How to Book a Range of Seats on the Plane for You and Your Companion (Free)
The popular TikTok video offers a way to book a range of airlines just for you and your travel companion. This trick isn’t guaranteed to work – you may have to rely on the kindness of strangers to keep your seats together – but it’s still your best chance to travel with an empty row. Plus it’s free.
How to collect seats on the plane
Travel TikToker Chelsea Dickenson of Cheap Holiday Expert posted this video explaining how you can play the seat selection process to ensure a row is just for you and your companion:
“If you are traveling as a couple, you are looking for a free lane, but book the passage and window, leaving the middle seat between you. The theory is that someone is much less likely to book a seat between two strangers and they will choose a different row. And even if they book that middle seat, you can ask them if they want aisle or windows and it works for everyone. “
This trick takes some dexterity and a little luck. You still need to book in advance when the entire empty row is still available (Dickenson recommends the back row or row 13, which many people avoid due to superstition) and there is no guarantee that someone will not book that seat between you and yours. companion, especially during busy holiday flights. However, Dickenson says that in this way she provided herself and her companion with a whole series about 60% of the time.
Don’t be a jerk
And since you’re deliberately booking a seat you don’t intend to use, and potentially annoying a stranger by asking him to swap places, you can’t be a jerk either. When making a request, be super polite and ask them only once. If they prefer to sit in the middle seat, that’s your problem, not theirs.
Despite the risk of your seats not being together, this trick often provides a free lane, as most people don’t like the middle seat and only book it as a last resort.
“Have been doing this for the last 7-8 years,” says one TikTok user in the comments to Dickenson’s video. “Unfortunately, this works half the time, since the planes are often fully occupied. But the theory is correct. “