Is paying a seat selection fee worth it?

At a glance#

Why seats are sold separately#

Of all the extra fees in air travel, the seat fee draws the most irritation. It sells nothing new, only the choice among seats that are allocated anyway, and that is why it feels arbitrary.

A ticket buys carriage from one place to another. Which seat is occupied on the way is, from the airline’s point of view, a separate service. Separating the two allows a lower base price: a passenger who needs no particular seat pays less, and one who needs a particular seat pays for it. Not paying creates no disadvantage in carriage, only in choice, and the automatic assignment happens at check-in from whatever inventory is still free at that moment.

The price range inside one aircraft is wide. A window seat in the last row costs little and an exit row costs a multiple of it, and the spread reflects demand more than any difference in comfort.

Paying buys a commitment about a seat, not about an aircraft. If a different aircraft type is substituted, the seating is reassigned.

Where the booking was made matters too. Flights booked through a portal often show seat selection only after payment or not at all, and the choice then has to be made on the airline’s own site. Without access there the opportunity is lost, as direct vs OTA describes.

How the free assignment works#

The inventory#

Airlines hold part of the cabin back for automatic assignment, and that part shrinks as more seats are sold in advance. On well-sold routes what remains is mostly middle seats and rear rows, a consequence of advance sales and no accident.

The size of that inventory differs by route. On leisure routes with high loads it is small, on business routes with many elite members it is small too, and on routes with variable demand it stays large. A traveller who knows the route often knows whether the fee is worth paying without calculating anything.

Online check-in opens the day before departure at most airlines, and that is when the free assignment appears. Checking in early leaves more choice among the remainder, which makes the moment of check-in the most effective free lever available. Where a twenty-four-hour window applies, the difference between the first minute and three hours later is considerable, and on popular routes it decides between an aisle and a middle seat. Some airlines also release part of the held-back inventory shortly before departure once it is clear it will not sell, so a look the evening before and again at the gate can still turn something up.

The travelling party#

The automatic assignment knows the booking but does not honour it reliably. Two people on one booking frequently end up apart.

Families with young children get particular care. Airlines generally seat young children next to an accompanying adult, but that happens at check-in, so relying on it means relying on an assignment, not a commitment, and on a full flight it gets sorted out at the gate.

Groups of adults get no such care. Four adults on one booking are distributed like four solo travellers, and that only surfaces at check-in. Separately booked tickets for the same trip are worse still: two bookings are two records, and the system does not connect them, as separate tickets describes.

Which seats are worth the money#

The aisle is the most reliable investment on long flights. It allows movement without anyone having to stand up. A window seat suits sleepers better, with something to lean against and shelter from the traffic in the aisle.

Exit rows and the forward rows are the most expensive seats on most aircraft, one for the legroom and the other for the faster exit. Forward rows earn their money on tight connections. Five minutes earlier off the aircraft decides whether a connection is made, as connection time describes.

The exit row offers more legroom and carries conditions: no bag at the seat, a duty to assist in an emergency and minimum age rules. It is not suitable for everyone, as exit row seats describes. Extra legroom matters most for tall travellers, and on an overnight flight the difference between a standard row and a row with additional pitch exceeds every other comfort difference in the cabin, as seat pitch describes.

The rear rows are frequently the cheapest and in practice not the worst. They sell last, stay empty more often on medium loads, and then offer more space than a paid seat further forward.

Hardly anyone pays for a middle seat. A solo traveller with no strong preference will be assigned one and can ask on board, once the door closes, whether a swap is possible.

Couples have a trick of their own. Choosing the aisle and the window in the same row of three leaves the middle seat empty, and at medium loads it stays that way. If it does fill, the person in it will almost always swap.

Worked example: a family on a long-haul route#

Two adults and two children fly a long-haul route out and back.

The comparison most often missing is the higher fare. A fare including seat selection is regularly cheaper for four people than eight separate fees, as basic fares describes.

Eight fees are the price of certainty. They buy a seating chart, not better carriage.

Reserving only the outbound is a workable compromise on long trips. The outbound is usually the more critical direction, because the arrival and the first day hang on it, while the assignment is more often adequate on the way back.

Early check-in is the underrated free route. Acting the minute check-in opens still finds two pairs of adjacent seats on many flights, and it costs nothing but a calendar reminder. It only helps, though, while seats remain in the automatic assignment at all; on heavily pre-sold flights nothing good is left even in the first minute.

Sorting it out at the gate is the riskiest option. It depends on the load and on other travellers’ willingness to swap, and neither can be planned. The desk and the gate can move passengers only while free seats remain, and on a full flight there is simply no room to move a family of four into one row. On a markedly under-booked flight the cabin may even be redistributed before departure to balance the weight, and a paid reservation is then not rarely the only one that holds.

When it is not worth paying#

Paying is unnecessary in these cases:

• On short flights alone. An hour in a middle seat is no meaningful disadvantage.
• On lightly loaded flights. Choice remains after check-in anyway.
• With status that includes selection. The fee would be paid twice, since many programmes let members choose free of charge from a larger inventory.
• When an aircraft swap is likely. The assignment will be redone in any case.
• On very late bookings. When few seats remain, the fee pays for a choice that barely exists.
• On flights with open seating. No assignment exists at all, and the fee buys only earlier boarding, whose value depends on the load.
• For travellers with reduced mobility. Separate seating procedures exist for them and are free, so paying for a seat that is due anyway is money wasted.

Some cases cut the other way. Young children in their own seat need one approved for a child restraint, and the free assignment does not always account for that, so a reservation there is less a comfort question than a precondition. On long journeys with a stop, seating is allocated separately for each segment and the fee applies twice; reserving only the first segment means sitting in the assignment for the second. Award bookings usually work like paid tickets, with the fee charged on top of the points. Some programmes let the fee itself be paid in points, though the value per point is usually below what an award booking returns.

What applies when something goes wrong#

Where the paid seat is not provided, the fee is refundable, and that holds when a different aircraft is used as well. The refund does not happen automatically. It is requested after the trip in writing, with the record locator, the flight details and a note about the seat occupied instead. Confirmation on board or at the gate helps; a name and a time are enough, and a photo of the new boarding pass rounds it out.

On a cancellation the fee is refunded together with the ticket. Claiming only the fare leaves it behind, as a flight you did not take describes. A change made by the airline works the same way: the fee for the old flight was consumed without the service being delivered, and on request it is refunded or moved to the new flight. A voluntary change by the traveller usually forfeits it.

Changes are rarely announced, so a paid seat deserves a look at the boarding pass the day before. On routes flown regularly, two or three row numbers worth remembering on the usual aircraft type replace any research and hold for years.

The most effective free lever remains early check-in. The most expensive mistake is assuming that one booking keeps a family together.

The most common mistakes#

• Assuming one booking secures adjacent seats. The automatic assignment knows the booking and ignores who belongs together.
• Checking in late and hoping for choice. The free inventory shrinks by the hour once check-in opens.
• Paying eight separate fees. The next fare up, with seat choice included, is worth pricing first.
• Booking an exit row without checking. Its conditions rule out some passengers entirely.
• Ignoring an aircraft swap. A new aircraft means a new assignment, and the fee for the old seat can be reclaimed.
• Forgetting the fee on a cancellation. It belongs in the refund request alongside the fare.

Related topics#

• Basic fares
• Reading fare rules
• Exit row seats
• Connection time
• A flight you did not take
• When status gets you nothing