With more and more of us flying on budget airlines, the idea of having space to spread out seems a little alien.
Even extending your legs below the knee can prove troublesome.
But now one man has shown the full potential of having a little more room to breathe, as he used an empty flight to set up his tripod and camera in the window seat and capture the Northern Lights.
Aryeh Nirenberg, who shares his impressive photos on Instagram, explained that he was on a six-hour Delta flight from JFK in New York to Reykjavik, Iceland, on New Year’s Eve, when he found himself alone in a row of seats.
Instead of sprawling out and taking a nap like the rest of us, he decided to set up a makeshift photography studio at 35,000 feet using only an airline blanket.
The photographer explained that he always carries his full set of professional equipment – a Nikon D810 and Nikon 20mm 1.8 lens - in his carry on baggage for “safety reasons”.
So it was easy to access when he saw the natural phenomenon occurring right outside his window.
The result is a mesmerising time-lapse video of the aurora borealis that has been viewed over 21,000 times in the last 24 hours.
Nirenberg said: “It takes a whole lot of patience to see those lights especially with Iceland’s stormy weather.”
During his trip he also stayed up overnight to see them again: “One night I had to wait until 4am until the snow stopped and the auroras showed up.”