One of our readers recently wrote to us and asked if we thought getting a Bubble Seat was worth it.

I have to be honest; I wasn’t 100% familiar with the term. At first I thought it was something my friends from the UK have spoken about. They frequently fly to/from the US on Virgin Atlantic and, until the airline retired the last of their Queens of the Skies, they would often splurge and fly in “The Bubble.”

THAT bubble included upper deck seats in Premium (front seats) and Economy (rear seats) which were only 2 seats per row. Passengers in The Bubble had extra room, as well as shelves on the side and more leg room. So you’d have a generally more comfortable flight.

Premium Economy in Virgin Atlantic’s “Bubble.” / Photo courtesy of Tripadvisor

But that wasn’t the “Bubble Seat” our reader was talking about (which was a good thing, since, without 747s in their fleet, “The Bubble” doesn’t exist on Virgin Atlantic anymore).

Then I thought they were talking about this lady from a few years ago:

But that wasn’t it, either. Which was also a good thing because that DEFINITELY wouldn’t be worth it, LOL!

So I started researching.

What’s a Bubble Seat?

The term “Bubble Seat” (more specifically “My Bubble Seat”) is specific to Fiji Airways. However the concept is used by several airlines.

A “Bubble Seat” allows you to either bid on, or purchase outright, the empty seat next to you on your flight, so you have more room in your row.

The concept first started during the pandemic, when social distancing was important to a lot of flyers; they didn’t want to be sitting shoulder to shoulder with jerks like these, or even someone who might be Covid positive but asymptomatic (they had the virus but weren’t showing symptoms yet). So many airlines purposefully kept middle seats open at no cost.

Blocking seats was feasible at the time, since so many people weren’t flying anyway. But as the pandemic waned and people began to feel more comfortable on planes again, airlines, one by one, stopped blocking the middle seats so they could sell them instead.

This isn’t to say you can’t buy 2 seats; you always could on most airlines and still can. It could be because you’re claustrophobic or are a person of size (Southwest will give passengers of size a second seat for free, and some airlines will refund the cost of the second seat, but most airlines make them pay for the 2 seats), or are traveling with a large musical instrument or other object that you wouldn’t trust being stored in cargo. But you would (and still do) have to pay full price for that second seat.

However a handful of airlines still allow you to buy the seat next to you at a greatly discounted price, or via a bidding system.

• Fiji Airways: My Bubble Seat
• Air New Zealand: Twin Seat
• Etihad: Economy Neighbour Free
• Eurowings: seat upgrade with an empty middle seat
• Philippine Airlines: myPAL Seat Select Neighbor-Free
• Qantas: Neighbour Free seating

Most don’t make the offer until a couple of days before the flight. I guess they figure by that point, there’s minimal chance the seat will be sold, so they may as well make as much money as they can on it.

Is a bubble seat worth it?

There are so many things to take into consideration:

• How long is the flight in question? If the flight is just a couple of hours, it might not matter too much if you have room to spread out. If it’s a 15-hour flight, it’s another thing entirely.
• How much is having that extra space “worth” to you? (the prices of these seats can vary from less than $10 to close to $150, depending on airline, length of flight, etc. $150 is a lot of money for some people and a pittance for others)
• How important is it to be guaranteed an empty seat next to you? Remember that if the airline is offering the seat, that means it’s still unsold. There’s a chance it will remain empty whether you purchase it or not. However if you haven’t purchased it, there are no guarantees; if passengers need to be moved around because someone in the exit row turns out to be ineligible to sit there, they may well wind up in that empty seat next to you…unless you’ve purchased it.

“Worth it?” Not surprisingly, this will be very much a Your Mileage May Vary situation.

Feature Photo: Southwest Airlines

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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary

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