The Unpublished Benefit of Paying for Preferred Seats

Etihad Airways Boeing 777 Economy Class
Etihad Airways charges extra for its “Economy Space” seats, which have more legroom. Photo: Matt Graham.

Many airlines – especially low-cost carriers – offer extra legroom and up-front “preferred” seats for an additional fee.

These seats have obvious advantages. For example, they might offer more space or be located closer to the door, meaning you can get off the plane sooner at your destination. But there’s another unadvertised benefit that can make the extra cost even more worthwhile.

Airlines don’t generally allow passengers to select chargeable seats for free – even at check-in. And, crucially, most passengers won’t pay to select one of these seats (either because they don’t see the value or because they don’t pre-select a seat at all).

Of course, if the flight is completely full, then all seats will ultimately be filled. But “preferred” seats that normally cost extra are the very last ones that the airline will allocate to passengers who didn’t pay for them. So, if you’ve paid for a chargeable seat and the flight isn’t full, there’s a good chance that any vacant seats on the plane will be near you.

This strategy has worked for me many times

For example, last year I paid extra for an Extra Legroom seat on Etihad Airways. I ended up having the whole row to myself.

I’ve also had good success with getting a whole row to myself on TAP Air Portugal flights within Europe when paying for a Comfort (EconomyXtra) Seat. These are closer to the front of the plane and have more legroom. Unless you have a subscription, TAP only makes these seats available to select for free up to 60 minutes prior to departure. By this time, most people already have other seat allocations so many of the Comfort Seats remain empty.

Exit row "Economy Extra" seating on TAP Air Portugal Airbus A320
Comfort Seats on a TAP Air Portugal Airbus A320. Photo: Matt Graham.

Budget airlines strictly enforce preferred seating

AirAsia and Jetstar are also among a long list of budget airlines that charge extra to choose an up-front seat. These don’t necessarily have more legroom, but they are likely to be the last allocated as most people won’t cough up the extra money.

On an AirAsia X flight, I paid to sit in one of the 63 “Quiet Zone” seats at the front of Economy – and ended up being one of just three passengers to do so.

AirAsia X Airbus A330-300 Economy cabin
I almost had the Quiet Zone cabin to myself on AirAsia X. Photo: Matt Graham.

What about Qantas and Virgin?

Unfortunately, this trick doesn’t really work for Qantas flights as there are only a small number of chargeable seats (mainly in the front or exit rows) and they are often quite popular. That said, the exit row seats on Qantas’ Boeing 737s can sometimes be among the last to fill up. And if you happen to be on a QantasLink Airbus A220, that jet has lots of extra legroom seats to go around.

By the way, a quick tip: Qantas makes those extra legroom seats available to select for free when online check-in opens. That’s 24 hours before departure. 😉

Qantas does offer Neighbour Free seating for a fee on some flights as well. That takes a bit of the “game theory” out of getting a spare seat beside you.

Virgin Australia, meanwhile, offers extra-legroom “Economy X” seats. These are available for a fee, except for Velocity Platinum frequent flyers who can select them for free.

I flew in Economy X last week and had one of the only vacant seats on the flight beside me.

On routes with lots of business travellers – and especially at peak business travel times – the Economy X seats can fill up quite quickly due to the higher number of Platinum members on board. But on leisure routes and outside of business travel times, the Economy X seats often go largely unfilled.

Virgin Australia Economy X seating
Virgin Australia charges extra to select an Economy X seat, except for Platinum members. Photo: Virgin Australia.

Overall, my success rate on many different airlines of getting a vacant neighbouring seat, when paying to sit closer to the front, has been pretty good.

It’s not guaranteed to work. But even if it doesn’t, you’ll still get the benefit of extra legroom or faster disembarkation. And if it ends up being a full flight, you wouldn’t have had a neighbour-free seat anyway.

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to over 90 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil & Kazakhstan. His interests include economics, aviation & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.

You can connect with Matt by posting on the Australian Frequent Flyer community forum and tagging @AFF Editor.
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The Unpublished Benefit of Paying for Preferred Seats is an article written by the AFF editorial team:

You can leave a comment or discuss this topic below.

Hoping this holds true for an upcoming JQ flight DPS-PER (then QF J to SYD booked as a QF CR). Last time I checked SYD+1 and I each had a row to ourselves🤞!

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SQ is another one that comes to mind. Paid for preferred exit row seats on a 737 HKT-SIN. Packed plane except for our row of 6 which went out with just us. I suspect they filled the exit row in front with passengers who didn’t pay the fee giving us all the room.

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SQ is another one that comes to mind. Paid for preferred exit row seats on a 737 HKT-SIN. Packed plane except for our row of 6 which went out with just us. I suspect they filled the exit row in front with passengers who didn’t pay the fee giving us all the room.

Oh, I’ve got one of those later this year (booked with UA points). Must revisit seat selection!

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With Virgin, the EconomyX seats in rows 3-5 are generally taken very quickly by Platinum members (especially Row 3 which gives a massive amount of legroom). But it's a different story with the exit row seats (rows 13-14) which are often the last to be taken.

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I just flew 3K SIN-KUL, which admittedly was a very short flight. Paid for exit row seating, and ended up being the only one in the 12 exit row seats! It was a short flight so I'm not surprised no one wanted to pay for the extra legroom seats, but I think it was worth to get the full row to myself.

I have never seen row 4 on QF 737s fully empty, but during off-business hours I have seen the middle seat go empty on SYD-MEL and SYD-BNE (and vice versa).

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Does this ever backfire eg. the exit row you paid extra for ends up being full while the people around you who got randomly selected seats have empty seats next to them.

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Does this ever backfire eg. the exit row you paid extra for ends up being full while the people around you who got randomly selected seats have empty seats next to them.

I have seen this a couple of times on long-haul widebody jets at off-peak travel times - the exit rows are full but the back of the plane has a smattering of empty seats.

Maybe on longer flights people are more willing to spend on extra legroom seats, and they would rather not be shoved to the back of the plane?

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Oh, I’ve got one of those later this year (booked with UA points). Must revisit seat selection!

I paid a bit extra for my son's SYD-SFO rev flight (last week) and got him an "Economy Plus" seat (34A).
He had the row to himself for the 13hr flight so was able to stretch out across seats .

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Note that this is unlikely to work very well for US domestic flights - while they have chargeable seats with more legroom like Main Cabin Extra or Economy Plus, these are usually filled up with elites as they get them for free , not unlike the setup on VA's EconomyX. In addition, US flights are often extremely full.

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I paid for comfort plus seat on Hawaiian going AKL-HNL. Wasnt overly cheap $100usd. Monitored it on seat plan, on expert flyer and could see the comfort plus seats remaining empty near me. Got on the plane and saw I had a whole middle row to myself and was planning to lie down on ‘my row’ 😂but this fella who was travelling on the window 2 seats with wife and kid (hadn’t paid for a seat for his baby) literally jumped onto the end empty seat on my row before the plane had even got to it’s flying altitude and stayed there the whole flight.

I was able to lie down on the remaining empty seats but wasn’t very comfortable as I couldn’t stretch out due to this guy sitting on my end seat. It’s still survival of the fittest down in Y…

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