Article: The Unpublished Benefit of Paying for Preferred Seats

[AFF Editor]

The Unpublished Benefit of Paying for Preferred Seats is an article written by the AFF editorial team:

The Unpublished Benefit of Paying for Preferred Seats

If you've paid for a chargeable extra legroom or "preferred" seat and the flight isn't full, you have a better chance of getting a vacant neighbouring seat.

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

You can leave a comment or discuss this topic below.

 

[SYD]

The Unpublished Benefit of Paying for Preferred Seats is an article written by the AFF editorial team:

The Unpublished Benefit of Paying for Preferred Seats

If you've paid for a chargeable extra legroom or "preferred" seat and the flight isn't full, you have a better chance of getting a vacant neighbouring seat.

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

You can leave a comment or discuss this topic below.

Hoping this holds true for an upcoming JQ flight DPS-PER (then QF J to SYD booked as a QF CR). Last time I checked SYD+1 and I each had a row to ourselves!

 

[MEL_Traveller]

SQ is another one that comes to mind. Paid for preferred exit row seats on a 737 HKT-SIN. Packed plane except for our row of 6 which went out with just us. I suspect they filled the exit row in front with passengers who didn’t pay the fee giving us all the room.

 

[SYD]

SQ is another one that comes to mind. Paid for preferred exit row seats on a 737 HKT-SIN. Packed plane except for our row of 6 which went out with just us. I suspect they filled the exit row in front with passengers who didn’t pay the fee giving us all the room.

Oh, I’ve got one of those later this year (booked with UA points). Must revisit seat selection!

 

[Human]

With Virgin, the EconomyX seats in rows 3-5 are generally taken very quickly by Platinum members (especially Row 3 which gives a massive amount of legroom). But it's a different story with the exit row seats (rows 13-14) which are often the last to be taken.

 

[sap1l]

I just flew 3K SIN-KUL, which admittedly was a very short flight. Paid for exit row seating, and ended up being the only one in the 12 exit row seats! It was a short flight so I'm not surprised no one wanted to pay for the extra legroom seats, but I think it was worth to get the full row to myself.

I have never seen row 4 on QF 737s fully empty, but during off-business hours I have seen the middle seat go empty on SYD-MEL and SYD-BNE (and vice versa).

 

[aikman]

Does this ever backfire eg. the exit row you paid extra for ends up being full while the people around you who got randomly selected seats have empty seats next to them.

 

[sap1l]

Does this ever backfire eg. the exit row you paid extra for ends up being full while the people around you who got randomly selected seats have empty seats next to them.

I have seen this a couple of times on long-haul widebody jets at off-peak travel times - the exit rows are full but the back of the plane has a smattering of empty seats.

Maybe on longer flights people are more willing to spend on extra legroom seats, and they would rather not be shoved to the back of the plane?

 

[Guvner]

Oh, I’ve got one of those later this year (booked with UA points). Must revisit seat selection!

I paid a bit extra for my son's SYD-SFO rev flight (last week) and got him an "Economy Plus" seat (34A).
He had the row to himself for the 13hr flight so was able to stretch out across seats .

 

[jpp42]

Note that this is unlikely to work very well for US domestic flights - while they have chargeable seats with more legroom like Main Cabin Extra or Economy Plus, these are usually filled up with elites as they get them for free , not unlike the setup on VA's EconomyX. In addition, US flights are often extremely full.

 

[Ecco]

I paid for comfort plus seat on Hawaiian going AKL-HNL. Wasnt overly cheap $100usd. Monitored it on seat plan, on expert flyer and could see the comfort plus seats remaining empty near me. Got on the plane and saw I had a whole middle row to myself and was planning to lie down on ‘my row’ but this fella who was travelling on the window 2 seats with wife and kid (hadn’t paid for a seat for his baby) literally jumped onto the end empty seat on my row before the plane had even got to it’s flying altitude and stayed there the whole flight.

