Melanie from Travelling Kid: On an airplane, all seats are not created equal.

Where you sit with your children on a plane can make or break your trip. After all, wouldn't you rather be spread out and comfy in roomy bulkhead seats rather than cramped in the, uh, aromatic row right in front of the bathrooms? Of course you would. But if you snooze, you just might lose in the seating department. Here are my top 5 pointers:

1. Don't let other people pick your seats for you.
Once you've made your reservation, find out the make of the plane that you will be travelling on, then visit www.seatguru.com. This amazing Web site has the seat maps of the various aircrafts, so you can see which seats are the good ones and which seats are the devil.

2. 'No kids in exit rows' rule doesn't necessary mean you can't sit there.
If you are travelling with another adult, you may be able to place one of the adults in the exit row and seat the kids and other adult in the row behind. How you 'flip' for the 'better' seat is entirely up to you.

3. Travelling with kids can get you good stuff - like bulkhead seats.
The bulkhead seats are located at the front of the cabin. Since these seats are right behind a partition, no one will be reclining into your lap. This also means there is no one in front of you to be annoyed when your kid kicks the seat for the twentieth time. And you'll have way more room when you bend over to pick up random items like stray Cheerios or the all-important plastic elephant. (If you are in a regular row and the seats in front of you are fully reclined, you'd have to be a circus contortionist to retrieve the stray items without putting your back out.)

4. Avoid certain seats like the plague.
With kids, these are seats to avoid: Seats that don't fully recline. The middle of the middle of the middle aisles unless your family is filling the entire section. Seats under cold vents. Seats with reduced leg room. Seats that get lots of traffic from lavatories. Limited under seat space. Reduced seat width. Again, be proactive in your seat choices.

5. Book a window seat for your little one.
Kids are always better at the window for three main reasons: They can look out the window and play with the shade; they can lean their heads against the wall to sleep; and they won't get their flailing limbs clipped by the service cart. (Enough said.)

For more pointers from Melanie, click here.

What's your favorite seat on the plane?