What to Do When No Free Seat Assignments Remain on Your Plane

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Southwest has announced that it will start allowing passengers to select seats. This will obviously include charging more for the desirable locations on the plane and only leaving the worst seats to select for free. Southwest passengers will have the same decisions to make as the rest of us: Do you pay for a better seat or not?

Or in some cases, what to do when all the seats left are in the premium section?

We recently faced this situation, and I had only two options.

Pay For Preferred Seats

I booked our flight on JetBlue about a month out—not way in advance, but it wasn’t a last-minute booking, either. At the time, the only seats remaining were a few middle seats scattered around the cabin and Even More Space seats in the front of the plane and exit rows.

JetBlue wanted $82 to $89 for these seats. I didn’t want to pay an additional $180 for extra legroom seats for a 2-hour flight. And it’s crazy that they charge the same for the middle seat as they do for the aisle or window.

Take Our Chances

Option two was less desirable, but under the circumstances, it made the most sense.

I decided to take a chance and leave us without seat assignments. If anything, I wanted to see what would happen. Would JetBlue put us in one of the Even More Space seats for free? Maybe some passengers would pay for seat assignments at the last minute, opening up other seats. Maybe they would upgrade passengers from regular seats and give us their seats? I was also curious about those with Blue Basic fares who can only pick seats 24 hours before departure.

Online Check-In

When I checked in for the flight the day before, I thought we might get seat assignments, but that didn’t happen. When I looked at the seat map, JetBlue told me that the only remaining seats would cost extra. I could pay for one of those seats or wait for a seat assignment.

I waited this long, so I waited until we arrived at the airport.

At the Airport

We weren’t checking bags, so we went right to the security checkpoint. I checked the JetBlue app every 10 minutes, but there was still no seat assignment. We walked to the gate 10 minutes before the scheduled boarding time. I was on my way to check with the gate agent when I noticed we had seat assignments.

Coincidentally, we ended up with two aisle seats next to each other, which is what we would have picked if they were available. Despite how the graphic looks, these were not Even More Space seats. They were the row behind the exit row, with regular legroom.

These seats weren’t available the night before, so there had to be some moving around to make them available.

What would you have done?

I generally prefer to select my seat in advance rather than leaving it to chance, even if it means choosing a less-than-ideal seat. However, in situations where all available options are bad, it’s worth taking a chance and seeing what happens. Of course, my approach might change if I were flying with a different airline or if the flight duration exceeded 2 hours.

What would you do in this situation? Will you let the airline choose your seat, or will you take whatever they have, if that’s all they have to offer?

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