Flying from Seattle to Los Angeles?
Add a departure date and see which side gets the sun.
Flying from Seattle to Los Angeles?
Add a departure date and see which side gets the sun.
Flying from Seattle to Los Angeles?
Add a departure date and see which side gets the sun.
Seattle → Los Angeles
A medium flight within United States. Same local time zone at both ends.
The Emerald City
Seattle is built across hills and water, squeezed between Puget Sound and Lake Washington, with its core neighborhoods threaded between the two. Light rail runs the length of the city and out to the suburbs, making it one of the more transit-friendly West Coast cities, though the hills and water still shape how neighborhoods connect. Rain is frequent but usually light, more gray drizzle than downpour, especially from fall through spring. Traffic across the bridges and the floating highway can bottleneck badly at peak times.
Nearby airports
| 205 km / 127 mi |
Surrounding hubs
| 1,107 km / 688 mi | |
| 1,395 km / 867 mi | |
| 1,645 km / 1,022 mi |
The Entertainment Capital of the World
Los Angeles is a spread-out city in a much larger county, with the Pacific on one side and mountains on the other. The places travelers usually mean by "LA" can be far apart: beach cities, studio districts, downtown, canyon neighborhoods, museum corridors, and the San Fernando Valley. The region is built around driving, and a short distance on the map can become a long trip in traffic. Where you stay matters more here than in most cities, because crossing the basin can shape the day.
City access
LAX sits on the coast at the western edge of the basin, handy for the beaches and the Westside but a long way from downtown, Hollywood, or the Valley. Transit to the airport is limited and slow, so most travelers leave by car, ride-hail, or shuttle. Factor the drive into your timing, because from the eastern and northern suburbs it can be one of the longest legs of the trip.
Nearby airports
| 176 km / 109 mi |
Surrounding hubs
| 595 km / 370 mi | |
| 949 km / 590 mi | |
| 1,385 km / 861 mi |
Find out which side of the plane to sit on.
Pick your airports, set your departure time, and you're done.
We calculate the sun's position based on your flight path and departure time, then tell you which side of the plane gets direct sun and which stays shaded. No guessing, just math.
Enter your flight
Pick your departure and arrival airports and set your departure time at the departure airport. FlightSide estimates the duration and you can adjust it if you know the exact schedule.
We track the sun along your route
Your flight path is broken into hundreds of points. At each one we check where the sun is and which side of the plane it faces.
You get a recommendation
Which side of the plane to sit on, left or right, depending on whether you'd rather avoid the sun or enjoy it. The percentages and the map are there if you want to see why.
Want to go deeper? Accuracy, edge cases, polar routes — see the FAQ →
Notes from the product.
Small updates, route observations, and clearer explanations for how the app keeps evolving.
Type less, wait less, wonder more
Airport search now understands metro codes and old city names, FlightSide loads noticeably faster, and a new Feeling lucky button chooses a flight for anyone without one in mind.
A closer look at the route, not just the seat
FlightSide now shows the two cities and key details about the flight alongside the seat recommendation: confirm you picked the right airports, read the time change off two clocks, and check the return leg.
It's all about the sun (after all)
Not all sunlight reaches the side windows. FlightSide now weighs the sun’s angle to the cabin and shows twilight along the route.