Seating

I used to like Southwest because it felt simple. Cheap fares, free bags, open seating, no games. Now it feels like everything is getting layered with fees and changes. Paying for bags, more expensive fares, and assigned seating on top of that. At some point it just stops feeling...

Boarding a Delta flight out of ATL, I had 2B and preordered a Shake Shack burger. Get on and a guy is sitting there. Says “is this your seat? can we swap so I can sit with my wife?” 2C was open so I didn’t care. Then meal service starts. FA goes to him: “Mr [my name], thanks for...

I keep seeing people say “just pay to pick your seat” and yeah… that works, but it also kind of defeats why a lot of us liked Southwest in the first place. If seat selection is basically adding 30% or more to the ticket, that’s not really a small upgrade anymore. It’s just a...

I booked a round trip Southwest flight from Baltimore to Phoenix back on January 21 and paid for Choice Preferred seats. I even upgraded both seats to the emergency exit row for extra legroom and got the confirmation email showing everything was set. Then two days before the...

Just had a frustrating experience with Southwest. Booked basic fare for me and my two kids. At check-in, seats were assigned and somehow my 4-year-old ended up 12 rows in front of me while my other kid and I were in the back of the plane. Tried calling support but sat on hold...

I’ve seen a lot of people saying the new Southwest setup is great because you don’t have to check in right at 24 hours anymore to get a good spot. I just tried using my 48-hour early seat selection benefit (through a credit card perk) and honestly it felt exactly the same, just...

I just booked two roundtrip tickets from Chicago (ORD) to London (LHR) and was a bit shocked by the seat selection prices. BA wants over $100 per person per flight just to pick seats in advance. Since it’s roundtrip for two people, that would end up being around $400 just to sit...

Had a slightly odd experience on a Frontier ATL to Detroit flight this morning and I’m still wondering what the reason was. I paid a grand total of $37.96 for the roundtrip a few weeks ago. No extras at all. The 6am flight was on an A321neo and it was basically empty. Maybe one...

This has happened to me a few times now and I’m starting to wonder what people usually do in this situation. I normally book the window seat. On multiple flights I’ve had the person next to me repeatedly lean over me to take photos or videos out the window. Not just once, but...

I’ll be flying long-haul with my four kids and we managed to get seats together, but since there are five of us there will likely be one aisle seat next to a stranger. My plan is to sit next to that person and let the kids rotate between the window seats during the flight....

Thinking about buying Spirit status, mainly for the seat selection perks. If I book a reservation with multiple people, do the seat benefits apply to everyone on the booking or just me? If it covers the whole reservation it would probably make it worth it for me.

Had my first real seat standoff on a flight today. Boarded and someone was already sitting in the priority seat I paid extra for. I politely mentioned it was my seat and they just refused to move at first. Got a little tense and the person started getting mildly hysterical about...

I came across an explanation from a Southwest employee about why they are strict about people not moving seats anymore. The short version is their system now assigns seats and calculates aircraft weight and balance ahead of time using multiple cabin zones. Because of that, if...

Had a small but funny moment on a recent Southwest flight. I was assigned a middle seat, and when I boarded I saw a pretty large guy already sitting in the window seat. I figured it was just one of those flights and sat down anyway. Right after I sat down, a flight attendant...

Booked a spring break flight from San Juan to Boston back in October for two adults and two kids (7 and 4) and paid extra to pick our seats together. In November the original flight got cancelled and JetBlue automatically moved us to a flight 3 hours later, but our seat...

Just boarded BA48 from Seattle to London and was surprised by the Club World cabin layout. In the past this route had the usual CW setup, but this time it’s 7 seats across and the aisle seats have basically zero separation from people walking by. No divider, nothing. You’re...

Something I’ve been wondering since flying more airlines with assigned seating. Back when I flew Southwest a lot, the whole thing was simple. Board earlier, grab bin space. Everyone understood the system even if it was a bit chaotic. But with assigned seating on most airlines...

I’ve got a Turkish Airlines flight from NYC to Turkey tomorrow and I keep checking the seat map out of curiosity. Right now it looks like maybe 20% of the seats are taken, which seems crazy for an international flight. Made me wonder if this is normal or if the seat map just...

Planning a girls weekend trip with a group of 7 flying Allegiant and wondering how seating might work. If all 7 tickets are purchased together under the same confirmation number and everyone checks in at the same time, would that make it more likely to be seated together? Trying...