Cheap airline seating

Former_MSE_Naomi

Hi,

We've written a new Airline Seating guide and would love your feedback.

Please let us know if it was helpful and if there are any other tips you'd add.

Thanks,

MSE Naomi

Brats64

Hi,

Been reading the airline seating thread.
Your No 7 tip states that you can choose your seats for free with Virgin Atlantic as soon as you book,as long as you are checking in baggage to the hold.
We have used Virgin quite a few times to fly to the states,and they always want a fee for pre-booked seats.
We have a trip booked with them to New York in May,and if I try to book seats,they want £30 per seat...how is that free?

Gezwend

Flew back from Vegas last year, checked in on line and there were no seats for us together and the thought of a 10 hour flight apart was daunting us. We had already paid for Premium Economy, so were extra nice at check in and guess what, got upgraded on board to business class! What a treat, BA Thank you

vin.rouge

Beware of checking in last minute with easyjet (and maybe others). If the flight is full you will be bumped off

malkie76

Might be worth pointing out that check-in opens for all flights if you have a regional flight first - eg if you fly INV-LHR-JFK you check-in for your LHR-JFK flight when the INV-LHR opens, giving you roughly 2hours head start on those starting from LHR on the same flight.

Ivanka_A

Singapore Air do free seating allocation when you book.

[Deleted User]

I have not had any problems with either Aer Lingus or United in choosing seats at time of booking

Hannah_M

British Airways allow you to select seats free of charge at booking if you're flying with an infant. We booked for 2 adults and one infant and we could select seats for both of us for free, which works great as we're not taking any hold luggage.

jpmbosco

As I am sure some of you may have found out reserving your seat does not always result in what you expect (i.e. sitting together or a good seat).

Particularly when booking online and very often if you book a last minute holiday or flight, you have to pay up front for the seat reservation.

You may then get a link or be taken to the seat reservation section of the airline web site only to find that all the decent seats have gone.

The reservation fee does not guarantee that you will get the seat you want, it only guarantees that you will get that seat, which you could have been given for nothing anyway.

Also as the availability of non booked seats goes down on a flight, you are paying the same money for less choice. :mad:

tbutler12345

Im writing from Barbados we flew Virgin on Friday.

Even tho we had hold luggage I saw no way to book free seats far in advance. However I noticed I was able to book my standard seat for free (but not yet check in) 25 hours before my flight. Very few passengers had done this.

I tried the same for my return seat and it wasnt free a week in advance, but a couple of days later I was able to reserve a free seat. I think 5 days in advance. This wasnt advertised to me or detailed on their website and not sure if its linked to Martins checked baggage rule which I think needs clarification. It seems to me thats its a cheeky unwritten rule that you can book your seats for free on Virgin around 5 days in advance of the flight.

We dont fly home till Friday but can relax knowing we are in row 37. This is a great row we noticed on the way out as its just in front of the emergency exits, a big gangway, so no concern about reclining

silvercar

BA allow you to select seats for free 24 hours before the flight time of the start of your ticket. So if you are flying Manchester > Heathrow > Miami you would be allowed to select seats for both flights 24 hours before your Manchester take off time, this can put you slightly ahead of others.

Note that whether you are allowed to select at 24 hours before the flight for BA depends on whether your ticket allows for luggage, not whether you actually take luggage. The article is slightly misleading. All Avios bookings allow luggage so all will allow you to book 24 hours before the first flight on your ticket.

The reason that not all seats will be available is that some people pay, others are allocated to those travelling with an infant and members of the higher ranks of their frequent flyer programme can reserve seats free of charge earlier than 24 hours beforehand.