Flights, seat not included in price

eskbanker

Wasn't there some story a few years ago about Ryanair wanting to charge extra for a seat (as opposed to a fee for choosing a specific seat, which is presumably what OP is seeing here), but it was unsurprisingly dismissed as a typical O'Leary publicity stunt?

xxxxxxxx

I did not realise - I suppose if you choose a seat on the seat availability chart you get charged,  otherwise it is randomly allocated at no charge (I presume cheapest seats first).  

Will they let me either: 
Change seats at check-in with no charge, to a window seat or 
If I quietly change seats to a window either during boarding (I will check the chart before boarding) or after take off

Will they mind?

theoretica

xxxxxxxx said:

LOGAN AIR 

https://www.loganair.co.uk/  

I've just played on their website and you can click the 'next' button without choosing a seat and not getting charged.  You will get a seat - just no choice/whatever they can't get someone to pay for.

eskbanker

xxxxxxxx said:

Ok, I did not realise - I suppose if you choose a seat on the seat availability chart you get charged,  otherwise it is randomly allocated (I presume cheapest seats first) and there is no charge if random allocated.   

Will they let me either: 
Change seats at check-in with no charge, to a window seat or 
If I quietly change seats to a window either at boarding or after take off will they mind?

If you really want a window seat you'd need to either pay for one of your choice, or try to cajole the check-in staff to allocate you one, but they wouldn't be obliged to do so without charge.  If the flight is quiet then you might be able to move on the plane, but I should think that you'd be able to see out of the window from most seats on Loganair flights anyway!

Boat_to_Bolivia

I flew recently without paying to pick my seat. This was allocated when checking in online. However as I needed to drop off a bag, I asked the check in staff if they could change my seat and they did with no charge.

I have also just booked some flights with a different airline and was able to proceed through to check out without paying for a seat. 

bagand96

xxxxxxxx said:

Ok, I did not realise - I suppose if you choose a seat on the seat availability chart you get charged,  otherwise it is randomly allocated (I presume cheapest seats first) and there is no charge if random allocated.   

Will they let me either: 
Change seats at check-in with no charge, to a window seat or 
If I quietly change seats to a window either during boarding (I will check the chart before boarding) or after take off

Will they mind?

You can pay to reserve a particular seat, or not pay and be allocated a seat randomly at check-in.

If you don't like your randomly allocated then staff may be happy to change it for you, but there's no guarantee and they don't have to. They could also say "of course we can move you to a window seat, that will be £x please"

You also might be able to move once on board, but you aren't entitled to. There are things like aircraft weight and balance that cree have to take in to account (although that's not likely an issue moving sideways from an aisle to a window, but could be a problem moving rows forward or backward). 

bagand96

SweetPotatoPie said:

They want you to book seats so you’re guaranteed to be sat with the person/people you’re travelling with. It’s a money making scam. I always refuse to pay and I’ve never been separated from who I fly with. 

It depends who you fly with, but Ryanair's system is designed to deliberately split up parties unless a seat is payed for. The way Jet2's software does it will also split up parties by default. 

Pollycat

xxxxxxxx said:

I did not realise - I suppose if you choose a seat on the seat availability chart you get charged,  otherwise it is randomly allocated at no charge (I presume cheapest seats first).  

Will they let me either: 
Change seats at check-in with no charge, to a window seat or 
If I quietly change seats to a window either during boarding (I will check the chart before boarding) or after take off

Will they mind?

Pay for the seat you want or rely on check-in/cabin crew to give you what you want.
Personally, I'd decide what was most important to me:
money or the seat I want.

elsien

Most seats nowadays are booked and allocated beforehand. The days of turning up early and getting the seat of your choice are long gone.
And just from a personal point of view if I get on the plane and find you sitting in my aisle seat, I’m going to be making a fuss until you move. 

But if there are spare seats, no one is going to care if you move after takeoff. They just insist that you sit in your allocated seat while they do the number checks and everything else.

 To the person saying that Jet2 is defaulted to split people up, I’ve never paid for a seat with Jet2 and I’ve always been sat with the other person on the booking.

zagfles

xxxxxxxx said:

I did not realise - I suppose if you choose a seat on the seat availability chart you get charged,  otherwise it is randomly allocated at no charge (I presume cheapest seats first).  

Will they let me either: 
Change seats at check-in with no charge, to a window seat or 
If I quietly change seats to a window either during boarding (I will check the chart before boarding) or after take off

Will they mind?

You're really supposed to be in the seat you're allocated for weight distribution, at least during takeoff and landing, although as they don't (usually) weigh passengers it can't be that accurate.

You should be OK to move around in the flight although obviously if the flight is full there'll be nowhere else for you to sit.

You probably won't be able to check the seat allocation map after online checkin has closed, which is usually before airport checkin closes, or if you can it might not be updated with later airport checkins, so don't rely on that.

BTW you can never "reserve" a seat, whether you pay or not. Most airlines call it "selecting a preferred seat", it's just telling them what seat you'd like, the cabin crew can and do move people from seats they've been allocated for operational reasons, even if they've paid.