Cheap airline seating

Gook

So that doesnt affect restaurants then? they dont need that extra revenue (read rip off)

It costs the airline no extra where ever you are seated.

Nick_C

The information in the article is wrong for American Airlines.

To quote from the AA website (re transatlantic economy) "You can choose your seat for free when you book or buy a Preferred seat in a more favorable location."

The AA website shows you which seats are available before you select a flight. As part of the booking process, before you pay, you can select the seats you want.

Brats64

msmarlow wrote: »

When you check in online with Virgin you can reserve your seats at no extra cost 24 hours prior to take off.
If you want to pre-check the seating plan and see what seats are already booked, just enter your booking ref on the Virgin website at anytime and click on the 'choose seat' option (usually far left). You are not committing to pay for seats by doing this.
If you believe your flight will be full and don't want to risk random seat allocation you can choose to pay to reserve either standard or pay extra for extra space seats at anytime prior to 24 hour check in.
If seat availability looks good, check in asap 24 hours before and select your seats at no extra charge. You will still have to pay for extra legroom seats at this stage, the only way of getting those for free is by checking in at the airport, taking a chance that the flight will be full and all economy seats have been previously selected/allocated.
I hope this helps.


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?

[/QUOTE]

I am aware of the 24 hour check-in.
My comments were that the info from MSE is wrong...you cannot pick your seats for free with Virgin when you book.

I am a flying club member so I can choose my seats for free 72 hours prior to departure.This is usually sufficient to guarantee my favoured window seating,and sitting together.

jpsartre

Gook wrote: »

So that doesnt affect restaurants then?

If restaurants could make money charging for seats I'm sure they would. Nobody's being "robbed blind", the charges are there to see when you book. For the people who don't like it there are other airlines. Or if you insist on flying with Ryanair, just buy a Plus ticket which comes with free seat selection included.

robrob57

Be careful what you wish for regarding paying extra to sit beside undesirables. It wasn't that long ago when you booked a package holiday it included hold baggage, food, entertainment and transfers in the package.And it was highly likely you would sit together on the plane.
Now some companies are looking to charge to guarantee a sunbed at the pool. Where will it all end?

richardw

jpsartre wrote: »

If restaurants could make money charging for seats I'm sure they would....

In Italy they sort of do, it is called a cover charge, surprised that one hasn’t caught on in the UK.

richardw

robrob57 wrote: »

Be careful what you wish for regarding paying extra to sit beside undesirables. It wasn't that long ago when you booked a package holiday it included hold baggage, food, entertainment and transfers in the package.And it was highly likely you would sit together on the plane.
Now some companies are looking to charge to guarantee a sunbed at the pool. Where will it all end?

Extra charge for additional heating of the water in the pool?

Nick_C

Worth noting that if you have status with BA, you can select seats for free at an earlier date. Bronze Exec members for example can select seats for free 7 days in advance.

If you fly frequently with any One World airline on a BA codeshare, then it may help you to achieve status with BA.

Also worth noting that BA block the best seats on every flight for their most loyal (Gold) passengers, but these are released at check in (T-24h).

My partner flew to Lisbon yesterday and got seat 1A when he checked in on line 24 hours before the flight (he was flying Club Europe). He would not have been able to reserve that seat a week ago, even if he had paid for it.

Also worth noting that BA allocate seats to people, but you may not know about it. We flew to LA in Club World last year, and BA wanted £99 pp each way to reserve seats (I don't know of any other airline that tries to charge Business Class passengers to reserve a seat!) Checking on line a few days before our flight, there were very few available seats. At check in (T-24h) we found we had been allocated seats together in seats that were previously showing as not available. We changed these for seats that we preferred. The cabin was only half full.

I don't know if they pre-allocate in Economy, but if they do then there may well be more seats available than it appears, and you may get better seats when check in opens than you would paying and reserving them three months in advance!

richardw

BA uses software called FLY Theoretical seating, in the hope that its high spending frequent flyers get the best seats.

Jack_B52

China Southern allows free seat selection during on-line booking. I'd thoroughly recommend them for low priced long-haul flights. Modern aircraft (eg 787's), decent leg-room and decent food. They also provide free (good quality) hotel accommodation if your layover in China is longer than 8 hours.