Why Is My Plane Missing Rows?

What to do when you notice 12 rows have disappeared from your plane.

Iwas about to board a notoriously problem-prone Boeing 737 MAX in the thick of Boeing’s doors-falling-off-midair era. So, yes, you could say I was a bit on edge.

After I climbed into my seat, 10A, the feeling morphed into sheer dread. Staring up at the baggage compartment, I noticed our plane is mysteriously missing its ninth row. This felt like a sure sign of all the other oversights and errors made while building this tin can, which is about to lift 166 passengers into the air.

My suspicions were reinforced once we were told to get off the plane because of a malfunctioning part in the cargo chamber. At this point, there couldn’t be more red flags.

While that mechanical issue turned out to be from a baggage handler accidentally ramming a ramp into the plane, I was still apprehensive. We reboarded another United Airlines aircraft. This time, it was a smaller model–and much to my surprise, row nine had reappeared.

I was finally relieved enough to channel some rational curiosity. Were we just on a plane destined for doom, or was I simply unaware of why planes exclude some rows?

Very Superstitious

A look at elevators can help us understand one reason why. You’ve perhaps found yourself in one and noticed the 13th floor doesn’t exist. And if you’re a part of the 10% of Americans who fear the number, this may be a relief.

And airlines, not just elevators, tend to skip the 13th row because passengers prefer not to sit there. Lo and behold, while I didn’t realize it on my flight, the 737 MAX didn’t have the 13th row either.

While triskaidekaphobia (fear of the number 13) is most common in the Western world, the number four is equally taboo in other corners of the globe. In Cantonese, four, 14, and 24 sound similar to the words for “death,” “must die,” and “easy to die,” respectively. One American study even found that the psychological stress associated with the fourth day in a month caused more cardiac deaths among Chinese and Japanese Americans compared to white Americans.

So, perhaps unsurprisingly, the Boeing 737 skips out on rows four and 14 too. But it includes a row 24. This begs the question of how much this really all has to do with superstition. And how about the fact that the number nine is associated with longevity, eternality, and good luck in Chinese culture? Those seem like terrific reasons to keep that row on a Boeing.

Money, Money, Money

Another truth is that United, and plenty of other carriers, skip rows for a practical reason: to keep their plane layouts consistent. Time is money, and aviation’s no exception. A one-minute delay costs an airline $100.

Since airlines tend to operate heaps of different plane types, they want to try and standardize systems for when things go awry (like they did in my case). Essentially, they skip row numbers here and there to try and unify seat maps across different aircraft models. That way, if you’re seated in row 20 on a Boeing 787, and your flight gets swapped to, say, a Boeing 777, your seat should be the same—even if the aircraft size and layout differ. You can see how wonky those efforts can get from just a glance at the seat map.

Of course, some planes really just are bigger than others. In those cases, you wouldn’t be able to swap over to a smaller version. That’s when this whole system becomes pretty futile. The other issue is that newer planes, like the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, have an elusive 33rd row. Meanwhile, no other Boeing line does.

Marketing Magic

Yet another potential explanation for this kerfuffle lies in the power of good old marketing: Seat gaps provide greater distinction between the seating classes.

For instance, the Boeing 737-700 only has the physical space for 22 rows, yet you might get seated in a row as high as 34. The three rows of first-class seats take up so much space with their cushy, plastic seats that they take up six rows’ worth of space. Each first-class seat takes up the same room as two economy ones.

Similarly, three rows of Economy Plus actually take up four real rows, absorbing some of that much-needed space from the economy class behind them. This is a way of making their premium flyers feel extra special with their seat number. After all, the third row sounds a lot better than the sixth (even though they’re technically the exact same).

United’s Take

A United spokesperson offered some explanations for the inconsistencies. One was that the company’s seating charts needed to end in an even, round number. But a little bit of fact-checking proves that isn’t actually always the case.

They added that United alters row numbers so that 20 and 21 can consistently be the exit rows, but again, some planes don’t abide by those rules.

Although things aren’t followed to a T across the board, these systems seemed to help things remain orderly (in my case).

Plane and Simple

There are monetary- and belief-motivated reasons for skipped rows on a plane. It’s a blend of superstition and operational efficiency, with a little bit of mystery remaining. As humans, we relish any opportunity to find a deeper meaning, or a conspiracy, to explain the things that puzzle us. We’re constantly looking for explanations for why we are the way we are or why the world works the way it does. When we’re lucky, we find the whole truth. But admittedly, the inconsistencies behind all of these absent rows feel a bit like a mystery begging to be solved.

The good news is that the row gap is intentional and not a sign you’re on a faulty aircraft. The not-so-exciting news is that the reason for a missing row will depend on the row itself. And for some of them, that reason’s still unclear.