Originally Posted by
JMN57
In reality, unless the entire flight is full, there will probably be at least one middle empty. Why not try to maximize the chance that it is your three seats? If the flight is full, then nobody is out anything.
The last few empties are likely to be in Economy Plus. I've flown a lot over the years where there were 5 to 10 empty middle seats in E+ and every single seat was full in E-.
That said, I don't see any issue with the Aisle/Window booking. Just know that on United in particular, because of their system and how they fill E- before E+, it has to be a lightly loaded flight for that middle in the back to stay empty.
On AA, there's a greater chance that it works in the back of the plane. On WN, if you pick the appropriate rows, there's a pretty good chance that it works if the flight goes out even a couple seats short of full.
Now when my wife and I fly, we're more likely to go Aisle-Aisle if there's no 2-side. With high loads everywhere these days, it seems silly to worry about an empty middle too much.