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There are a few places on a plane that are best avoided, and if you’re looking for a few ideas, some experts have shared their top tips for finding a seat that’ll make your trip more comfortable.

Jetting off on holiday is always exciting, especially during the chillier months when the idea of swapping the UK for somewhere warm and sunny is enough to lift anyone’s spirits. However, even if you’re simply heading to a European destination, the journey there isn’t always plain sailing.

We’ve all endured the horror of a dreadful flight before. Whether it’s down to discomfort, fellow passengers’ antics, or something else entirely, it can cast a shadow over your holiday before it’s even started.

So, to help travellers kick off their trips on the right foot, I decided to consult some experts about the worst spot on the aircraft to reserve your seat – and they all had very similar answers.

Nearly all of the specialists I spoke to agreed that the very last row of the aircraft might not be your best bet if you’re after a peaceful journey, reports the Express.

Nicholas Smith, Holidays Digital Director at Thomas Cook, warned that anyone who struggles with turbulence will want to steer clear of this section. He explained: “Seats at the very back are typically less desirable. They are close to the galley and restrooms, service can be slower, food choices may be limited, and it is also the area where movement during turbulence feels strongest.”

He also emphasised the importance of being organised when reserving aircraft seats. This often comes at an extra charge, but if you’re anxious about securing a decent seat, then there’s a good chance it’ll be money well spent.

The expert continued: “Thinking about your priorities in advance also makes a difference – nervous flyers will be more comfortable over the wings, those with a tight connection should choose an aisle near the front, while couples booking a row of three might secure the window and aisle, leaving the middle free for a chance at extra space.”

Izzy Nicholls, a travel expert and founder of road trip blog The Gap Decaders, agreed, saying: “Seats at the back are best avoided. They’re typically noisier because of engine proximity and galley activity, and you’ll be among the last to board and leave the plane.”

Unsurprisingly, the front of the aircraft proved to be the best location for the smoothest experience. Izzy explained: “Travellers who want a calmer journey should book seats at the front of the plane. This area is away from restrooms and heavy foot traffic, so you’ll experience fewer interruptions.

“Choosing an aisle seat here also gives you the freedom to stretch your legs and get up easily without disturbing others. Select these placements to make long flights more comfortable and reduce the effects of motion.”

The rear section of the aircraft isn’t just problematic for comfort – it’s also less ideal when it comes to storage space, particularly if you’re late boarding. Jacob Wedderburn-Day, CEO and Co-Founder of luggage storage firm Stasher said: “Avoid sitting near galleys and toilets, where staff members often store their things in overhead bins, leaving less space for passenger baggage.

“The last few rows are a concern because if you board late, the bins above you may be filled, which means you may have to store your luggage several rows away. Also, stay away from seats that are located behind bulkheads, as these spaces often have limited storage.”

Travel expert Andrea Platania from Transfeero also warned passengers to avoid the back row when flying, explaining: “The very last row is typically the least desirable: limited recline, proximity to bathrooms, and more cabin noise. Middle seats anywhere are usually least popular unless you’re traveling in a group.”

However, for those seeking maximum legroom, there are two areas offering the most space. Andrea said: “Exit-row and bulkhead seats offer more space, but they come with trade-offs: fixed armrests, limited recline, or restrictions for passengers traveling with children.”

And for travellers prone to airsickness during turbulence, one specific location is recommended. The expert added: “Sit over the wings. This area is closest to the aircraft’s centre of gravity, so you’ll feel less turbulence compared to the back, where bumps are magnified.”

LILY Allen was stopped awkwardly in her tracks as she was asked “Who is Madeline?” following the release of her bombshell new album.

On the LP, West End Girl, Lily, 40, accuses her ex David Harbour, 50, of infidelity with someone called Madeline – though she has stressed the record is a combination of fact and fiction.

Following its release, the real life Madeline spoke out, with New Orleans based costume designer Natalie Tippett, 34, claiming to have been involved in the fling.

In a new interview with Perfect magazine, Lily was put on the spot and asked to name the title of her songs as the interviewer read lyrics in a dramatic style.

It was a trip down memory lane, with Lily correctly answering Not Fair, The Kooks’ Naive, Cheryl Tweedy, Friday Night and Pussy Palace.

She was then asked directly: “Who the f**k is Madeline?”

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Pop star Lily, who was sitting on a toilet in a glamorous mini dress embellished with a large bow, momentarily hesitated before saying “erm that’s Tennis”.

