Originally Posted by
DeeGee26.2
Quite surprised to see that by far the majority of the pre-reserved seats are in the half of the plane behind the wings. I'm trying to think of a rational reason why this would be.
Because these seats are the cheapest ones to reserve. The reservation price differs by the row (not just between "premium" seats at the front and the rest), and those rows are the cheapest ones. Rows behind the wings cost like 4EUR/seat on short routes, with the price slowly increasing when moving towards the rear or towards the front.
So for a couple wanting to sit together, or for someone just wanting an aisle/window seat without wanting the best seat on the plane, these seats are quite a reasonable option.
Is there an opportune time to check in if non-priority and get the plum seats? Or is it totally unpredictable?
Bad seats always go away first, so check in as late as you can to get the best seats. The limiting factor here is the risk that your mobile phone malfunctions at the last moment and you miss the 2-hour check in deadline.
If you get a "random" seat during check in and don't like it, you'll still have an option to select a better seat for a price (which doesn't differ much from the price of advance reservations, although the cheapest seats will all be already occupied).