Five Secrets of Getting a Better Airline Seat Assignment
In which of these seats will you be strapped?
1) Be Early (Booking): Naturally, if you reserve your flight early there will be more seats free to choose from. An exception to this rule happened to some of our clients recently when American Airlines consolidated two flights to Cancun. A group of our clients was moved from one flight to another. They all had great assigned seats on the original flight, now they are all airport check in. It stinks.
2) Be flexible: If you can be comfortable in a wide variety of seat situations, you’re more likely to find a satisfactory seat. I used to think I always had to have a window seat. Now I’m fine in an aisle seat, or even in the dreaded center seat. I do need to be able to see out a window, even if it is across my seatmate. I need to be able to orient myself to the horizon.
3) Be Early (Checking In): It is often amazing how much a seat map can change as the flight draws closer. Also, airlines hold back a certain percentage of seats in order to be able to accommodate passengers with special needs, or perhaps to accommodate families with young children who have been unable to get seats assigned together. Early arrival at the airport means that you’ll be more likely to receive assistance from airport personnel.
4) Be Preferred: Preferred level in airline frequent flyer programs comes with some seating advantages. For instance, AAdvantage Gold and Platinum (and above) level travelers have the ability to unblock seats for preassignment. The upgrades to the mysterious “front of the cabin” don’t hurt either.
5) Be persistent: If the seats you would like are not at first available, keep trying. When we do seat assignments for our customers, and the available seats are not what we would like, we look at them several times a week until we get the seats we want. I would say we are able to eventually get the seats we want about 80% of the time.
A Bonus Tip: As of recently, American Airlines is the latest to charge a premium for certain assigned seats in the coach section that they deem as preferable to others (the ones toward the front of the coach cabin). United Airlines has had their “Economy Plus” section for a while. So I guess my 6th bonus tip would be “Be willing to pay another airline service charge”.
Catherine has been sending people on great vacations since 1989. She is responsible for all of the websites associated with Legacy Travel and is the mother of two great kids.
If she isn't working on a website, doing laundry or helping with homework, she's probably out walking Lacy, her Golden Retriever.