I was able to lie down on the remaining empty seats but wasn’t very comfortable as I couldn’t stretch out due to this guy sitting on my end seat. It’s still survival of the fittest down in Y…

 

[significance]

I have seen this a couple of times on long-haul widebody jets at off-peak travel times - the exit rows are full but the back of the plane has a smattering of empty seats.

Maybe on longer flights people are more willing to spend on extra legroom seats, and they would rather not be shoved to the back of the plane?

Yes -- this happened to me on a flight to Europe once. Those of us who had paid for exit-row seats were the only ones that didn't have a row to ourselves!

 

[Kremmen]

Definitely true on Air Asia. One of my best economy international flights ever was MNL-DMK on Z2. Total cost under US$100 for a 3 hour flight, including baggage, meal and exit row seat.

Standard seats were 80-90% full, but I had 3 seats to myself, with tons of legroom. Another passenger tried to self-upgrade to the aisle seat on my row, but was appropriately turned around with her tail between her legs by a flight attendant. I even managed to lie down and sleep after dinner!

 

[Jettygirl]

Does anybody know if paying for a seat will bump you out of an upgrade request with Qantas? We have put in an upgrade request for a flight from Rome to Sydney in September but are afraid to purchase seats in case we then get taken out of the running for an upgrade. We won't hear until the week before.

However, If we don't get the upgrade we'd prefer to be in seats of our choice.

Thanks if anybody knows?

 

[sydunipete]

This worked for us on 2 out of 2 SAS flights recently. We paid for exit row seats and both times the third seat was empty.

Also on Air Asia flying PNH - KUL I booked an exit row seat and unexpectedly was allocated to the first boarding group - so a double bonus there.

 

[pomona]

Recently paid the Xtra on VA both ways MCY/MEL/MCY.
For some reason the cost from MEL was slightly more than from MCY ??
Useful for pre-boarding/disembarkation, certainly better legroom & overhead locker space but the downside is it is a loong way to the loos down the back, which surely you should not need for a circa 2hour flight.
Mind you several older passengers decided they had a God given right to use J class loos & simply unhooked the cord. Bit of a dilemma for VA ?
Interesting the younger folk went to the back.
Luggage did not benefit from the premium (no special tags) & no XEcon check in

 

[z28]

I paid for comfort plus seat on Hawaiian going AKL-HNL. Wasnt overly cheap $100usd. Monitored it on seat plan, on expert flyer and could see the comfort plus seats remaining empty near me. Got on the plane and saw I had a whole middle row to myself and was planning to lie down on ‘my row’ but this fella who was travelling on the window 2 seats with wife and kid (hadn’t paid for a seat for his baby) literally jumped onto the end empty seat on my row before the plane had even got to it’s flying altitude and stayed there the whole flight.

I was able to lie down on the remaining empty seats but wasn’t very comfortable as I couldn’t stretch out due to this guy sitting on my end seat. It’s still survival of the fittest down in Y…

It's a fair game as you haven't paid for those empty seats either.

 

[ramboflyer]

With Virgin, the EconomyX seats in rows 3-5 are generally taken very quickly by Platinum members (especially Row 3 which gives a massive amount of legroom). But it's a different story with the exit row seats (rows 13-14) which are often the last to be taken.

In May I flew HBA - MEL and found Economy X exit row seats available for free. This was one or two days before flight. Flight was quite full. No such luck on return.

 

[sydney slug]

My guess is you would also be less likely to be bumped from an overbooked flight too…

 

[funnybrus]

Does anybody know if paying for a seat will bump you out of an upgrade request with Qantas? We have put in an upgrade request for a flight from Rome to Sydney in September but are afraid to purchase seats in case we then get taken out of the running for an upgrade. We won't hear until the week before.

However, If we don't get the upgrade we'd prefer to be in seats of our choice.

Thanks if anybody knows?

Your upgrade request will stay but you won't get refunded the seat selection fee

Having said that, if you're paying for seat selection then I assume you don't have any status and therefore an upgrade on a sector like FCO-PER is very very very unlikely, might get something on PER-SYD though.