On the track, which documents her discovering that her man’s connection with another woman is deeper than just sex, Lily sings: “So I read your text, and now I regret it. I can’t get my head ’round how you’ve been playing tennis.

“If it was just sex, I wouldn’t be jealous. You won’t play with me. And who’s Madeline?”

It has been put in the same lane as Dolly Parton classic Jolene, which sees the country star plead with an attractive woman not to steal her man, and Beyoncé’s Sorry, in which she takes aim at ‘Becky with the good hair’ after husband Jay-Z admitted to being unfaithful.

Stranger Things star David and Natalie reportedly began an affair while working on 2021 film We Have A Ghost, and he later allegedly flew Natalie to his home in Atlanta, Georgia.

He had married Lily the previous year in a Las Vegas ceremony.

Speaking from her home in New Orleans’ historic Treme district, Natalie told Daily Mail she was the woman behind “Madeline”.

When approached by Daily Mail, Natalie said: “Of course I’ve heard the song.

“But I have a family and things to protect.

“I have a two-and-a-half-year-old daughter, and I understand this is going on.

“It’s a little bit scary for me.”

The affair reportedly came to light when Lily found an incriminating text on David’s phone.

The discovery inspired several tracks on her new album, which details betrayal and heartbreak.

Natalie declined to discuss the lyrics further, saying: “Yeah… I just don’t feel comfortable talking about it at the moment.”

The Sun has contacted Lily and David’s reps for comment.

Lily and David announced their split in January after four years of marriage.

It is understood they separated in December, with Lily spending Christmas alone with her children in Kenya.

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The LDN hitmaker was previously married to Sam Cooper from 2011-2018, although the relationship was understood to have crumbled some time before they made their split official.

With Sam, Lily had two children, 13 year old Ethel and Marnie Rose, 11

NEW YORK — A day after a mass of federal agents questioned street vendors and sparked protests on Manhattan’s Canal Street, sellers were scarce on the busy strip. Some who did venture out Wednesday, though, were disheartened or riled up by a sweep in which they said people, including U.S. citizens, were pressed to show their papers.

Federal authorities said 14 people, including immigrants and demonstrators, were arrested in Tuesday’s sweep. The Department of Homeland Security said it was a targeted operation focused on the alleged sale of counterfeit goods, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement acting Director Todd Lyons said it was “definitely intelligence-driven.”

“It’s not random. We’re just not pulling people off the street,” he told Fox News on Wednesday.

But some vendors saw it as an indiscriminate and heavy-handed crackdown by masked agents who queried a wide swath of sellers.

Awa Ngam was selling sweaters Wednesday from a table at a Canal Street intersection where at least one of her fellow vendors was taken away the previous afternoon.

She said she also was asked for ID, showed it, and then for her passport, which she doesn’t carry around. Agents quizzed her about how she had come to the U.S., but they eventually backed off after her husband explained that she’s an American citizen, she said.

“They asked every African that was here for their status,” Ngam said.

She returned to the spot Wednesday unafraid but upset.

“I’m saddened because they should not walk around and ask people for their passport in America,” said Ngam, who said she came to the U.S. from Mauritania in 2009. She added that if not for her legal immigration status, she would be fearful: “What if they took me? What would happen to my kids?”

Some other sellers decried the sweep as harassment. Others were keeping a low profile and shied from speaking with journalists.

Signs freshly posted on streetlights mentioned Tuesday’s sweep and urged people at risk of detention to call an immigration law group’s helpline.

Separately, state Atty. Gen. Letitia James, a Democrat, asked New Yorkers to send in photos or videos of Tuesday’s immigration sweep so that her office could assess whether laws were broken.

Law enforcement raids aimed at combating counterfeiting are relatively frequent on Canal Street, which is known for its stalls and shops where some vendors hawk knockoff designer goods and bootlegged wares. Federal authorities often team up with the New York Police Department and luxury brands on crackdowns aimed at shutting down illicit trade.

But the sight of dozens of masked ICE and other federal agents making arrests drew instant protests.

Bystanders and activists converged at the scene and shouted at the agents, at one point blocking their vehicle. ICE, Border Patrol and other federal agents tried to clear the streets, sometimes shoving protesters to the ground and threatening them with stun guns or pepper spray before detaining them.

Nine people were arrested in the initial immigration sweep, DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said. Four more people were arrested on charges of assaulting federal law enforcement officers, she said, adding that a fifth was arrested and accused of obstructing law enforcement by blocking a driveway.

