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Window Seat

San Diego → New York

SAN–JFK · San Diego International Airport to John F. Kennedy International Airport

Best bet

Left side

Slight edgeEnough to break a tie, not enough to change seats over.

It is close. The left edges it, mostly on Painted Desert, but the right is not a bad seat.

Flight paths move around. Treat this as the better bet, not a promise.

What you might see

In flight order, with distance measured from the representative route.

SAN to JFK: where each landmark sits relative to the routeA diagram of the representative route running left to right, with the departure airport at the left and the arrival airport at the right. Landmarks on the left side of the aircraft are plotted above the route line and landmarks on the right side below it, each at its distance from the route. The numbered list below this diagram carries the same information as text.SANJFKLEFT SIDERIGHT SIDE12345678
Distance from the route is to scale (up to 40 miles); the shaded ends are the 40-mile zones around each airport where the runway in use decides the view. Numbers match the list below. Hollow markers didn't count toward the recommendation.

  1. Salton Sea

    Either sideEarly4 mi off the route

    Salton Sea passes almost directly beneath early in the flight, which is the one place a window seat can't help you.

    Good possibility

  2. Sedona red rocks

    Either sideEarly7 mi off the route

    Sedona red rocks passes almost directly beneath early in the flight, which is the one place a window seat can't help you.

    Good possibility

  3. San Francisco Peaks

    LeftEarly36 mi off the route

    Look left early in the flight for San Francisco Peaks, about 36 miles out.

    Distant possibility

  4. Meteor Crater

    Either sideQuarter in2 mi off the route

    Meteor Crater passes almost directly beneath about a quarter of the way in, which is the one place a window seat can't help you.

    Good possibility

  5. Painted Desert

    LeftQuarter in12 mi off the route

    About a quarter of the way in, Painted Desert sits roughly 12 miles to the left.

    Good possibility

  6. Petrified Forest

    RightQuarter in20 mi off the route

    Look right about a quarter of the way in for Petrified Forest, about 20 miles out.

    Distant possibility

  7. Rio Grande Gorge

    RightQuarter in9 mi off the route

    Rio Grande Gorge is about 9 miles off the right, about a quarter of the way in.

    Good possibility

  8. Manhattan

    Either sideNear the end6 mi off the route

    Whether Manhattan appears comes down to how you come into JFK, which is not something we can know in advance.

    Runway dependent

The sun

Flying soon? Add your date and departure time and we'll work out where the sun should be, and which side gets less of it.

Airport codes or city names. SEA, Seattle, and Seattle-Tacoma all work.

Skip the date and you still get the landmark answer. Add it and we work out where the sun will be, using the departure airport's local time.

The route we used

2,441 mi
Great-circle distance
64°
Course out of SAN
91°
Course into JFK
4
Landmarks that counted

That is the shortest path between the two airports, used as a representative corridor rather than a flight plan. The first and last 40 miles are treated as uncertain, because that part of the flight is shaped by the runway in use and the published departure or arrival procedure. Anything in those zones is listed and marked, never counted toward the recommendation.

Left and right, from where?

Left and right are from your perspective sitting in the cabin, facing the front of the aircraft. Seat letters are not a reliable guide to which side you are on, because aircraft are configured differently.

Why this isn't guaranteed

Flights don't follow the same path every day. Runway configuration, weather deviations, traffic, and air traffic control all move the track around, and none of it is knowable in advance. We also have nothing to say about cloud cover, which is the other thing standing between you and Mount Rainier. The full method.

Flying the other way?

New York → San DiegoRight side

Calculated from scratch, not by flipping this one. The landmarks arrive in the opposite order, the sun is somewhere else entirely, and the answer changes with them.

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