I’m a travel writer – book one plane seat to get an empty row | World | News
There’s a nifty hack I use to secure an empty row on planes (Image: Amy Jones)
There’s nothing better than getting on a plane, hearing the ‘boarding complete’ announcement, and discovering that you have an entire row to yourself. Say hello to a blissful and undisrupted flight – even better during those long-haul flights.
This feeling never fails to excite me when travelling abroad, knowing that I joyfully have a row all to myself for the next nine hours, so I can stretch out and even construct a makeshift bed with the spare seats, pillows and blankets. What more could I want during a long-haul flight?
While I can’t always bag this level of luxury when flying economy, I can do everything in my power to give myself the best chance of making it happen. And it’s all about selecting the right seat, without paying for the privilege.
Before every trip, I will always wait until I can check in online 24 hours ahead of the flight to choose my seat preference. Sometimes you can pay an additional fee to select your plane seat before check-in, but I always wait until it’s a free option.
I bagged myself an empty row on my most recent trip (Image: Amy Jones)
While there can be premium economy seats available to book for an additional fee, or seats with extra leg room, I will always opt for the free seat option. After all, I’m not paying an extra £50 or £80 for my plane seat when I could use that towards an experience or tasty meal at my inbound destination.
Therefore, I will make the most of the free seats available, and for long-haul flights, will always book an aisle seat in the middle row. So for planes with three rows of three, that’s either a seat in row D or F.
I’ve found on countless occassions that passengers tend to book a window seat, or an aisle seat on the rows either side of the middle row, leaving the middle section relatively quiet. Meaning that on numerous occasions, I’ve secured an empty row or seat beside me, and it happened on my most recent trip.
When flying with United Airlines, I opted for seat 37F from London Heathrow to San Francisco and seat 53D from Denver to Heathrow. And what was I rewarded with? An entirely empty middle row during my 11-hour outbound journey, and a delightful empty seat next to me when returning to the UK.
For these flights, I recommend booking a seat in row D or F (Image: Getty Images)
While it’s easier to bag during quieter flights, it still works during those busier flights. My flight from Denver to Heathrow was almost full, yet I was still able to bag an empty seat beside me, without paying for an additional charge.
Another tip is to keep checking the seat plan online. When I checked in to my flight from Denver 24 hours before departure, the only free seats available to secure were middle seats. I was not happy. I’ll take anything over a middle seat.
There were other seats available to book, but these were for an additional charge, and at around $80, it wasn’t something I was willing to pay out for. But not willing to give up, I kept checking the seat map to see if more free seats would become available, and thankfully, they did.
The evening before my flight, I was able to book an aisle seat in the middle row for free. This particular seat hadn’t been available before, so it’s definitely worth checking as changes do happen. There had also been more seats available to book free of charge as it got closer to the flight departure, yet I was adamant on sticking to my aisle seat in the middle row, and it paid off, once again.
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