Many airlines – especially low-cost carriers – offer extra legroom and up-front “preferred” seats for an additional fee.
These seats have obvious advantages. For example, they might offer more space or be located closer to the door, meaning you can get off the plane sooner at your destination. But there’s another unadvertised benefit that can make the extra cost even more worthwhile.
Airlines don’t generally allow passengers to select chargeable seats for free – even at check-in. And, crucially, most passengers won’t pay to select one of these seats (either because they don’t see the value or because they don’t pre-select a seat at all).
Of course, if the flight is completely full, then all seats will ultimately be filled. But “preferred” seats that normally cost extra are the very last ones that the airline will allocate to passengers who didn’t pay for them. So, if you’ve paid for a chargeable seat and the flight isn’t full, there’s a good chance that any vacant seats on the plane will be near you.
This strategy has worked for me many times
For example, last year I paid extra for an Extra Legroom seat on Etihad Airways. I ended up having the whole row to myself.
I’ve also had good success with getting a whole row to myself on TAP Air Portugal flights within Europe when paying for a Comfort (EconomyXtra) Seat. These are closer to the front of the plane and have more legroom. Unless you have a subscription, TAP only makes these seats available to select for free up to 60 minutes prior to departure. By this time, most people already have other seat allocations so many of the Comfort Seats remain empty.
Budget airlines strictly enforce preferred seating
AirAsia and Jetstar are also among a long list of budget airlines that charge extra to choose an up-front seat. These don’t necessarily have more legroom, but they are likely to be the last allocated as most people won’t cough up the extra money.
On an AirAsia X flight, I paid to sit in one of the 63 “Quiet Zone” seats at the front of Economy – and ended up being one of just three passengers to do so.
What about Qantas and Virgin?
Unfortunately, this trick doesn’t really work for Qantas flights as there are only a small number of chargeable seats (mainly in the front or exit rows) and they are often quite popular. That said, the exit row seats on Qantas’ Boeing 737s can sometimes be among the last to fill up. And if you happen to be on a QantasLink Airbus A220, that jet has lots of extra legroom seats to go around.
By the way, a quick tip: Qantas makes those extra legroom seats available to select for free when online check-in opens. That’s 24 hours before departure. 😉
Qantas does offer Neighbour Free seating for a fee on some flights as well. That takes a bit of the “game theory” out of getting a spare seat beside you.
Virgin Australia, meanwhile, offers extra-legroom “Economy X” seats. These are available for a fee, except for Velocity Platinum frequent flyers who can select them for free.
I flew in Economy X last week and had one of the only vacant seats on the flight beside me.
On routes with lots of business travellers – and especially at peak business travel times – the Economy X seats can fill up quite quickly due to the higher number of Platinum members on board. But on leisure routes and outside of business travel times, the Economy X seats often go largely unfilled.
Overall, my success rate on many different airlines of getting a vacant neighbouring seat, when paying to sit closer to the front, has been pretty good.
It’s not guaranteed to work. But even if it doesn’t, you’ll still get the benefit of extra legroom or faster disembarkation. And if it ends up being a full flight, you wouldn’t have had a neighbour-free seat anyway.
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