up for you to grab it. They have extra legrooms, but the armrests don't go up. These are bulkhead rows and not exit rows, so mobility is not an issue, nor will they require to assist opening the emergency doors.

Jed...we do have long arms but not that long..with the aisle seat I can get up a lot when I am hurting.....my husband usually wants the aisle too so this way we will both be happy.

So do I understand that anything behind or over the wing will be noisy..??

Thanks

It's just progressively more noisy towards the back with engine noise. So, the more to the front, the better. Or use noise-isolating/canceling headphones.

noise isolating???...have heard of these. Will look into it. Thanks again.

loisco - just to clarify something. When you check in at the 24 hr (or 23:59) you can also change your seats from an earlier selection. That's when I find that we can usually get more desirable seats.

I like to sit as far forward as is available (aisle seat) because it's quicker getting on and off the plane. I never noticed a significant difference in noise within the cabin though, even sitting in the very last rows.

loisco, Bring soft earplugs. Seriously.

I like sitting at the back because you get fewer people going back and forth through the flight.

Since the OP is flying a narrowbody 737-800 aircraft, and unless the OP gets one with the extra lavatory in the front, the only lavatories for the 140+ coach passengers are the two in the back for the 6-hour transcon flight. The galley for coach food/beverage service is also in the back.

The back is not where she wants to sit.

I can certainly second the last post. Several years ago, we were on a Czech Airlines flight from JFK to Prague and were seated in the very last row (right next to the lavatories). I didn't get much sleep due to the noise of constant flushing all night. At times, it sounded like multiple depth charge attacks! You don't want the back!

Check out www.seatguru.com

Select your airline and the type of plane and you'll get a seating chart that shows good seats, bad seats, power ports, etc.