A travel expert has shared some top tips to help passengers get an entire row of seats to themselves.
The hacks will come as a welcome relief to anyone who has ever felt squashed in their seat plane – particularly on a long distance flight.
Chelsea Dickenson, who shares advice on Cheapholidayexpert.com, says the first hack is for people travelling as a pair to avoid the temptation of simply booking your seats beside one another.
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Instead, find an empty row and book the window and aisle seat, as Chelsea says “solo travellers are much less likely to select a seat in between two strangers” and increases your chances of getting extra room, reports the Mirror.
This does, of course, rely on the plane not being fully booked, but even in the worst-case scenario that someone does come to claim the seat between you, chances are they will be more than happy to exchange the middle seat for an aisle or window and you can sit next to each other as originally planned.
Chelsea and her partner recently tried the method on a flight from London to Corfu, and uploaded a video on Instagram to show it worked perfectly as they bagged a row to themselves.
She says you can adapt the hack if you’re travelling alone by booking out the middle seat and hoping other passengers avoid those either side of you, warning that although it is a very high risk strategy, “you’ve gotta be in it to win it”.
The second tip involves playing on the superstitions of the people you’re sharing a flight with, by booking into row 13 in the hope that others who view the number as unlucky will avoid it.
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Chelsea revealed on her website that some airlines don’t even have a row 13 for this reason, and added one last piece of advice, writing: “People tend to want to book closer to the front of the plane so choosing towards the back may increase your chances further – but it’s all about how the specific airline allocates their seats (they’re all different I’m afraid!).”
On her flight to Corfu, Chelsea combined both methods by booking the window and aisle seats on row 13 and found no stranger came to share their row.
Do you have any travel hacks of your own? Let us know in the comments.