QantasLink Dash 8-400 Seat Selection Guide (2026)

The back is the good end

Almost every seat guide tells you to avoid the last row. On the Dash 8-400 that advice is simply wrong, because the aircraft is laid out back to front compared with a jet.

The single lavatory sits at the front of the cabin, ahead of row 1. There is no galley or lavatory behind row 19 at all — just the rear door and the bulkhead. That removes every reason the back row is normally bad: no queue forming beside you, no door banging through the flight, no bright galley light during the service.

There is one thing the back does not escape: the Dash 8 is a turboprop, and rows roughly level with the propellers are the noisiest part of any cabin. Row 19 is well aft of the propeller line, which helps rather than hurts.

The front legroom rows all have a catch

Rows 1 and 2 are where the extra legroom is, and every seat that has it pays for it the same way: there is no seat in front, so there is no underseat storage, and the tray table folds out of the armrest instead of a seatback, which narrows the seat you are sitting in.

Row 1 is unusual in another way — it has only two seats, A and B, because the forward right-hand door takes the space where C and D would be. Within those two:

• 1B is the better of the pair. The bulkhead in front covers only about 55% of the row, so there is genuinely extra space on its right-hand side — a real benefit rather than a nominal one.
• 1A gets the window and the legroom, but faces the full bulkhead.

In row 2 the picture splits down the middle of the aircraft. 2A and 2B sit behind row 1, so they are ordinary seats — normal storage, normal tray, and 2A has a clean window. 2C and 2D have open floor in front of them, so they get the extra legroom and all of its penalties.

2D is the seat to avoid

2D takes every one of row 2's penalties and adds two window faults on top. There is a plugged window immediately beside it — a fuselage position where the glass has been filled in — and the window that remains sits behind the seat, so you have to lean back for a partial view. Extra legroom, nowhere for your bag, a narrower seat, and barely any view.

The rest of the cabin

From row 3 back the Dash 8 is refreshingly uncomplicated. Rows 3 to 14 and 16 to 19 all have normal, properly aligned windows and standard pitch, with nothing to steer around. Rows 9, 11, 14 and 19 rate best of all.

The one exception is row 15, where the windows on both sides sit behind the seats and give a restricted view. If you have picked 15A or 15D for the scenery on a Sydney–Canberra run, move a row either way.

Seats to avoid

• 2D — plugged window, misaligned remaining window, no underseat storage, narrowed seat.
• 15A and 15D — restricted view.
• Rows 1 and 2C — only if you want your bag at your feet; the legroom itself is genuine.

No middle seats, no premium cabin

The Dash 8-400 is a single-class aircraft, 2-2 all the way back. Every passenger has a window or an aisle, there is no business cabin to buy into, and no blocked-middle arrangement to reason about. For two people travelling together, any A+B or C+D pair gives you a self-contained half-row.

Because there is no premium cabin, seat selection is the only lever you have on this aircraft — which makes knowing that the back row is the good one worth more here than on a jet.

Quick picks by traveller

FAQ

Is the back row bad on a QantasLink Dash 8?

No — it is the best row. The lavatory on this aircraft is at the front of the cabin, so there is no queue, no door and no galley behind row 19. On top of that, 19A and 19D have the two cleanest windows on the aircraft. It is the opposite of the usual last-row advice, and it holds because of where the lavatory sits.

Why does row 1 only have two seats?

The forward right-hand door occupies the space where seats C and D would sit, so row 1 is built with just A and B on the left side. It is a genuine feature of the layout, not a booking-system quirk.

Which seat should I avoid on the Dash 8-400?

2D. It has a plugged window beside it — a fuselage window position that has been filled in — and the remaining glass sits behind the seat, so the view is poor. It also has no underseat storage because there is no seat in front, and its tray table folds out of the armrest, narrowing the seat. 2A on the other side of the aisle has none of these problems.

Where is the extra legroom?

Rows 1 and 2, but not evenly. 1A, 1B, 2C and 2D all have open floor in front and therefore extra legroom — and all four lose underseat storage as a result. 2A and 2B sit behind row 1, so they are ordinary seats with ordinary storage. 1B is the pick: the bulkhead ahead of it covers only about 55% of the row, leaving real extra space on its right.

Are there middle seats?

None. The Dash 8-400 is 2-2 from front to back in a single economy cabin, so every seat is a window or an aisle.

How many seats does the QantasLink Dash 8-400 have?

74, across rows 1 to 19. Row 1 has two seats and every row from 2 to 19 has four, in a single economy cabin with no business section.