The colorful Cathay Pacific seat maps reader Will sent me have become favorites in my collection. Here’s Cathay’s Boeing 747-300 from 1989 for this installment of Vintage Airline Seat Maps. It seated a total of 422 passengers split between First Class, Marco Polo Business Class and Economy Class.

29 seats were found in the nose and just beyond in the then typical two-seater configuration for First Class, and you’d definitely find me in 1A if I was flying solo or in 2A/B with a traveling companion. Well… maybe not 1A as the white ‘x’ mark at the bulkheads (in each cabin) denote bassinet positions. Smoking seats, by the way, are the ones with a yellowish hue.

In Marco Polo Business Class, I’d likely opt to sit upstairs although it’s tightly packed with 42 seats. These were the days before truly generous pitch was found in the middle cabin. The downstairs section might see more personalized service seating only 21 passengers. A tough selection here, but the extra storage bins alongside the window seats upstairs could be the swaying factor for me. I’ll go for 17A.

In coach flying solo, I generally book an aisle in the center 4-seater section on a 747 since those seats have a greater likelihood of the seat next to it being unoccupied. Also, I always pick the ‘G’ seats near the center back since the computer algorithm generally assigns last minute seats left to right, front to back. Otherwise, those aisle bulkhead seats just behind the exit doors would be incredibly spacious. It’d be a toss up between 30C and say, 49G for me. For a couple, nothing beats those last few rows of two-seaters if you don’t mind being last off the plane. Economy on this version seated 330 passengers.

Where would you sit?