McLaughlin said some of the people arrested had previously been accused of crimes, including robbery, domestic violence, assaulting law enforcement, counterfeiting and drug offenses.

The sweep came after at least two conservative influencers shared video on X of men selling bags on Canal Street’s sidewalks.

While clashes between immigration authorities and protesters have played out in Los Angeles and other cities, such scenes have been rarer on New York City streets, which Mayor Eric Adams has attributed in part to his working relationship with President Trump’s administration.

Adams, a Democrat, said city police had no involvement in Tuesday’s immigration sweep.

“Our administration has been clear that undocumented New Yorkers trying to pursue their American dreams should not be the target of law enforcement, and resources should instead be focused on violent criminals,” he said.

Peltz and Offenhartz write for the Associated Press.

US President Donald Trump told Israel’s parliament that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had often asked him for weapons during the Gaza war, including “some I’d never heard of.” More than 67,000 people have been killed by Israeli forces in Gaza.

Tim Hentschel, CEO of HotelPlanner.com and HotelPlanner.ai, says his virtual travel agents are already taking 50,000 real calls a day and will hit the 100,000 mark before the year is out

“I’m sorry. That was a generic answer. Let me come up with something a little more meaningful.”

There’s something quite novel about a robot apologising to you. Cassandra, one of HotelPlanner.ai’s American representatives, was as quick on the contrition as it was on suggesting hotels in Tupelo, Mississippi, that I might want to stay in.

I chucked a few requirements at Cassandra and it quickly found me a place that ticked all of the boxes. Cassandra even obliged when I asked for a description of the rooms, and then apologised when I cut it off, demanding that those descriptions be a little less lifeless.

Try as I might, my efforts to wind Cassandra up failed. It kept delivering helpful answers and even extra titbits of information without being prompted, all with an upbeat tone of voice against a backdrop of fake call center sounds.

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Robo-travel agents such as Cassandra are currently fielding calls on HotelPlanner.ai, where you can choose the language and gender of your call handler before taking it on a test run. It’s working on a beta trial basis in the UK at the moment, but in the US, the world of AI travel agents is very much here already and booming.

Tim Hentschel, CEO of HotelPlanner.com and HotelPlanner.ai, says his virtual travel agents are already taking 50,000 real calls a day and will hit the 100,000 mark before the year is out. He claims that 10% of HotelPlanner.com’s bookings are made by bots.

That’s no small potatoes, given the company’s expected $1.8 billion gross revenues this year and the 1.5 million properties it can book.

Tim is a huge believer in the power of AI to transform customer service in the travel industry and argues that HotelPlanner.com’s agents are trained to be “more helpful and efficient” than humans and already able to “compete head-to-head” when it comes to customer satisfaction and sales.

While Tim says the company has no desire to stop using humans to answer calls, the AI side of the business is growing quickly and could one day field 100% of all calls. Partly because they’ve learned from the best. The large language model bots were trained using eight million human phone calls.

What’s arguably a little unnerving is that customers aren’t told they’re speaking to a robot, and they often don’t realise.

“We only tell customers if they’re speaking to an AI agent if they ask. Sometimes it has come up as customers have asked them out on dates,” Tim told the Mirror.

“We find AI works best with older customers as it’s extremely helpful and patient—sometimes to a fault, as the AI doesn’t understand the money value of time. The question is, if you want a service, who can perform it better? A human or AI with unlimited information?

“The agents have accents. They make an attempt at humour. The robots are programmed always to be helpful, it has nothing but kindness.”

Whether the idea of an AI customer service bot excites or appalls you, their arrival in increasing numbers seems inevitable. Just this week, OpenAI announced it had struck a deal with travel giant Expedia, paving the way for holidaymakers to book trips directly through the platform.

At the Travel and Tourism Summit in Rome at the end of September, Jane Sun, CEO of Trip.com Group, predicted that AI would “double the travel market” – because “people will work three days due to AI, and take much longer holidays.”

Jane went on to describe how she thought AI would improve customer service.

“We must make sure our customers are very well looked after with good customer support. 30 seconds, an AI in your native language will be able to speak to you over the phone. Within 30 seconds a call centre employee will be able to answer your call. Within two minutes of a crisis, our team will be able to call them to get them to safety. This will be powered by AI,” she said.

How do you feel about AI travel agents? Let us know in the comments below or by emailing [email protected].